The answer, it turns out, is more complicated than either the scientists or the tribes fully understood when two young men pulled a skull from a river in the summer of 1996.

The past belongs to those who are descended from it.

And the people of the Columbia Plateau — the Umatilla, the Yakama, the Nez Perce, the Colville, the Wanapum — are descended from an ancient man who walked this land when the world was eight thousand years younger.

He was theirs.

He always was.

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING

For readers who wish to explore the Kennewick Man story further, the following resources provide in-depth scientific, legal, and Indigenous community perspectives:

Chatters, James C.

Ancient Encounters: Kennewick Man and the First Americans (2001).

Simon & Schuster. — The forensic anthropologist’s firsthand account of the discovery and early investigation.