Smoke Signals
Kennewick Man a Native
American, government says
SEATTLE (AP) Radiocarbon
analysis has determined that Kenne
wick Man, one of the oldest skeletons
found on the North American conti
nent, is more than 9,000 years old
and an early Native American, the
Interior Department said.
"We do not believe he wandered to
the mid-Columbia area. He was born
here," Francis McManamon, chief
archeologist for the National Park
Service, said last month.
McManamon said a study of the
sediment adhering to the bones and
the shape of the spear point in his
hip confirm Kennewick Man lived
and died along the banks of the Co
lumbia River.
But the announcement did not
settle the future of the bones, which
have been at the center of a dispute
between Indian Tribes and scientists
since they were discovered in 1996
near the southeastern Washington
town of Kennewick. The Tribes want
them buried. Scientists want them
maintained for study.
An Old Norse pagan group had
claimed Kennewick Man as an an
cestor in a lawsuit, suggesting his
facial structure was that of a Cauca-'
sian, and the Interior Department
said last fall that he may have been
of Polynesian or Asian origin.
McManamon said the skeleton's
skull structure is not identical to that
of any current Indian population in
the area, but he said Kennewick
Man's cranium could have changed
over the more than 9,000 years it lay
in the sediment of the river, and
there may be gaps in the archeologi
cal record of the region.
"He doesn't look like a European.
He doesn't look like an Asian. He
doesn't look like any modern popu
lation," Interior Department spokes
woman Stephanie Hanna said at the
news conference.
Radiocarbon dating on samples of
the remains from three laboratories
estimated Kennewick Man's age at
9,300 to 9,500 years, McManamon
said. Scientists estimate he was at
least 40 when he died.
"His age shows that he was here
more than 8,000 years before the
arrival of European exploration of
our hemisphere," McManamon said.
Five area tribes have claimed
Kennewick Man as an ancestor. A
federal judge has ordered the Inte
rior Department to decide by March
24 whether the remains will be
given to a specific tribe.
The order came out of a lawsuit filed
by eight anthropologists who want
the remains available for study.
The Native American Graves Pro
tection arid Repatriation Act of 1990
established the right of Indian Tribes
to the bones of their ancestors.
While the bones would likely re
main in the custody of the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers if no Tribe is cho
sen, Corps spokesman Dutch Meier
said it was not currently clear if sci
entists would then have the right to
study them.
Yakama Tribal Council member
Clifford Moses said his Tribe's claim
has the best chance but that it did
not matter which Tribe eventually is
able to lay claim to the remains, as
long as they are reburied.
Alan Schneider, a Portland attor
ney representing the anthropologists
who sued, has pressed for DNA test
ing as the most effective means of pin
pointing Kennewick Man's origin.
Kennewick Man likely was not
among the earliest people on the con
tinent. McManamon said debates
about the first humans to set foot
here put the dates at between 13,000
and 20,000 years ago or more.
Thorpe honored as USOCs
athlete of the century
COLORADO SPRINGS (AP) -Weeks
after what family members
and supporters say was a snub from
some organizations compiling lists of
athletes of the century, the United
States Olympic Committee unveiled
a bust of Jim Thorpe last month and
accepted a replica of a gold medal won
at the 1912 Stockholm games.
"Our position is he is the greatest
athlete of the century," said Dick
Schultz, executive director of the
USOC. "We think it is very impor
tant to honor him."
Thorpe came in seventh in an
ESPN poll of the century's 50 best
athletes while Sports Illustrated
named boxer Muhammad Ali as the
century's best. Thorpe, who was
named the greatest athlete of the first
half-century in a poll by the Associ
ated Press, finished third in the AP's
athlete of the century poll behind
Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan.
"He'd be frustrated," said John
Adler, one of Thorpe's adult grand
sons at the unveiling ceremony.
"Babe Ruth doesn't have all that
many gold medals and I don't know
how he jumped up in the polls."
In 1912, Thorpe became the only
person to ever win gold medals in the
pentathlon and decathlon, a record
that still stands.
The year following his Olympic vic
tory, Thorpe was stripped of his gold
medals by Olympic officials who said
he lost his amateur status by earn
ing $25 to $30 by playing for a mi
nor league baseball team in Rocky
Mount, N.C., in 1909 and 1910.
He died in 1953 at the age of 64.
After years of working to restore
Thorpe's amateur status and gold
medals, the International Olympic
Committee returned Thorpe's name
to the Olympic record books in 1982
and presented his family with two
replicas of his two gold medals.
The gold medal donated to the
USOC last month along with the
other gold medal donated years ear
lier will be displayed at the USOCs
visitor center. They were made from
the same mold as Thorpe's original
medals.
"It took us 70 years to get his med
als back and now we're giving them
away," Adler said. "They've been sit
ting in a bank safety deposit box and
we just felt it would be selfish not to
put them on public display."
If Thorpe harbored any resent
ment against the establishment for
stripping him of his medals, he never
let his family know said daughter
Grace Thorpe, 77, of Prague, Okla.
"I asked him once and he said, T
never wrote a letter to have them re
turned,"' Ms. Thorpe said. "And he
turned around and read his paper."
Asked what her father would have
done if he were at the ceremony, Ms.
Thorpe replied: "He would turn and
go the other way if he could. He
didn't like all the fuss made over him.
He really didn't like it."
Many of the 250 people who at
tended the ceremony were American
Indian, as was Thorpe, and they
brushed aside the controversy sur
rounding Thorpe's status as the
greatest athlete of the century.
"It's good for Indian people," said
Terry Batiest, a Choctaw Indian
raised in Broken Bow, Okla., and
now lives in Boulder. "He's a posi
tive role model. The king of Sweden
in 1912 said he's the greatest ath-
lete in the world. I think that is what
we carry in our hearts."
The bronze bust of Thorpe, based
on photographs of him and on
daughter Grace Thorpe's chin, ful
filled a promise made by sculptor
Andrew Lester, 85. Lester met
Thorpe in 1932 while Thorpe was
standing outside a department store
in Oklahoma City as a promotional
stunt.
"I told him I would make a sculp
ture o(him, and I did," he said.
Baseball team
editing history
of name
CLEVELAND (AP) - The Cleve
land Indians are rewriting the his
tory of their nickname a little bit this
year.
The team plans a slight change in
its 2000 media guide in the section
about the origin of the nickname "In
dians." For more than 30 years, the
team has claimed it was named in
honor of Louis Sockalexis, a Penob
scot Indian who played for the Cleve
land Spiders from 1897-99.
"We wanted to give a more accu
rate portrayal of the process of how
the name was chosen," Indians Vice
President Bob DiBiasio said.
The name "Indians" was said to
have been given as a tribute to Sock
alexis after fans were asked to vote
on a name by local newspapers.
However, DiBiasio said research
has shown that Cleveland owner
Charles W. Somers had wanted to use
the nickname "Indians" and asked
local baseball writers to solicit their
readers for their favorite nickname.
"And the name selected was Indi
ans," said DiBiasio. "What we're go
ing to do is change one sentence to
more accurately portray that."
The history section of last year's
media guide says: "In fan balloting
through a local newspaper, Indians
was chosen to honor former Spider
Louis Sockalexis, the first well
known Native American professional
baseball player."
DiBiasio said that passage will be
altered slightly in this year's guide.
"We'll say something to the effect
that, 'that Somers solicited writers to
ask their fans for their favorite nick
name, and in turn, the name "Indi
ans" was selected. And as legend has
it, Indians was in reference to
Sockalexis,'" DiBiasio said.
DiBiasio said the change was
prompted by research done by Ellen
Staurowsky, an Ithaca College pro
fessor who has been campaigning for
the Indians to change their name,
and others as well.
In recent years, protesters have
demonstrated against the "Indians"
nickname and the club's smiling
Chief Wahoo mascot, saying they are
degrading to American Indians and
that the club should make a change.
Cleveland fans sometimes argue
the nickname was meant as a trib
ute to Sockalexis and not an insult.
"This hasn't changed anything in
our estimation," said Juanita Pel
phrey of the United Church of Christ,
a critic of the nickname and logo. "It's
still perpetuating a lie."
Merchandise featuring the Chief
Wahoo logo is among baseball's best
selling. 'V
Larry Dolan, who is buying the
Indians, said the name and logo will
remain under his ownership.
The team first began mentioning
the Sockalexis link in its 1968 media
guide, and in the 1999 guide a full
page was devoted to Sockalexis and
a history of Cleveland's nicknames.