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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 2000)
Smoke Signals 2 Kennewick Man's origins could be revealed in September The Interior Department must also reveal in September whether it has been able to culturally affiliate, or link, the bones to any modern-day Tribe, which is key in deciding who gets custody of Kennewick Man. KENNEWICK, WA. (AP) In July 1996, a pair of college students searching for a good vantage point from which to watch the annual hy droplane races found instead a 9,000-year-old skull in the shallows of the Columbia River. What at first appeared to be noth ing more than a local law enforce ment case of unidentified bones is today a matter of international ar chaeological interest. Kennewick Man, it turns out, is one of the oldest and most complete skel etons found in North America. The collection of 350 bones is stored at the Burke Museum in Seattle while a bitter custody dispute pends in U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon. Kennewick Man "is very much a world citizen by nature of the con troversies that have swirled around this case," says Stephanie Hanna, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Depart ment of the Interior in Washington, D.C. The controversies extend beyond the issue of custody, to science vs. Tribal tradition and scientists vs. the federal government. There have been allegations that someone walked off with one of Kennewick Man's leg bones. The old bones at first were placed in the custody of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has juris diction over Columbia Park, where Kennewick Man was found. The corps, under the guidelines of the 1990 Native American Graves Pro tection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), made plans to return the bones to a local Indian Tribe. But eight prominent anthropolo gists, including one from the Smithsonian Institution, sued for the right to study the bones. A coalition of Northwest Indian Tribes has sought custody of the bones for immediate reburial, con tending study of Kennewick Man would be a desecration based on their religious traditions. Just recently, the Yakama Nation filed papers to become part of the court case, seek ing custody of the bones as well. In September, the Interior Depart ment must say whether it will allow the scientists access to the bones. If not, the case will likely proceed to trial. The Interior Department must also reveal in September whether it has been able to culturally affiliate, or link, the bones to any modern-day Tribe, which is key in deciding who gets custody of Kennewick Man. Hanna says the advantage of hav ing the federal government research the origins of Kennewick Man is that the findings will be made public and available to everyone over the Inter net. DNA testing on Kennewick Man is currently under way at Yale, the University of Michigan and the Uni versity of California-Davis. The foundation for much of the dis pute in the Kennewick Man case is the 10-year-old federal law that has been used to help Tribes reclaim pieces of their stolen heritage arti facts and the bones of their ancestors from museums and other collections. NAGPRA was an attempted com promise between "existing scientific methods and the cultural sensibili ties and legitimate complaints of American Indians that they were not treated with respect," Hanna says. Preventing study of Kennewick Man with or without repatriation, doesn't change the way Indians have been treated, she says. This case has been unusually com plicated because the bones are so old, and it has been a chance to see how the law applies in the case of discov ery rather than existing artifacts, Hanna says. "The vast majority of NAGPRA cases are much, much simpler than this one," Hanna says. Woman is dedicated to protecting Tribal artifacts THE DALLES, OR. (AP) - Lori Watlamet first finds the rock, adorned with a reddish spiral petroglyph, and then notices that someone has scooped out dirt from beneath it since she last visited. "They have no respect for the people who were here before or the people who come after," she said. Watlamet, a law enforcement of ficer for the Columbia River Inter Tribal Fish Commission, is speaking about the looters who dig for the rem nants of the lives of the people who once lived in American Indian vil lages in the Columbia Gorge. For Watlamet, who is Cayuse and Umatilla, these are holes dug into her culture and her history, wounds that she works daily to prevent. Watlamet, 37, has a job unique in the Columbia Gorge, and one that preservationists say is critical. Watlamet patrols the gorge on the lookout for people who dig up Ameri can Indian graves, scratch over petroglyphs or sift through the gorge's cultural treasures looking for easy money or a private thrill. She also trains law enforcement officers, archaeologists and others how to identify, investigate and pros ecute archaeological crimes. And she tries to educate visitors, who might inadvertently break the law by touch ing a pictograph soiling it with the oils of their hands or pocketing an arrowhead lying on the ground. "People don't realize when they are taking something like that they are taking it from everyone else," she said. "It's such a selfish act." Watlamet is the only law enforce ment officer in the Columbia Gorge with the sole directive to protect his toric and prehistoric cultural resources. Earlier this spring, Washington State awarded her the 2000 State Historic Officer's Award for Out standing Achievement in Education. She also was named the 2000 Con servation Officer of the Year by the national Native American Fish and Wildlife Society. Rob Whitlam, Washington state ar chaeologist, said Watlament's work has made her an inspiration to others. "There is an individual out there who took up the challenge to make a difference and confront a crime that not only results in the looting and damage of archaeological sites, but has a dramatic social impact in In dian communities," he said. Arrowhead collecting and other kinds of artifact hunting was once considered socially acceptable by mainstream society. But it is illegal a state and federal crime punish able by large fines and jail, or fed eral prison time for felony charges, such as disturbing burials. Tribes are also working to raise the public's awareness of how archaeo logical crimes hurt American Indian people. "Our perspective is this is not a vic timless crime," said JefifVan Pelt, pro gram manager of cultural resource protection for the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla. "We consider it a hate crime." Watlamet's work is paid through two contracts totaling $160,000 from the Bonneville Power Administration through the Corps of Engineers, which is required to mitigate for dam age to cultural resources caused by the dams. She has jurisdiction on Native American trust land and federal land and is a certified police officer in Or egon. In Washington, she assists county and state agencies where they have jurisdiction. Her territory stretches from Bonneville Dam all the way up to Dworshak Dam on the Clearwater River Northeast of Lewiston, Idaho. Van Pelt said that especially with the mixed jurisdictions along the river, having Watlamet to help coor dinate efforts and share the Tribes' perspective is invaluable. Republican Party apologizes to Tribes, offers new resolution OLYMPIA, WA. (AP) The state Republican Party, scrambling to undo some of the damage from a recent resolution against Tribal sovereignty, has apologized and offered a substitute statement tha affirms Indians' right to self-govern. The new resolution, adopted recently by the Republican Party at the suggestion of party Chairman Don Benton, is the latest effort at damage control. Tribes, human rights groups, Democrats and newspaper editori als have denounced a statement quietly adopted at the state Republican convention last month in Spokane. The original resolution, sponsored by John Fleming, a Skagit County non-Indian who lives on the Swinomish Reservation, calls for the federal government to "take whatever steps necessary to terminate all such non republican forms of government on Indian reservations." The state party offered an apology, saying it "truly regrets any anxiety or discomfort caused by this resolution and that we, as a party, recognize and reaffirm our continuing and ongoing support for Native American sovereignty as well as their ability and right to self-govern as determined by legal treaties signed with the United States of America."
