Many American Indians are angry about Kennewick Man, because it is an example of powerfully-connected scientists doing an end-run around native wishes and NAGPRA, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. They argue persuasively that remains extant in the New World that are clearly pre-Columbian should be left to their discretion to handle (or not).

American Indians have reason to complain. The Kennewick Man represents another example of EuroAmerican hegemony--how today's scientists can reach back over time and claim a Caucasian-looking body who should by all rights and common sense fall within the domain of the native people who lived here at the time. The bigotry that dictated within historic times the "rescue" of whites who were living happily with Indians (Cynthia Ann Parker is a prime example down here in Texas) seems to inform this "rescue" that non-Indian scientists and federal agencies claim the right to perform. Indians can only have some say in Indian matters, and only if whites feel like letting them. For more information look into the Handbook of Federal Indian Law.

All of this said, there are many examples of Europeans arriving prior to Columbus and to add to the list of relics already enumerated, visit here for information about the Heavener Runes, now protected in a small state park in Oklahoma.

SRS