Kennewick Man: Perspectives on the Ancient One (Archaeology & Indigenous Peoples) Paperback – Illustrated, June 15, 2009

One thing that I liked about this book was the various viewpoints on Kennewick Man (The Ancient One). From Native viewpoints to Anthropological to Lawyer. One thing that you have to keep in mind is that people all have different viewpoints on the treatment of Kennewick Man.

"Kennewick Man, Perspectives on the Ancient One" is a book for those who cling to the "repatriation movement" even for 9,200 year old skeletons such as the Kennewick Man case. Of the 41 chapters in the book, I found only three which were pro-science and leaned toward the idea of preserving early human remains for yet to be discovered research methods. The other 38 chapters are the extreme opposite. It appears the editors let almost anyone with an axe to grind, be it against Chatters, Jelderks, or archaeology in general have a gallon of ink and paper to vent their feelings. The anti-science arguments ranged from technical, to ridiculous. Since each chapter is by a different author or group of authors, the arguments and stating of the fact get redundant in short order. Many of the authors on chapters are members of various Indian bands/tribes, some from the area of Kennewick, and some from great distances. A large number of them are from the Colville tribe. One was even an ex-student of (now deceased) Robson Bonnichsen, Ph.D who evidently had a bone to pick with his old prof. Some of the authors are from Canada, Australia, South Africa and South America. One of the authors, a member of the Colville tribe and graduate of Dartmouth College, compared the curation of the KM skeleton to digging up graves at Arlington National Cemetery.Most of the anti-curation authors displayed a decidedly anti-Caucasian and anti-U.S. government sentiments in their writings, yet demanded monetary aid and assistance from the U.S. government, federal courts, Corps of Engineers, and archaeology professionals.One author went to far as to criticize the U.S. government for using Indian names like Wenatchees for tribes rather than "normal description the Indian people had for their clans" such as spider, frog and lizard people. There was also the continued insistence that all Native Americans originated on this land mass, and did not migrate here from elsewhere. Another interesting NA belief related in the book is that the earth is a bank, and one may deposit things in it but not withdraw anything.Almost every chapter starts out with the rehash of the finding of the KM remains, the dates, who found what, where they found it, who found what, etc, which most readers of a book of this sort already know all to well.One author when referring to Corps of Engineers land always used quotes around the word "owned" when he said the Corps "owned" the land, insinuating that the land was not owned by the Corps, and implying disdain for the Corps and the concept of law. In the next paragraph he insists that NAGPRA is a "legal compact" between Native Americans and the federal government. So the concept of law is legitimate only when it suits their purpose.At 298 pages for a soft bound book, and with a price of almost $30, I found this book to be extremely expensive and uninformative. I believe the price of the book was determined by charging five cents for each time they used the word "indigenous." Most of the same information I have read in other books is again rehashed ad nauseam in this book, along with a healthy dose anti-progress dogma, presented by lawyers and others.