Kennewick Man:
Several months ago when Kennewick Man was first unearthed and Native American tribes of Washington state were attempting to gain legal possession of the remains in order to keep them from what they felt would be desecration by scientists who wished to study them, I came across a letter to the editor in Newsweek stating that these tribes were merely trying to hide evidence that Kennewick Man was Caucasian which would prove that their race was not the first to inhabit this continent after all. The letter was vindictive in nature, and I wondered what this man could possibly have experienced which would drive him to write such a hateful letter.
More importantly, I felt that the notion that Caucasian remains found to be older than those belonging to ancestors of today's Native American tribes would somehow justify what my white ancestors did to the ancestors of these folks was ridiculous. Even if the remains should prove to be Caucasian, they are most certainly not the remains of my ancestors who came here in 1630 on my father's side and 1921 on my mother's, nor of any other white European-American's. So, in the end, they were still all here before any Whites living here today.
Why do you suppose it's in some Whites' interest to pretend like Caucasians have more of a historical claim on this land than Native Americans? I suppose it makes them feel less guilty about on-going 19th-Century-style seizures and destruction of lands which legally belong to native tribes -- activities which one would have hoped would have come to an end by this relatively enlightened era of human history but which are, in fact, still going on all around us in places like Minnesota, Arizona, and upstate New York.
Drop me a line to let me know your opinion on this topic: forgetfuljones@oocities.com
David Harris, Herndon, VA
March 15, 2000
Click Here to Go Back to Opinions Page.
Click Here to Go to Main Homepage.