Greg, there is a presumption that this very early body is non-Indian, but that may not be the case. I find it very interesting, and wouldn't mind knowing, but that may not be possible, and I understand that also. I may not share the same views with the regional Indians regarding bodies and spirits and how they should be handled. Kennewick Man could be an Indian whose features just don't happen to be as Indian-like as we are accustomed to seeing--a DNA throwback to another time. But even if it is an early immigrant, the fellow was travelling in an Indian world, not a Eurocentric one. Indians are known to have been here, and to pronounce that they have no say in the disposition of this set of remains because it wasn't one of them is just one more sign of a Eurocentric attempt to put American Indians into harmless little boxes.

Rapaire was correct about the collection of human remains for museums. Mike, did you know that after the Modoc Wars ended at Tulelake, California, Captain Jack and several others were executed, and the milatary had specific orders to behead them and send their heads to Washington, D.C.? The families only in the past 10-15 years have been able to retreive those heads for proper burial. They were used as part of a Social Darwinist examination to prove the inferiority of American Indian's intelligence (a phrenology sort of focus, I believe).

SRS