Kennewick Man

Found on the banks of the Columbia River in Columbia Park, just north of the city of Kennewick, south of Richland/Hanford. I've been there, indeed, during a hydroplane race on the Columbia River while I was working for a radio station in the area, for about a year, 1972-73.   Kennewick Man's remains currently reside in the Burke Museum on the University of Washington campus (a ten minute drive from where I live).

Kennewick Man lived around 9,300 years ago, and DNA testing has shown that he was Caucasian, not "Indian" (Native American), which means that he (or his ancestors) were not of the same stock as those who came across the Bering Sea land or ice bridge as, it is assumed, the ancestors of Native Americans did.

It has also been recently established that, although the "Clovis Point" cultures probably did cross the Bering Sea, not all of them did. Clovis Points (stone spear and arrow points) have also been found in Europe very early on, and anthropologists are currently attempting to reconstruct how Europeans may have come to the Americas. Epic sea voyages in small boats? Crossing the Arctic Sea ice?

Many people, upon seeing the reconstruction of Kennewick Man's face, have remarked on his resemblance to Captain Jean-Luc Picard. I doubt, however, that Kennewick Man was necessarily a space voyager.

Don Firth