ABSTRACT
Ten years ago, in July 1996, tribal cultural resource protection was thrust into the national and international spotlight by the inadvertent discovery of the 9, 200-year-old remains that became known as the “Ancient One” to the tribes that claimed him as their ancestor and “Kennewick Man” to the academic and scientific communities.1 Yet, the thousands of media stories and equal number of pages of legal pleadings filed concerning the case fail to tell the whole story of tribal cultural resource protection. During the decade that the Bonnichsen v. United States litigation has remained active, other remains have been found and reburied, museums have diligently repatriated items of cultural patrimony, and new battles have been waged over the control and disposition of tribal cultural properties. It is clear that tribal cultural property law is not defined by the Bonnichsen litigation.
