ABSTRACT
The protracted legal saga and subsequent 2004 court decision to permit analysis of the Kennewick skeleton has ongoing implications that highlight the continuing conflict between tribal peoples and anthropologists. For the scientific community, Kennewick Man represented the opportunity to analyze one of the oldest skeletons found on the North American continent. For American Indians, the battle symbolized a test of their legal right to control their own cultural and biological patrimony, including their ancestral dead. This disparity in perspective reveals why future access to ancient American skeletons will likely continue to be determined by federal courts, and not by cooperative agreements between tribal peoples and anthropologists.
