Study of the skeletal remains of kennewick man (found on US ARMy corps of engineers land) has shown that he was probably caucasian. Kind of calls into question the whole first people thing that most tribes believe. They want to bury him saying he is one of their ancestors, evidence suggests otherwise.

The tribes have sued to keep scientists from thoroughly studying kennewick man, for some reason the corps of engineers sided with the tribes and we've had a decade long legal pissing match in federal court as a result.

I think the case stands that the Burke museum has him, but the army corps of enigneers is stalling any study despite court rulings permitting scientific study. Seems stupid to me. They need to figure out if he's caucasian and if not apologize to the tribes and bury him.

I can totally understand the tribes not wanting him studied his very existence flies in the face of their traditional religion (being the first people and all).
For christians, its analgous to somebody finding proof that Christ wasn't the son of God. There'd be lots of folks fighting to suppress that tidbit of info if it were true.

BTW there are other archeological finds of old human remains that are non-indian. I belive somebody recently found ~13,000 year old polynesian skeletons in California these predate any indian remains by thousands of years.

I think the tribes are going to have to adjust their relgion to fit reality. Maybe someday all relgions will do that, I think it would make the world a better place.

Just my $0.02