About time
After nearly a decade of court battles, scientists plan to begin studying the 9,300-year-old skeleton known as Kennewick Man next week.A team of scientists plans to examine the bones at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum in Seattle beginning July 6, according to their attorney, Alan Schneider.
Four Northwest Indian tribes had opposed the study, claiming the skeleton could be an ancestor who should be buried. The Interior Department and the Army Corps of Engineers had sided with the tribes.
But a federal judge in Portland, backed by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled that the researchers could study the bones to determine how the man died and to find clues to prehistoric life in North America.
The entire controversy over this was just plain stupid. 10,000 years is enough time to dilute any claims of kinship.
I find it surprising that after a couple of weeks at being agast as Supreme Court decisions, I am applauding one by the 9th circut.
(via The Anchoress)
