Kennewick Man Scientists Protest Bill

This isn't exactly LBN, so I thought I'd post this here.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/science/AP-Kennewick-Man.html?pagewanted=print&position=

Scientists hoping to study the ancient skeleton known as Kennewick Man are protesting legislation they say could block their efforts. They say a two-word amendment to a bill on American Indians would allow federally recognized tribes to claim ancient remains even if they cannot prove a link to a current tribe.

Scientists fear the bill, if enacted, could end up overturning a federal appeals court ruling that allows them to study the 9,300-year-old bones.

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The change would add the words ``or was'' to a definition. It would then say that in the context of ancient remains, the term ``Native American'' refers to a member of a tribe or culture that is or was indigenous to the United States.

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Andrea Jones, a spokeswoman for McCain, said attorneys have told the committee the bill would not apply to Kennewick Man, because the 9th Circuit has already made a decision.

that current Native American tribes would be interested in burying the remains of persons with whom they share no direct cultural connection. I wonder what this says about the cultural identity of Native Americans today. It kinda seems to suggest that there's a sort of inter-tribal, monolithic Native American identity going on, which isn't surprising I guess, given the atrocities suffered by so many tribes at the hands of European conquerers. The cultural histories of indigenous groups must have converged a lot in the past few hundred years.

Until remains undergo scientific scrutiny, there is no substantive basis for any claim. However, the scrutiny is, as I understand, the very act of desecration the tribes want to prohibit as a general rule. I myself side with science in this and other cases, but it's a difficult discussion overall.