Hastings sponsors bill to protect study of Kennewick Man

Hopefully the good people of Washington will have the sense to get rid of this moron next year.
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Hastings sponsors bill to protect study of Kennewick Man

Published Thursday, November 1st, 2007

By Annette Cary, Herald senior writer

Federal legislation introduced in the U.S. House on Wednesday by Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., would protect the opportunity for scientific study of ancient remains such as Kennewick Man.

He proposed the legislation in response to a bill quietly approved by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs last month that Hastings said would effectively block the scientific study of ancient skeletal remains discovered on federal lands.

"This change, tucked into what is being called a technical corrections bill, is very far from a minor 'technical correction,'" Hastings said of the Senate bill. "It is a fundamental shift in existing law and would overturn a decision in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals."

Video of his speech is available by visiting this link.

In 2004, eight years after the 9,300-year-old bones of Kennewick Man were found on the banks of the Columbia River, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the bones would not be turned over to the tribes. Instead, scientists were allowed to study them.

The ruling found that Congress had intended the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, to apply to remains only if a significant relationship could be shown to present-day tribes. NAGPRA was intended to return the remains of ancestors to tribes and protect tribal graves from looting.

This is the third time a change has been proposed in the Senate that would broaden the definition of Native American under the act to make it easier for the tribes to claim ancient bones. And it's the second time Hastings has introduced counter-legislation in response. None of the bills has been passed into law.

Rob Smith, a Seattle attorney who represented tribes in the Kennewick Man litigation, said that contrary to Hastings' opinion, the Senate bill would not affect Kennewick Man.

"It can't undo what the courts decided in 2004," he said.

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