Astonishing! Kennewick man has DNA link to Kennewick Man!
Posted On: May 16th, 2019 at 08:02
United States
An American woman, Alexis Sanchez, due to a strange coincidence in a library, has discovered her father is directly related to Kennewick Man, the controversial 9,000-year-old skeleton that was found on the banks of the Colombia River in 1996 by Will Thomas and David Deacy. Jim Chatters, an archaeologist, then undertook many visits to the site and collected hundreds of bones.
The controversy started because Chatters believed the bones were not native American, but eventually DNA testing concluded the man was indeed native American. I won’t go into the details right now, as you can study the case yourself online.
I had spent a lot of time following the story of Kennewick Man, and I too believed that the man was not native American, based on Chatters’ investigations. But it turned out he was wrong. and I was shocked myself at the results of the DNA test. Justice was indeed done for the native Americans who wanted the bones of their ancestor returned, but the arguments continued for years…
Eventually, more than 20 years later, in February 2017, Kennewick Man was returned to the Colombia Plateau Tribes and rightfully buried with full native American rites.
Kennewick Man has always been my “favourite” native American because of the fascinating story, and I am utterly thrilled to know there is at least one person living today that is a direct ancestor of him.
