In 1996 two boys playing alongside the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington found the skeletal remains of a man. Carbon Dating placed the lifetime of the man at around 9,300 years ago. Originally assumed to be American Indian, after some study, scientists found the skull to have little resemblance to modern Indian characteristics. The skull was described as having a long, narrow face, protruding nose, receding cheek bones, a high chin, and a square mandible. An article in the January/February 1997 issue of the journal Archeology stated that "None of these features is typical of modern American Indians."
Several other ancient skeletons have also been found, such as one from Spirit Cave, Nevada, and Buhl Woman, found in Idaho and dated at 10,675 years, who was described as "more Polynesian than Indian." Many scientist have described these skeletons as "Cacasoid" or "Polynesian" in features. Of course this is unacceptable to the local Indian tribes, who insist that these must have been their ancestors, since their oral histories tell them "they have been here since the beginning of time." It also outrages the Politically Correct, who have a vested interest in the victim status of American Indians. (Perhaps they will feel better that the oldest human remains found in South America, the 11,500-year-old skull of a woman, appears to be Negroid.)
So who comes to the rescue of these wounded sensibilities? The Clinton Administration, of course, who promptly had the Bureau of Reclamation find an urgent need to cover over the site of the Kennewick Man find with hundreds of tons of earth, in the name of erosion control, least any more scientific discoveries ruin a perfectly good belief system.
The local tribes insisted that these remains of their ancestors be turned over for immediate re-burial. Scientists demanded the right to study them, pointing out the loss to science if such a rare find was re-buried without further study. The skeletal remains of Kennewick Man were locked up, and scientists were refused permission to do any further analysis.
Several scientists sued the Federal Government for the right to study Kennewick Man, and the issue hung in limbo for several years; but just recently, Bruce Babbitt and the Clinton Administration made the decision to turn the remains over to the tribes for re-burial.
Once upon a time, I too was a liberal, and empathized completely with the American Indian, and the outrages done to them. Of course evil things had been done, and some even continue to this day, but history and life are never quite so simplistic as we like to think.
After having lived for several years on an Indian Reservation, that of the Nez Perce in Idaho, I found that most of the problems encountered by the Indian families that I knew could be placed squarely on the corruption and greed of their own leaders. Here in New Mexico it is the same. The Navajo tribe, for example, have a great deal of income, their leaders are rich, but little of the wealth ever trickles down to poor tribal members. People are the same whatever their race. Power corrupts. It corrupts both Tribal Leaders and Our Great White Fathers in Washington.
Human Nature has not changed since The Creation. All people desire the freedom to do what they wish, and a piece of the Earth to call their own. All tend to look down on those who are different from them and "their group" in some way, no matter if the difference is race, culture, economic status, or belief system. They feel justified in attaining their goals at the expense of the "other group" because their ways are superior.
What IF, when the ancestors of American Indian tribes migrated from Asia, at the end of the last Ice Age, there were already groups of people living in North America, who were "foreign" to these newcomers? What IF these "Native Americans" had Caucasian characteristics, and were different from the Mongoloid newcomers both racially and culturally? And most importantly, occupied the land the newcomers desired? What IF the migrating Indian tribes began a systematic genocide of the original inhabitants of America?
THIS is the unspoken possibility that the Politically Correct and the Indian Tribes do not want us to consider, because it would shatter forever their self-image of themselves as Victims of the Evil White Man. But it can never be considered, let alone discovered, if the truth is systematically covered up whenever a new find comes to light.
There was never any generic "Indian" way of life in North America, practicing a pure and innocent co-existance with Nature. There were as many cultures and belief systems as there were tribes, each with their own values and way of life. Some were agrarian societies, living in peace with their neighbors; some were hunter-gatherers, and some were warlike and expansionistic. Historically, many tribes that were smaller in number or more peaceful were displaced by warloving, nomadic newcomers.
Throughout New Mexico and Arizona, this is what happened when nomadic, war-like tribes from the North migrated into the area approximately 400-500 years ago, and began raiding and claiming the land for their own. Their descendents today are called the Apache and Navajo, and perhaps they will tell you that they have "been here since the beginning of time," but that is not what the Hopi say. They say the White Man, the Spanish, came first; and then, not long after, a new people began to migrate into the area, nomads from the North, who began to take their ancestral lands.
In 1996, at the time the "Kennewick Man" controversy began, I worked for a regional newspaper here in Southern New Mexico, called The Courier. We did several articles on "Kennewick Man", and I recall in particular, in reference to the idea that White Men could have been in North America before the Indian, a story told by a Paiute. He said that Paiute oral history told them that they had always been here; but, in contradiction to this, he also said that their history told them that when they arrived in the lands which they now hold, in Nevada, I believe, Red-Haired Giants were already occupying the area. The Paiute naturally had to fight and kill off these foreign-looking natives, to gain control of the land.
I don't really care who was here first. From the beginning of time, people have been conquering and occupying the lands of others, and writing the histories for future generations. Nothing much has changed throughout the centuries. But to say that one race is more or less evil than another is ridiculous. One particular culture may be more peaceful or warlike than another, but people in general are pretty much the same throughout the world.
All I really am interested in knowing is the truth, and without scientific enquiry, it can never be found. If we are just going to cover any uncomfortable facts and discoveries over, as the Clinton Administration did with tons of dirt at Kenniwick, we might as well just pack up our scientific tools, and go back to living in the Dark Ages... Which is where, I am afraid, the Politically Correct, the environmentalists, and our new Feudal Masters of the New World Order would like us to be.
For more information on the controversy of Kennewick Man and the Original Inhabitants of the American continent, see:
Politically Incorrect Genocide, Part One
Politically Incorrect Genocide, Part Two
Prehistoric Migrations to the Americas
Kennewick Man Virtual Interpretive Center
And one of my favorite authors, Jeffrey Goodman, PH. D, author of "Psychic Archeaology" and "American Genesis," which postulates that Man did not migrate TO the American continent, but originated here, and migrated outward, to Europe and Asia. A very interesting theory, backed up by archeological finds throughout North and South America, including the work of Louis Leakey, the archeologist famous for his work in the African Rift Valley.