The Kennewick Man

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The Kennewick man For many years, it was theorized that the peopling of the Americas began roughly 12,000 years ago, during the last ice age. As the theory states, what we know as the Bering Strait, was then called the Bering land bridge. This was a direct result of the ice age, as sea levels were 300-400 feet lower than they are today. The lower sea levels supposedly provided the uncovering of said land bridge, which in turn provided the pathway that Indians needed in order to migrate to lands where food was more available. This land bridge, connecting Siberia and Alaska was then traversed by people leaving Asia and thus settling into the Americas. However, when 2 men in Kennewick, Washington discovered a very archaic skull, this theory was proven to not be entirely true. The Kennewick man's skull was thoroughly inspected and found to have features of that of a European man, not native American. Also, other parts of the skeleton were discovered and inspected as well. Lodged in the pelvis of the Kennewick man, was found to be an ancient type of spear known as a "cascade point", a spear type used over 9,000 years ago. Through the help of carbon dating, it was determined that this man lived before 7,000 BC! Just as research of the Kennewick man was helping to discover things about the history of the peopling of the Americas that we previously did not know, the government confiscated the remains. Under the N.A.G.P.R.A. (the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act) it is legal for Native Americans tribes to claim any remains over 500 years old as their ancestors, which included the Kennewick man. However, this law was somewhat trumped when DNA testing proved that the Kennewick man was not at all related to any Indians found in the Americas. We can, however, only make educated guesses as to what the Kennewick man's specific features looked like, I.E. the color and

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