Kennewick Man Update (added 6 July)
On 28 July 1996, a skeleton was recovered from the Columbia River in Washington. With a projectile embedded in his pelvis, he was initially thought to have been a White settler. The features of his skull- a long and narrow face, projecting nose, receding cheek bones, high chin, square mandible- and the relative length of his lower arm and leg bones (he was 40-55 years old, by the way, about 5'9" or 5'10") clearly distiguished him from the Indians and tended to support this conclusion. Exciting enough- a frontiersman of the 19th Century who died opening the way for future generations of our Folk. However, it got more exciting. The skeleton was radiocarbon-dated to 8410 years before the present, with an error factor of plus or minus 60 years. The projectile embedded in his pelvis was found to be of the Cascade phase, usually dated between 4500-9000 years ago.Scientific opinion on his racial classification was mixed. Some stated the belief that he was Caucasian, others that he was clearly not. All agreed, as Grover Krantz of Washington State University said, that he "cannot be anatomically assigned to any existing tribe in the area, nor even to the western native American type in general". The features, while not typical of Native Americans, are similar to skeletons of the same general era which have been recovered. Here, too, no scientific consensus has been reached as to classification. Among the various terms used to describe these skeletons are "pre-mongoloid", "proto-mongoloid", "archaic-mongoloid", "proto-caucasoid", and "paleoindian". The one thing all these terms have in common is the element of distinguishing these skeletons from the modern Indian population, which is mongoloid.
A coalition of Indian tribes- the Umatilla, Yakama, Colville, Nez Perce and Manapum- nonetheless filed a claim under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 to be given possession of the remains. There was some dissension among those who had filed concerning what their next step would be. The Colville wanted to permit scientific study but others wanted immediate reburial. The Umatilla position was expressed by Armand Minthorn, described as a tribal religious leader (the article is on the tribal webpage). He wrote, "Scientists and others...believe that he should be further desecrated for the sake of science, and for their own personal gain. The people of my tribe, and four other affected tribes, strongly believe that the individual must be reburied as soon as possible". Their claim, made through NAGPRA, is based on two factors- ancestry and religion, as connected phenomena. "Like any inadvertant discovery of ancestral human remains, this is a very sensitive issue for me and my tribe. Our religious beliefs, culture, and our adopted policies and procedures tell us that this individual must be re-buried as soon as possible".
With jurisdiction over the site of the skeleton's recovery, the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE or Corps) had taken possession of the remains. On 17 and 24 September 1996, they publically announced the intention to "repatriate" the remains to the Indian coalition for reburial. The announcement noted that the decision was based on a "relationship of shared group identity which can be reasonably traced between the human remains" and the coalition. Federal judge John Jelderks recently criticised the handling of the remains by the ACE, saying they'd based their decision primarily on trying to please the Indians without taking into consideration the scientific possibilities. He added, "The age of the remains is not, by itself, conclusive proof that these remains are related to contemporary Native Americans". Indeed, they clearly are not.
For thirty days after announcing the "repatriation/reburial" decision, consideration had to be given to competing claims. These came from two primary fronts. First, the scientific community stated a claim. Second, in competition with the ancestral and religious claims of the Indian coalition and in alliance with the scientific claims, the Asatru Folk Assembly made a legal claim. Like the Native Americans, the AFA and Folkish Asatruar in general believe in a link between ethos and ethnos, that religion and ancestry are intertwined. Based on the evidence that Kennewick Man might be closely related to modern Caucasians, that he might be of the Folk, they filed to permit scientific study and then to permit Kennewick Man's kinsmen to honor him with a reburial based on modern Asatru practice, which is derived ultimately from sources in pre-history and is true to the ancestral spirit. The AFA plainly stated that if scientific study revealed Kennewick Man's ancestry to be unrelated to Caucasians, that they would relinquish any claim.
Link: The Asatru Folk Assembly on Kennewick Man
Link to a Washington Post article on the matter
Given not only the skeletal evidence, but also such anecdotes as the Shawnee tale of having wiped out a White tribe called the Azgens long before the arrival of 18th and 19th Century Europeans, and the fabled use Cortes made of the "Return of Quetzalcoatl" in his conquest of the Aztecs, given too talk of "White Indians" near the Ipixuna River in the Amazon, given that Caucasians are being located in all sorts of unexpected places (the more than 100 blonde-haired mummies, two to four thousand years old, found in China come to mind), and given the current lack of consensus among scientists on the racial classification of "paleoindians", the AFA and the scientists are very much justified in seeking to overturn the ACE decision.
Reinhold Clinton of Wotan's Kindred writes this update, "After a long struggle, last week in Federal Court the judge in the case ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers had acted prematurely and recommended that they allow the remains to be studied. A clear victory for the AFA, the scientists, and a remote ancestor which has helped to demonstrate that caucasoid peoples populated North America thousands of years before anyone."
Hnikar
From the federal prison at Florence, Colorado, Scott Tolley, Gothi of the Woodpile Kindred writes of the many changes being effected in the prisons. A number of rights and privileges formerly granted are being revoked by such legislation as the Zimmer Bill.Scott writes:
"Now, on top of all that, we are hit with the overturning of the RFRA. Now, I'm not a legal expert so I can't tell you to just what extent this will affect Asatruar behind bars, but I can tell you one thing, it doesn't look good for us. We have been oppressed by the administration and by the courts prior to this overturning, we have had to fight the system every step of the way, especially so here at Florence. I currently have a civil suit in the U.S. District Court for an outdoor worship area. Plus we have three to four other issues that we are preparing to take to court, and now the government throws this at us....
"For the time being, nothing has changed for us here at the Woodpile Kindred. We are allowed use of a classroom three times a week. We hold a weekly Kindred meeting on Friday evenings where we gather to discuss the virtues of Asatru, hold short history presentations, discuss the gods and goddesses of our religion, and for general fellowship. Then, for the next hour we hold a runic study class. On Wednesday afternoons we hold a one to two hour meeting for Kindred members to make preparations for the regular Friday meeting, work on our blot skills, and make preparations for ceremonies and sumbels. On Friday afternoon we hold an awareness meeting where we discuss current happenings on he streets. We are considering starting a gothi training course, which would entail in-depth study of mythology, the gods and goddesses, and also ritual procedures. We feel this would greatly benefit those who will be transferred to other facilities so that they can then help others find the path of Odin. We also hold monthly tribal council meetings to handle Kindred affairs. We hold all seasonal blots and an occasional sumbel. In general we live Asatru to the fullest."
Scott adds that when the Kindred formed three years ago, the other religious groups at Florence thought they were satanists or a White gang. Since then, however, their respect has been earned. The administration often works on the gang assumption still and Kindred members are harrassed, placed in solitary and transferred, Scott reports.
Some Kindred members have as little as a couple of months remaining until they've completed their sentences, while others have ten years or more yet to serve, Each hopes to join with a Kindred on the outside or to form a new one upon release. "Our biggest goal at the moment is to send a Kindred member to the annual Althing sponsored by the Asatru Alliance. Finances might prove to be a problem as this Kindred member will only have a few weeks after his release to make the trip."
The Gothi again asks that Asatruar on the outside send letters of support. They've been discouraged at times by the disinterest of some in replying to their inquiries. With the limited access they have to Asatru materials, we can provide new insights for their meetings and discussions by doing no more than taking the time to correspond with them. They could also use help in gathering documentation for their legal struggles to continue practicing Asatru, just as Christians are permitted to practice their faith behind bars. As Scott writes, these are good strong men, serving their time. They have found the ancestral faith and it resonates with truth and meaning. These kinsmen deserve our continued and redoubled support.
G. Scott Tolley 04181-046 P.O.Box 6000 Florence, CO 81226
A Kennewick Man update from Reinhold Clinton...I was informed by a totally reliable source close to the case, that the Army Corps of Engineers has been secretly allowing the Indians to have access to the KM for use in their religious rites! The Corps has done this without informing the Court which has maintained jurisdiction, and without offering the same privelege to the AFA. Absolutely outrageous conduct!
The press has just been notified in order to bring public pressure to bear on the government. These actions by the Corps just makes our 14th amendment claim against them more and more airtight. More to come.
� 1997 [email protected]
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