PORTLAND - The definition of "Native American" is at stake in deciding whether the 9,300-year-old skeleton known as Kennewick Man belongs to scientists or Indian tribes, lawyers for both sides told a federal appeals court Wednesday.
The Interior Department has fought with scientists since the bones were discovered in 1996 along the banks of the Columbia River near Kennewick.
A group of eight anthropologists who want to do research on the skeleton went to court to seek permission. But then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt ruled three years ago the bones should be handed over to the tribes for reburial. Last October, U.S. Magistrate John Jelderks overturned Babbitt and approved research on the bones.
Jelderks agreed with arguments by scientists, who said there was no direct link between the skeleton and modern tribes.
The government and the tribes appealed and argued their case on Wednesday before a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Judge Susan Graber asked whether the legal definition of Native American could cover any bones found in North America that were so old they rivaled the age of ancient fossils in Africa or could qualify as "Adam and Eve."
"Yes, they would be considered Native American," said Ellen Durkee
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