In 1996 two young men found a skull on the bank of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington. Police and scientists quickly realized the remains were very old. Anthropologists excavated a full skeleton that had been carefully buried along the river and dated to roughly 9,000 years ago — one of North America’s most important ancient human discoveries.
The skeleton became the center of a legal and cultural battle. Local Native tribes insisted the bones were ancestral and sought reburial, while scientists wanted to study the remains. Doug Owsley, the Smithsonian’s leading physical anthropologist, sued for the right to examine the skeleton. Courts ultimately ruled the bones had little genetic connection to present-day tribes and allowed scientific study to proceed.
Owsley and a team of scientists reconstructed Kennewick Man’s biography from his bones. They found a physically robust individual whose life was violent and hard. He had multiple injuries: several fractured ribs (some that failed to mend properly), healed shoulder damage, two skull fractures, and a spear that had been thrown at him when he was about 15–20 years old and lodged permanently in his hip. Taken together, the trauma suggests repeated violent encounters and at least one attempted killing.
Chemical analysis of his bones revealed a diet heavily dependent on marine mammals — seals in particular — and other seafood, evidence of a coastal, boat-using lifestyle. His worn teeth and a very strong right arm indicate he was a skilled spear hunter. From the skull shape and archival images of Asian coastal peoples, sculptors built a facial reconstruction that helped visualize him as an “ambassador” from an ancient time.
The Kennewick Man findings have prompted scientists to rethink how early people entered North America. In addition to the traditional land-bridge model across Beringia, the skeleton supports the idea that coastal populations from East Asian shores reached the continent earlier than previously believed and that seafaring played a role in those movements.
Native groups continue to seek reburial, and the federal government has retained the remains while legal and ethical disputes persist. Meanwhile, researchers argue that human bones can yield a wealth of information about past lifeways — injuries, diet, tool use and travel — and that Kennewick Man, silent for 9,000 years, is beginning to tell his story.
