The enormous interest in Kennewick Man certainly has much to do with its appeal as a historical and scientific phenomenon. This doesn't account for the controversy, however. Kennewick Man ultimately is a symbol of who controls history and, more important, who controls the way history is composed by those with a stake in its composition.
Steven Salaita
YellowTimes.org
{"...has much to do with 'its'... "? his. his appeal. he's a real guy. all dead and gone. but still busting up the dialectic for all time. something else is happening here. the old time one-two kneejerk 'them guys are all racist assholes therefore us guys are all cool indigenes' vs. 'them guys are all dumbass savages therefore us guys are all cool modern man'. it's obvious where I stand personally on the native/colonist issue, but the truth is bigger than a black and white contest. what Kennewick Man is truly a symbol of is the Roswell aspect of the past. the past as galaxy. the truth of the past as an as yet unknown. the insistence on both sides of the nativist controversies to see the other as monolithic. but there were nomadic tribes in europe who never made it into the limited books of written history, whose descendants entered the American continent alongside the oppressing thieves of european imperialism. and there were and are selfish ignorant natives of the 'New world'. not all one not all the other.
Kennewick Man is a wake-up call for wannabes everywhere, ultimately.}
