PORTLAND, Ore. - A federal judge is allowing a lawsuit over one of the oldest and most complete human skeletons ever found in North America to go forward, setting in motion a case that could ultimately redefine the term ''Native American.''
U.S. Magistrate John Jelderks on Wednesday reactivated a 1996 lawsuit by scientists who want to continue studying Kennewick Man, a set of 9,000-year-old bones that have already forced anthropologists to rethink theories about the origin of Native Americans.
Five American Indian tribes have claimed him as an ancestor, and have said study of the bones would violate their religious traditions.
The lawsuit contesting a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decision to turn the bones over to the tribes was put on hold, pending research by the Interior Department. Last month, the department decided the tribes should be allowed to rebury the bones. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said he determined the remains were ''culturally affiliated'' with the tribes because they were found near their aboriginal lands.
During a status conference Wednesday, Jelderks questioned whether he understood the Justice Department's position that any human remains or artifacts that predate Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World in 1492 are by definition ''Native American.''
Under that theory, for instance, any remains of Vikings from their five or more voyages to North America around the year 1000 would be considered ''Native American'' and given to modern-day tribes for reburial.
After the government lawyers confirmed their definition, Jelderks told lawyers for the tribes - the Umatilla, the Yakama, the Colvilles, the Wanapum and the Nez Perce - to consider whether they agree because it ''might have implications beyond this case.''
Kennewick Man was discovered in the shallows of the Columbia River in 1996 in Kennewick, Wash.
The skeleton's skull has features that are dissimilar to those of modern American Indians. Anthropologists who studied the bones for the Interior Department have said Kennewick Man appeared to have the strongest connection to populations from Polynesia and southern Asia.
The discovery could support newer theories that the continent's earliest arrivals came not by a land bridge between Russia and Alaska - a long-held theory - but by boat or some other route.
Eight anthropologists, including two from the Smithsonian Institution, who filed the lawsuit say they hope further study and tests could help unmask the ethnic identities of the first humans on this continent, where they came from, and what their cultures were like. But the tribes say that testing already done for the government is enough.
Jelderks scheduled arguments in the case for June 19.
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On the Net:
Department of Interior: http://www.cr.nps.gov/aad/kennewick
Friends of the Past: http://www.friendsofpast.org
Kennewick Man Virtual Interpretive Center: http://www.kennewick-man.com
