Educational Media Reviews Online

Through the use of interviews, good music and creative camera techniques, this documentary attempts to show a broad perspective on the contentious issue of Kennewick Man, a 9,000 year old skeleton found in 1996 on the shore of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington.

The main character in the film turns out to be a reporter from the Seattle Weekly, Roger Downey. He is a likable person with a humorist’s view of the entire proceedings. His perspective is far removed from the actual events and should have taken a less prominent role in the film.

The filmmaker would have done better to include the perspective of Native people who are personally involved in the case. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation have the greatest interest since Kennewick Man was found within their ceded territory as defined by the Treaty of June 6, 1855. Armand Minthorn is the only voice coming from the Umatilla Tribe yet he is not an archeologist and does not hold a degree of any type. Minthorn’s statements come from a religious/historical perspective with little regard for the law specifically or even the facts in general. An example from the film is when Armand states that the missing bones were never missing. He must not have known that Umatilla Tribal representatives were the first to determine that bones were missing. One will note in the credits at the end of the film that those missing bones were later found in the possession of the Benton County Sheriff’s office.

The film is sorely lacking in voices from the Umatilla Tribe. Certainly, a college educated tribal member with a background in archeology would have spoken more directly to the claims made by archeologists and attorneys, whose comments make up a large portion of the film.

Perhaps the most glaring omission in this documentary is the series of events which took place between the time of the initial discovery and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ official ‘Notice of Intent to Repatriate’ the remains. Absolutely nothing was said about the other 4 sets of remains that were removed from the riverbank by Dr. Chatters under the permit that was issued retroactively to him by the Corps to study the Kennewick Man site. Those remains may have been the most crucial evidence in the long-running federal case.

Despite the film’s shortcomings it does show different aspects of the issue that may be of interest to those studying anthropology, social history, law, ethnic studies, and Native American studies.