What personality traits make someone good at physical anthropology?

I'm very curious. I've been trained to recognize good questions. The Longley case turned out to be a very complicated project. I told Ted Wax (possible, but as-yet-unproven descendent of Wild Bill) that we'd try to help him [to identify Wild Bill's remains] so I was going to do my best, even if it took fifteen years. So, you need persistence. You have to love learning; you have to have enthusiasm.

Personal items, like this Catholic medallion found with Wild Bill's bones, can also help identify remains.

The kinds of classes that can be very useful to someone in this field are any of the biological sciences: Chemistry, Biology, Embryology, Histology. One of the cases I'm working on, there's the question of whether or not a baby was born alive or not. Embryology can be very helpful. So, any of the biological sciences can be very important. Combine that with math and computer skills and statistics. Then bring in archaeology skills and you'll know how to read the soils and how to find things that nobody else can.

You're one of eight scientists suing the federal government to allow research on a skeleton known as Kennewick man against the wishes of the Native American tribe that claims him as an ancestor. Why do you feel so strongly about the issue?

We're talking about an extremely important skeleton. You can count on your fingers the number of well preserved, well-dated human skeletons from this time period. Kennewick man can tell us a lot about what life was like during this time. I think the stories he can tell are relevant to us today and are certainly something that the American public has a right to know.

The eight plaintiffs - all senior scientists - are not doing this out of personal interest in studying this skeleton. This is about a federal agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, that was going to take this important discovery and transfer it to a group that was not going to allow it to be studied. It was going to be lost to the American public, and it is such an important discovery that we felt we had to block that transfer and insist on scientific study of the skeleton.

This is not a suit against Native Americans. It is a lawsuit against the Corp of Engineers' actions. The Native America Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) allows tribal groups to reclaim remains that are directly related to them. Museums throughout the United States have been actively complying with NAGPRA. The first thing is to determine whether it's Native American or not. Then address the question of cultural affiliation as to which group it's related to.

The plaintiffs that brought this suit are not saying whether the skeleton is Native American or not. What we are saying is that the only way to reasonably address his identity is through a careful NAGPRA process and to allow the scientific studies to proceed. We just had our hearings last week (June 2001). I'm optimistic that the judge will see the merit of the different issues we brought before the court. (click here for more info on Kennewick man)
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