Ahira's Hangar

Court: No mystery skeleton review
Monday, April 19, 2004 Posted: 3:58 PM EDT (1958 GMT)

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- A U.S. appeals court declined Monday to reconsider its February decision allowing scientists to resume testing on a 9,000-year-old skeleton -- called "Kennewick Man" -- despite protests from American Indian tribes.

The legal fight over the "Kennewick Man" skeleton started soon after after two teenagers discovered it near the shore of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington in 1996.

Scientists dated the remains as 8,340 to 9,200 years old, yet called the find puzzling because its features differed from those of American Indians. They hoped to continue testing to gain new insights into early North American people.

Indian tribes wanted the remains be buried, but in a ruling against the tribes and the U.S. government, which had sided with the Indians, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected the request in February.

On Monday, the court declined to ask an 11-judge en banc panel reconsider the February ruling.
Copyright 2004 Reuters.
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