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Kennewick Man and Asatru

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Kennewick Man and Asatru 7/17/12 Irminsul Ættir Archives - Kennewick Man and Asatru Kennewick Man and Asatru Battle Over BonesArchaeology (Jan/Feb 1997) Tri­City Herald (Kennewick Man ­­ The debate that spans 9,000 years) DejanewsSearch on Kennewick Man or alt.religion.asatru The Irminsul Ættir Position The Kennewick Man Story by Susan Granquist In October of 1996, members of the Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) filed a complaint against the Army Corps of Engineers seeking an injunction to prevent the Corps from turning the ancient skeleton referred to in the media as the Kennewick Man over to the Umatilla Tribes under the Native Graves Protection and Repatriation Act based on religious principles of Asatru, an ancient pre­Christian, ethnic religion. However there are a number of things that need to be known in order to for the public and court to fairly evaluate the claim that might not be apparent to those unfamiliar with this faith. The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, CV No. CV­96­ 1516 JE by the Asatru Folk Assembly, Stephen A. McNallen, and William Fox versus the United States of America, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Ernest J. Harrell, Donald R. Curtis, and Lee Turner, Judicial Review of Agency Action (Administrative Procedure Act), 5 USC & 706; violation of 42 USC & 1981 and 42 USC & 1983; Deprivation of Constitutional Rights; violation of Native American Graves Protection Act; Request for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief and for Attorney Fees. Section 2. "This action relates to the human skeletal remains discovered in July 1996 in eastern Washington commonly known as the 'Richland Man' and sometimes as the 'Kennewick Man' and which are the subject of a notice of intent to repatriate issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers." Section 5. "The plaintiffs are members of the Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA), an organization that represents Asatru, one of the major indigenous, pre­Christian, European religions. Asatru, while a term coined by the Europeans in the Viking Era, was a spiritual path practiced by the European peoples for thousands of years prior to the Viking Era." The term, Asatru, was not coined in the Viking Era, as stated by the plaintiffs, Stephen A. McNallen, Bill Fox and the AFA. It was coined in the mid­1800s by Danish scholars who were studying the Icelandic Eddas to refer to the belief in the Aesir, the gods of the Norse/Germanic peoples. Prior to the introduction of Christianity the spiritual beliefs were simply referred to as "vor sidh" or our way, "vor tru" our faith. Contrary to popular perceptions, Christianity and those www.irminsul.org/arc/199704a.html 1/6 7/17/12 Irminsul Ættir Archives - Kennewick Man and Asatru who were not Christian co­existed for many years and Asatru has continued as a recognized spiritual tradition and faith in Iceland and Europe even though it has only begun to be recognized legally again in many of those countries in recent years. Iceland was among the first to do so under the name of Asatru. "The Asatru Folk Assembly is a legally recognized church revering the sky and earth deities of ancient Europe. Stephen A. McNallen, the recognized leader of the church, was fundamental in reviving this ancient ancestral spiritual path twenty­five years ago. Since then, he has devoted his life to reconstructing the tribal customs and spiritual practices of pre­Christian Europe." Asatru is specific to the gods and goddesses referred collectively as the Aesir in the Icelandic Eddas, as well as in Norse and Germanic myth and folklore. There are many sky and earth deities of old and ancient Europe, such as the Celtic and Baltic gods and goddesses that are not worshipped by Asatruar. It is thought that both shared a common ancestry along with other mythology of the Indo­European groups. "Today, the religion of Asatru has thousands of members, both in Europe and the United States. The AFA represents many of these members. The AFA publishes a quarterly journal and other informative, thought­provoking materials." The Asatru Folk Assembly is a church, but they do not represent a mandate of any Asatruar in any legal sense outside those who are actually members of the Asatru Folk Assembly. As the suit states, Asatru was one of the major indigenous, pre­Christian Northern European religions, it is specifically because Asatru is an indigenous religion that the reasoning behind the suit is particularly hard to understand. Regardless of its historical antecedents which have been lost in the mists of time, it is specifically Northern European and not universal in scope although there are Asatruar in many parts of the world. Belief in the Norse/Germanic gods and goddesses is not enough to be considered Asatru. As an ethnic religion the historical and cultural conventions are also very important as an on­going spiritual tradition that has survived in the folk ways, the literature and even the languages of the people descended from those who considered the Aesir to be ancestral gods and literal kin as many royal genealogies of Northern Europe show. Asatru is not like the Catholic Church, or even Christianity with an authority structure or hierarchy. It is a folk religion, with credibility for those in leadership positions being gained by demonstrated ability, knowledge and respect, in much the same way that in other ethnic religions or groups tribal elders are recognized. Asatru as the indigenous religion of Iceland was recognized legally in Iceland in 1973 alongside Lutheranism and the Asatruafelagidh as the official religious body in Iceland. Other Asatru organizations have been going through the process of recognition in Europe, based on historical practices and long­held spiritual traditions, a significantly different process from America where there is no state church, and there is not the need to demonstrate the historicity of the religion to gain the recognition of a religion or church organization. Mr. McNallen has founded several groups based on a belief on Northern European spiritual practices, the Asatru Folk Assembly is the latest, founded within the last three years. The Asatru Folk Assembly is a successor organization to the old Asatru Free Assembly (1977­1987), which in turn was preceded by the Viking Brotherhood (1971­1977). www.irminsul.org/arc/199704a.html 2/6 7/17/12 Irminsul Ættir Archives - Kennewick Man and Asatru "'Richland Man' is the common term used to describe the human skeletal remains discovered in or about July 1996, near or in the bed of the Columbia River near Richland, Washington. Richland Man has been the subject of radiocarbon dating and is believed to be over 9,000 years old." "Around eleven thousand years ago, adventurous human beings began trekking across the Bering land bridge into what is now Alaska, on their way southward in a migration that would eventually populate all of America. The common assumption is that all of these peoples were the Asian ancestors of today's Native Americans." "There is now a sizable body of evidence indicating that this may not be true. A number of very old skeletons desplay [sic] strong Caucasian traits, to the point that anthropologists are now talking in terms of not only "proto­Indians" but also of "proto­ Americans" and even "Proto­Caucasians" who had a role in the populating of America. It is now thought possible that European­type groups could, in fact, have also made that long walk across what is now the Bering Strait." Ironically, the evidence suggested by the Kennewick Man, brings the Beringia theory itself into question according to some experts. The information provided by the anthropologists who have had a chance to study the Kennewick Man have agreed that the skeleton is caucasoid. Despite explanations from scientists and anthropologists, Mr. McNallen continues to hold to his view that the skeleton is possibly related to Northern Europeans despite the fact that there is no correlation between modern Caucasians and caucasoids, despite the postulation of a "Proto­ Caucasian." The former is a non­scientific term taken from sociology to describe the physical characteristics of people of European appearance, roughly corresponding to the actual anthropological group referred to as europoids. The latter is an anthropological term which connotes the paleo­Indian morphological types that do not conform to the norm, but resemble certain Asian and Middle Eastern morphological types, referred to in sociological terms as mongoloids. There is no evidence to suggest that these groups (europoids and caucasoids) share any common ancestry before 40 thousand years ago. At which point they (and several other groups) would share the common ancestors, provided the Regional Sapiens hypothesis is not correct. If it is, and the Out of Africa model is wrong then a common ancestor would not exist until between 125 tya and 500 tya. There is another case filed by some of the world's leading scientists which addresses the actual scientific, cultural and legal issues. The Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act was intended to protect Native American spiritual rights. Scientists are now complaining about a form of Native American fundamentalism, that like Christian fundamentalism, presents a form of Creationalism that runs counter to scientific inquiry and study and that the NAGPRA is being applied too broadly and without an avenue of review in cases where there is no clear ancestral or cultural identity. There have been other skeletons found in the United States that are older and whose descendants can not be determined with any certainty and the NAGPRA and other laws give the Native Americans who are associated with the land the skeletons are found on the right of determination, whether they are known to have arrived in the area at a much later date or not.
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