Editing Kennewick Man (section)

===Scientific significance===
According to ''Time'' magazine, "Scientists have found only about 50 skeletons of such antiquity, most of them fragmentary. Any new find can thus add crucial insight into the ongoing mystery of who first colonized the New World."{{sfnp|Lemonick|Dorfman|2006}}

Since the mid-1990s within the science community, [[Peopling of the Americas#Physical anthropology|"Palaeoamericans" have vied with "Palaeoindians"]] over the identity of the first people of the Americas. "Palaeoamericans" posit the earliest inhabitants are not related to modern day Indians, possibly they were Asians from an extinct lineage, or even from Europe. "Palaeoindians" assert modern Indians are the descendants of the earliest settlers of North America. Kennewick Man, and DNA from other ancient skeletons, has played a significant role in eroding Palaeoamerican theories. Kennewick Man's DNA results mark an "end of a [supposed] non-Indian ancient North America".<ref name="Kakaliqouras">{{cite journal |title=The Repatriation of the Palaeoamericans: Kennewick Man/the Ancient One and the End of a Non-Indian Ancient North America |journal=BJHS Themes |first1=Ann M. |last1=Kakaliqouras |date=2019 |volume=4 |pages=79–98 |doi=10.1017/bjt.2019.9|doi-access=free }}</ref>

The discovery of Kennewick Man, along with other ancient skeletons, has furthered scientific debate over the origin and history of early Native American people.{{sfnp|Custred|2000}} One hypothesis holds that a single source of migration occurred, consisting of hunters and gatherers following large herds of game who wandered across the [[Bering land bridge]]. An alternative hypothesis is that more than one source population was involved in migration immediately following the [[Last Glacial Maximum]] (LGM), which occurred ~22k to ~18k years BP, and that the land migration through Beringia was either preceded by or roughly synchronous with a waterborne migration from coastal Asia.<ref>{{citation|url=http://natural-history.uoregon.edu/sites/default/files/mnch/Erlandson_and_Braje_2011.pdf|author1=Erlandson, J.|author2=Braje, T.|title=From Asia to the Americas by boat? Paleogeography, paleoecology, and stemmedpoints of the northwest Pacific|access-date=April 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180919070842/http://natural-history.uoregon.edu/sites/default/files/mnch/Erlandson_and_Braje_2011.pdf|archive-date=September 19, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The similarity of some ancient skeletal remains in the Americas, such as Kennewick Man, to coastal Asian phenotypes is suggestive of more than one migration source.{{how|date=December 2023}}{{sfnp|Preston|2014}}{{sfnp|Custred|2000}}<ref name="Powell"/>{{sfnp|Brace |Brace |Nelson |Qifeng |2014}} Classification of DNA from ancient skeletons such as Kennewick Man and others of similar phenotype may or may not reveal genetic affiliation between them, with either Beringian<ref>{{citation|vauthors=Tamm E, Kivisild T, Reidla M, Metspalu M, Smith DG |title=Beringian Standstill and Spread of Native American Founders|journal=PLOS ONE |volume=2 |issue=9 |pages=e829 |display-authors=etal|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0000829 |pmid=17786201 |pmc=1952074 |year=2007 |bibcode=2007PLoSO...2..829T|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Fagundes">{{cite journal |vauthors=Fagundes NJ, Kanitz R, Eckert R, et al. |title=Mitochondrial population genomics supports a single pre-Clovis origin with a coastal route for the peopling of the Americas|journal=Am. J. Hum. Genet.|volume=82|issue=3|pages=583–92|date=March 2008|pmid=18313026|pmc=2427228|doi= 10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.11.013}}</ref> or coastal Asian<ref>{{citation|author1=Adachi N. |author2=Shinoda K |author3=Umetsu K |author4=Matsumura H. |title=Mitochondrial DNA analysis of Jomon skeletons from the Funadomari site, Hokkaido, and its implication for the origins of Native American, Am J Phys Anthropol. 2010 Mar; 141(3):504–05|journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=138 |issue=3 |pages=255–65 |pmid=18951391 |year=2009 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.20923 |s2cid=21953365 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=http://pages.ucsd.edu/~rfrank/class_web/UnivHouse/Kemp%20et%20al.%202007.pdf |first1=Brian M. |last1=Kemp |first2=Ripan S. |last2=Malhi |display-authors=et al. |title=Genetic Analysis of Early Holocene Skeletal Remains From Alaska and its Implications for the Settlement of the Americas |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=132 |number=4 |pages=605–621 |year=2007 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.20543 |pmid=17243155 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150418045340/http://pages.ucsd.edu/~rfrank/class_web/UnivHouse/Kemp%20et%20al.%202007.pdf |archive-date=April 18, 2015 |url-status=live }}{{collapsible list |title=et al. list |titlestyle=color:gray; |expand=y<!--Accessibility issue-->es |hlist=on |Deborah A. Bolnick |E. James Dixon |Jason A. Eshleman
|Terence E. Fifield |[[Timothy H. Heaton]] |John R. Johnson |Brian M. Kemp |Joseph G. Lorenz |Ripan S. Malhi |Cristina Martinez-Labarga |John McDonough |Olga Rickards |David Glenn Smith |[[Rosita Worl]] }}</ref> source populations.

Regardless of the debate over whether there were more than one source of migration following the LGM, Kennewick Man has yielded insight into the marine lifestyle and mobility of early coastal migrants.{{sfnp|Brenner|Dixon|Edgar|Farmer|2014}}