Editing Kennewick Man (section)

===Racial issues===
In 2005, author [[Jack Hitt]] wrote an essay "Mighty White of You: Racial Preferences Color America's Oldest Skulls and Bones", in which he describes a systemic "racial preference" for Kennewick Man, and other old skeletons, to be of European origin. If this theory held true (and DNA evidence shows it does not), it would turn the tables on Indian claims of being the first inhabitants, white Europeans would be the victims of Indian invaders, and politically modern Indians would have less claim to sovereignty.{{sfnp|Hitt|2010}}

The use of the word "Caucasoid" to describe Kennewick Man, and his facial reconstruction that appeared plausibly European, were taken by many to mean that Kennewick Man was "Caucasian", European, or "white", rather than an ancestor of present-day Native Americans,{{sfnp|Chatters|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/ancientencounter0000chat/page/170?view=theater 170]|q=}} although the term "Caucasoid" had also been applied to the [[Ainu people|Ainu]] of northern Japan. In 1998, ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported "White supremacist groups are among those who used Kennewick Man to claim that Caucasians came to America well before Native Americans."<ref name="Egan" /> Additionally, [[Asatru Folk Assembly]], a racialist [[Modern Paganism|neopagan]] organization, sued to have the bones genetically tested before it was adjudicated that Kennewick Man was an ancestor of present-day Native Americans.<ref name="Egan">{{cite news |last=Egan |first=Timothy |author-link=Timothy Egan |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/02/us/old-skull-gets-white-looks-stirring-dispute.html |title=Old Skull Gets White Looks, Stirring Dispute |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 2, 1998 |access-date=December 20, 2023}}</ref>