Editing Kennewick Man (section)

===Genetic and cultural origins===
Chatters, who initially investigated the skeleton, early on concluded that the "presence of [[Caucasian race|Caucasoid]] traits [and a] lack of definitive Native-American characteristics", as well as the apparent context of the skeleton as part of an early Paleo-American group led him to state that the body was "Caucasian" (an anthropological term not synonymous with "white" or "European").<ref name="Zimmer">{{cite news |last=Zimmer |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Zimmer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/science/new-dna-results-show-kennewick-man-was-native-american.html |title=New DNA results show Kennewick Man was Native American |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 18, 2015 |access-date=December 20, 2023}}</ref>{{sfnp|Chatters|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/ancientencounter0000chat/page/170?view=theater 170]|q=}}

Scientists attempted DNA analysis within a few years of discovery, but reported "available technology and protocols do not allow the analysis of [[ancient DNA]] from these remains" ie. multiple experts were unable to extract enough DNA for analysis.<ref name="Kaestle">{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.nps.gov/archeology/kennewick/kaestle.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070819231551/http://www.nps.gov/archeology/kennewick/kaestle.htm |archive-date=August 19, 2007  |chapter=Ch. 2: Report on DNA Analysis of the Remains of "Kennewick Man" from Columbia Park, Washington |title=Report on the DNA Testing Results of the Kennewick Human Remains from Columbia Park, Kennewick, Washington |last=Kaestle |first=Federica A. |date=September 2000 }}</ref>

Chatters ''et al.'' (2000) conducted a graphic comparison, including size, of Kennewick Man to eighteen modern populations. They found Kennewick Man to be most closely related to the [[Ainu people|Ainu]], a recognized indigenous people of Northern Japan. However, when size was excluded as a factor, no association to any population was established.{{sfnp|Custred|2000}} In 2001, Chatters wrote that the "craniofacial characteristics of Paleo-Americans, Asians, and early Europeans, loosely resemble the Ainu, Polynesian, and Australian peoples", but that no group was the major contributor to the Paleo-American gene pool.{{sfnp|Chatters|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/ancientencounter0000chat/page/263?view=theater 263]|ps=: "The craniofacial characteristics of Paleo-Americans, Asians, and early Europeans, loosely resembling as they do the Ainu, Polynesian, and Australian peoples, show that neither major contributor to the Paleo-American gene pool had yet differentiated far from the ancestral, generalized Homo sapiens form."}} Anthropologist [[C. Loring Brace]] maintained in a 2006 interview that, by his analysis, Kennewick Man was "likely related" to the Ainu of Japan.<ref name=King>{{cite news|last1=King |first1=Anna |title=Kennewick Man's bones provide window to past |url=http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/7997434p-7890471c.html |access-date=April 25, 2015 |publisher=TriCity Herald |date=July 23, 2006|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061210135223/http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/7997434p-7890471c.html |archive-date=December 10, 2006 }}</ref>

Anthropologist Joseph Powell of the [[University of New Mexico]] was also allowed to examine the remains. Powell used craniometric data obtained by anthropologist [[William White Howells]] of [[Harvard University]] and anthropologist Tsunehiko Hanihara of [[Saga University]]; this had the advantage of including data drawn from Asian and North American populations.{{sfnp|Chatters|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/ancientencounter0000chat/page/178?view=theater 178-179]|q=}} Powell said that Kennewick Man was not European but most resembled the [[Ainu people|Ainu]]{{sfnp|Custred|2000}} and [[Polynesians]].{{sfnp|Chatters|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/ancientencounter0000chat/page/178?view=theater 178-179]|q=}} Powell said that the Ainu descend from the [[Jōmon]] people, an East Asian population with "closest biological affinity with south-east Asians rather than [[Peoples of the Caucasus|western Eurasian]] peoples".<ref name="Powell">{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.nps.gov/archeology/kennewick/powell_rose.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070829022757if_/http://www.nps.gov/archeology/kennewick/powell_rose.htm |archive-date=August 29, 2007  |chapter=Ch. 2: Report on the Osteological Assessment of the Kennewick Man Skeleton |title=Report on the Non-Destructive Examination, Description, and Analysis of the Human Remains from Columbia Park, Kennewick, Washington |publisher=Department of the Interior and National Park Service |last1=Powell |first1=Joseph F. |last2=Rose |first2=Jerome C. |date=October 1999 }}</ref> Powell said that dental analysis showed the skull to have a 94-percent consistency with being of a [[Sundadont]] group like the Ainu and Polynesians and only a 48-percent consistency with being of a [[Sinodont]] group like that of North Asia.{{sfnp|Chatters|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/ancientencounter0000chat/page/182?view=theater 182]|q=}} Powell said analysis of the skull showed it to be "unlike American Indians and Europeans".{{sfnp|Chatters|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/ancientencounter0000chat/page/182?view=theater 182]|q=}} Powell concluded that the remains were "clearly not a [[Caucasoid race|Caucasoid]] unless Ainu and Polynesians are considered Caucasoid".<ref name="Powell"/>

Later studies criticised claims made about the ancestry of the Kennewick Man purely based on skull morphology, noting that a single skull is too small a sample size to accurately determine affinities with any degree of certainty, and that the Kennewick Man's skull morphology falls within the variation of known Native American skulls.<ref name="Rasmussen" />

Advances in genetic research made it possible to analyze ancient DNA (aDNA) more accurately than earlier attempts when the skeleton was found. In June 2015, a study was published which analysed his sequenced [[nuclear genome]], which concluded that his genome was nested within the diversity of contemporary Native Americans. The study concluded Kennewick Man belonged to a population closely related to contemporary Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest, including [[Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation]]. Of the five tribes that originally claimed Kennewick Man as an ancestor, their members were the only ones to donate DNA samples for evaluation. The low sequencing depth (approximately 1x) of the Kennewick Man's genome, along lack of genomes from North American aboriginal populations have made it impossible to ascertain Kennewick Man's nearest living relatives among regional Native American tribes. His [[Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup|Y-DNA haplogroup]] is [[Haplogroup Q-M3|Q-M3]] and his [[Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup|mitochondrial DNA]] is [[Haplogroup X (mtDNA)|X2a]], both uniparental genetic markers found almost exclusively in Native Americans.<ref name="Rasmussen" /><ref>{{cite news |last=Morelle |first=Rebecca |date=June 18, 2015 |title=DNA reignites Kennewick Man debate |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33170655 |work=[[BBC News]]}}</ref>