Kennewick Man

Why in news?

• DNA analysis proves that Kennewick Man is an ancestor of today's Native American

What is it?

• Kennewick Man is the name generally given to the skeletal remains of a prehistoric Paleo-american man found on a bank of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington.
• The controversial 9,300-year-old set of remains previously described as "the most important human skeleton ever found in North America.
• Kennewick Man is another example of a growing body of genetic research that shows deep historical connections between living Native peoples and ancestors in their homelands. 
• These discoveries may push scholars to consider how Native oral traditions retain collective memories of their distant origins.