The Kennewick Man Case | Court Documents | Affidavits & Declarations

Affidavits Address Oral Tradition and Cultural Affiliation

Affidavit of Clayton C. Denman

I, Clayton C. Denman, being first duly sworn, do depose and state as follows:

1. I hold a Ph.D degree in anthropology which I received from the University of California, Berkeley, California, in 1968. From 1964 to 1996, I taught anthropology at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. I have engaged in numerous archaeological research projects in the Pacific Northwest and in adjacent areas, and I am familiar with the cultural practices and beliefs of the Native American groups that reside in the area where the Kennewick Man skeleton was found. I retired from full time teaching in 1996.

2. In 1957, before I began teaching, I was the field foreman for archaeological recovery efforts undertaken by the Grant County Public Utility District in connection with construction of the Priest Rapids Dam on the Columbia River. One day we discovered some human skeletal remains, including two crania, at a site near the river. I contacted Mr. Frank Buck, who at that time was the chief of the Wanapum Band of Native Americans, and asked him to come view the remains. Mr. Buck often came to watch our archaeological investigations, and seemed very interested in what we were doing.

3. After Mr. Buck had seen the remains, I asked him if they were from his people. He told me that they were not Indian, and must be from the Stick People. He said that the Stick People came before his people, and that they were said by some to be the ones who made the petroglyphs. Mr. Buck told me that he did not want to take the remains for burial in the local Native American cemetery. He suggested that they be sent to a museum.

4. It is my understanding that Mr. Buck is now deceased.

DATED this day of February, 2000.

Clayton C. Denman

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