Chatters is less sympathetic to the federal government, specifically the Corps of Engineers. In trying to turn the bones over to tribes, it has become a tool of ignorance through the misapplication of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Kennewick Man is the story of an ancient human who lived, fought, suffered and died. His bones cast a light into the distant past to illuminate what life must have been like for some of the first people to step foot in what is now the Northwest. ''Ancient Encounters'' is Chatters' persuasive argument that there is much to be learned from the ''messenger from the past,'' that knowledge is worthwhile and should not be surrendered to the well-intentioned people who want to put Kennewick Man back in the dark. One of the things Chatters learned from Kennewick Man is that science is worth fighting for.
Dead men do tell tales.
Good health and sufficient food in formative years. Ate stone-ground food or lived with blowing sand. Lived into his mid-40s. May have been kicked by a bison or elk. Left him in chronic pain.