The remains of Anzick-1 were discovered on the Anzick family property with a front-end loader collecting fill for a local school in 1968, along with 125 artifacts (Begley). The artifacts and remains had been covered in red ocher, a mineral pigment used widely in ceremonies. The site, near Wilsall, Montana, is the only known Clovis burial.
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The Clovis people are named for the distinct stone tools found near Clovis, New Mexico. A prehistoric Paleo-Indian culture, Clovis peoples were widespread in North America and hunted large Pleistocene mammals with these characteristic tools. Many mammoth kill sites associated with this culture can be found in southern Arizona. But where did these people come from? Before Anzick-1, some thought that people migrated across the Atlantic Ocean in boats from Europe because of the similarity of stone tools found there to those found in the Americas. This is known as the "Solutrean Hypothesis".
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In 1990s, the skeleton of a 9,000-year-old man found in Washington state ignited a legal battle between scientists who wanted the right to study the individual and local tribes who believed that the man was ancestral to them and wanted him re-interred (Reid). So-called "Kennewick Man" is yet to be returned to the tribes who claim him as an ancestor.
Native Americans in the United States have always been cautious with scientists because they have a history of not being respected. People who do not understand their culture have taken pottery and other physical parts of their history. Native Americans believe that ancestors who are dead are still with them - they literally live in sacred places such as springs and mountains, and can be seen in natural events such as distant rain storms. Taking artifacts, bones, or genetic samples takes something sacred away from them. |