On many of the skulls, four-digit numbers had been scrawled above the eye sockets. Inside the boxes were human skulls and skeletons. A table was covered with cardboard boxes, which the curators invited them to open when they felt ready. Inside the museum, several curators led Murangi and his companions to a private room upstairs. Kavemuii Murangi, an education researcher who lives in Maryland, arrived wearing a grey suit and dark glasses that hid his gentle eyes. They had come to view relics of a tragic episode in their nation’s history, and to ask the museum, after almost a century, to give them back. The women wore colourful dresses and hats, following a tradition from Namibia, their home country, in southern Africa. The men wore dark suits and ties, like guests at a funeral. Gross New York-In a warm morning last September, a dozen Herero men and women paid a visit to the American Museum of Natural History, in Manhattan. Thomas is a founding Trustee of the National Museum of the American Indian and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. About the Author As Curator of Anthropology and former Chairman of the Department of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, David Hurst Thomas is responsible for the largest collection of Indian artifacts and remains in the world. His telling of the tale gains extra credence from his own reputation as a leader in building cooperation between the two sides. In this new work, Thomas charts the riveting story of this lawsuit, the archeologists deteriorating relations with American Indians, and the rise of scientific archeology.

The explosive controversy and resulting lawsuit also raised a far more fundamental question: Who owns history? Many Indians see archeologists as desecrators of tribal rites and traditions archeologists see their livelihoods and science threatened by the 1990 Federal reparation law, which gives tribes control over remains in their traditional territories.

Book Synopsis The 1996 discovery, near Kennewick, Washington, of a 9,000-year-old Caucasoid skeleton brought more to the surface than bones. About the Book Centered on the lawsuit over Kennewick Man, this lively history illuminates one of the most contentious issues in science: the battle between archeologists and American Indians.

Skull wars by david hurst thomas