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S27E15: Mystery of the First AmericansIn 1996, near Kennewick, Washington, a suspected murder victim is identified by forensic anthropologists as Caucasian - but turns out to be almost 10,000 years old. For fifty years our picture of prehistoric America has rested on the premise that the earliest inhabitants of the Americas were east Asians of mongoloid stock, the ancestors of today's Native Americans. But the discovery of the Kennewick Man, along with several other startling finds in recent years, has thrown that once widely accepted idea into question and revolutionized the science of paleo-anthropology. It has also embroiled scientists in a bitter conflict with Native American groups who want the scientific study of early Americans halted. Who and what do Kennewick Man and others represent? NOVA is following the efforts of paleo-anthropologists work to decode the story in the bones of people who died 10,000 years ago.
Genres:
Air Date:
Feb 15, 2000
Runtime:
55 minutes
Production:
Casts:
- Season 1
- Season 2
- Season 3
- Season 4
- Season 5
- Season 6
- Season 7
- Season 8
- Season 9
- Season 10
- Season 11
- Season 12
- Season 13
- Season 14
- Season 15
- Season 16
- Season 17
- Season 18
- Season 19
- Season 20
- Season 21
- Season 22
- Season 23
- Season 24
- Season 25
- Season 26
- Season 27
- Season 28
- Season 29
- Season 30
- Season 31
- Season 32
- Season 33
- Season 34
- Season 35
- Season 36
- Season 37
- Season 38
- Season 39
- Season 40
- Season 41
- Season 42
- Season 43
- Season 44
- Season 45
- Season 46
- Season 47
- Season 48
- Season 49
- Season 50
- Season 51
