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takyon writes:

A genetic analysis published in Nature has revealed that the Kennewick Man, a 9,000-year-old Paleoamerican specimen, has genetic ties to Native American tribes.

Scientists extracted DNA from a hand bone, and compared his genome with genetic data from around the world. Study author Prof Eske Willerslev, from the Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, said: "The first important question we tried to address was to what contemporary population is Kennewick Man most closely related to. And it is very clear that the genome sequence shows he is most closely related to contemporary Native Americans. "In fact we also got Ainu genome-wide data from a Japanese chief and we also had Polynesian (data) for comparison, as well as what is available across the world, and Kennewick Man did not show any significance in terms of having more Ainu or Polynesian DNA than other contemporary Native Americans. "From that perspective, I think we can conclude very clearly he is most clearly related to contemporary Native Americans."

According to NPR, the analysis is still disputed, and won't immediately settle claims over custody of the skeleton:

They found that Kennewick Man is not related to the Ainu of Japan or Polynesians. But he does share a close genetic affinity with members of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. These tribes stem from the Pacific Northwest, and are among several Native American groups that demanded custody of the skeleton.

But if that sounds like "case closed," it isn't. Willerslev acknowledges that there is very little genetic information about modern Native Americans to make comparisons. There might be other tribes more closely related to Kennewick Man. And it also could be that Native Americans are descendants of some relative of Kennewick Man who lived 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. "We probably will never be able to say who is, in fact, the closest living relative of Kennewick Man," Willerslev says.

And there's at least one scientist who isn't convinced by the genetic evidence. Physical anthropologist Douglas Owsley of the Smithsonian Institution has edited a 700-page study of the skeleton. Owsley is an expert on bones, not genes. At his laboratory, he displays a cast of Kennewick Man's skull — alongside skulls of three Native Americans. Clearly, Kennewick Man does look different. "It is a much narrower and longer — relatively longer — cranium, and the way the base of the cranium is configured," he says. "It is different from what we see in Native Americans." Owsley doesn't dispute that Kennewick Man, or his people, passed on genes that now show up in Native American populations. But he doesn't think the evidence is sufficient to satisfy the repatriation law that requires Native American remains to be turned over to tribal authorities. And there's still the mystery of where Kennewick Man came from. Owsley says his bone chemistry reveals things about his diet. Apparently he was a coastal dweller and a wanderer. His ancestors could have been from far away — no one knows yet.