Indians demand to give them the skeleton of an ancient man

An old dispute over a skeleton belonging, estimated to be nine thousand years old, ended in the United States.

Local indigenous Indian tribes claimed their rights to the skeleton. They call him "Ancient Ancestor Number 1", and wanted to rebury him according to customs.

The remains, known as the Kennewick Man, were accidentally found by two young people in the Columbia River, Wash., In 1996.

Scientists who studied the skeleton indicated that it has Caucasoid features.

The Court of Appeal found in 2004 that the age of the skeleton does not allow us to speak with full confidence about its belonging to the natives of America.

This decision allowed further research into the Kennewick Man DNA. Genetic analysis has shown that the bones are still more closely related to Native Americans than to anyone else.

It is not clear what will happen next with the skeleton, which is stored in the Museum of the University of Washington. Officially, it belongs to the corps of US military engineers.