Mystery Of Ancient 'Kennewick Man' Skeleton May Soon Be Solved

It's been called the most important ancient human skeleton ever unearthed in North America. But "Kennewick Man"--so named because it was found in 1996 along the banks of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Wash.--is also one of the most mysterious such skeletons. 

Scientists have offered lots of opinions about the 9,500-year-old skeleton, but no one could figure out for sure who he was and where he came from. That's about to change, thanks to DNA analysis of the skeleton now under way in Denmark. 

Some scientists have argued that Kennewick Man had Caucasian features. To others, he seemed Polynesian. Still others thought he might have been an ancestor of modern-day Native Americans--and they seem to be correct.