SPOKANE, Wash. - A 9,300 year-old human skeleton has already caught the Army Corps of Engineers in the middle of a fight between scientists who want to study it and Indian tribes that want to rebury the bones.
    Now followers of a pagan sect that worship Norse gods have entered the fray, claiming the skeleton could be one of their ancestors and that the bones may not be getting proper care from the Corps of Engineers.
    The members of the Asatru Folk Assembly were allowed to hold a religious ceremony last week over the skeleton that has been named Kennewick Man.
    "They found cedar leaves in the box and fear they could contain moisture and chemicals that would alter or damage the fragile bones," said Michael Clinton, the group's lawyer.
    "Our desire is to protect the Kennewick Man," he said.
    The small quantity.of cedar was placed in the box during religious ceremonies by Indian tribes, said Dutch Meier, spokesman for the Corps of Engineers, which has custody since the bones were found in the Columbia River.
    Meier said the cedar won't damage the bones, found near the southeastern Washington city of Kennewick last summer, because the bones are wrapped in plastic bags.
    But a forensic anthropologist who has studied the bones said the bags would only be effective if they were sealed.
    "If it's just wrapped it won't work," said James Chatters. "The moisture will get in."
    Chatters, a private consultant, said the nearly complete skeleton was carefully dried after being found and that getting the bones wet again could cause damage.
    Chatters examined the bones after they were found and noted Caucasoid features, including a prominent Kirk Douglas-style chin, and said they belonged to an early white settler."

    'This is bizarre stuff. The Corps seems to be making up the rules as they go along.'
    Robson Bonnichsen - Oregon State University archeologist suing for the right to study the bones.

    Then he found an ancient spear point embedded in the hip, and carbon-dating determined the remains were actually 93 centuries old, making it the oldest human skeleton ever found in the Northwest.
    Indian tribes claimed the remains as ancestral and demanded they be reburied, with no additional study, under the native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
    The Asatru, based in Nevada City, Calif., filed suit arguing that "more study is needed because the Caucasoid features could mean the skeleton is one of their distant ancestors.
    And a group of eight prominent scientists sued for permission to continue studying the remains.
    "This is bizarre stuff," said Robson Bonnichsen, an Oregon State University archeologist and one of  those suing for the right to study the bones.
    "The Corps seems to be making up the rules as they go along."
    Until a final decision is made, the Corps is storing the remains at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland.
    The Asatrus, whose deities include the Norse gods Odin and Thor, gained access to the skeleton on Wednesday by demanding equal rights after learning that the Corp of Engineers had allowed Indian tribes to hold religious ceremonies.
    Clinton believes the Corps of Engineers is biased in favor the lndians, and cannot be trusted to protect the scientific integrity of the remains.
    "It seems we are not on an equal playing field with the Indians," CIinton said.