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Kennewick Man was identified by his injuries. The stone spear point embedded in his pelvis was a Cascade Point from the second earliest culture after the Clovis Point culture. The dark stone blade was surrounded by new bone, which had grown in around it. The depth of this wound is evidence that the spear was thrown with an atlatl.

From the muscle ridges on his right arm bone it is obvious that he was a muscular man who paddled a canoe and used a spear-throwing atlatl to project heavy spears into large running herds of animals. His right arm was better developed than his left arm due to an early injury. Many of his ribs had been fractured from a frontal impact, perhaps by a fall. These breaks had been healed, but he must have been in pain with every breath. He also had head wounds, which had healed over. Serious injuries and starvation layers in growing bone are typical conditions in Paleo-American remains.

Kennewick Man did have all of his teeth, though they were nearly worn away. His was the most complete skeleton - 90% complete - ever discovered in the Pacific Northwest. He was 5`9" and in his late forties or early fifties.

Found by accident during a speedboat race in the Columbia River on July 28, 1996, his remains sparked a dispute between anthropologist scientists and five local Native tribes. The Asatru Folk Assembly - a Nordic based group - also put in a claim when it was learned that the skull and leg bones resembled those of Europeans. In previous decades, the tribes as being prehistoric recognized such finds. Research into the recent arrival of the Paiutes into Nevada brought to light their legend about their taking of the land from the Zaideka - Tule Eaters - whom they called the "redheaded giants", this information is from the Nevada State Museum. More recently the local Natives claim to have resided on the land "forever" asserting ownership of any ancient skeletons found near their reservations.

Kennewick Man was found to most closely resemble the Polynesian skull type and the bearded light-skinned, light-eyed Caucasian Japanese Ainu skull type. Dental characteristics link early Americans to Europe, the Middle East, and to S. Asia. The long narrow skull of Kennewick Man (when viewed from the top) contrasts to those found in South America, which are of the Australian Aboriginal skull type. The present Native skull is round with flaring cheekbones and a flatter face. Kennewick Man's face was set forward with an angled and jutting jawbone, and the face is smaller, like the modern Ainu face.