Chatters, James C.
Biographical note
James Carl Chatters was born in Iowa in 1949. He earned three degrees in anthropology: a bachelor’s degree from Washington State University in Pullman in 1971, then a master's degree and a doctorate from the University of Washington in 1975 and 1982, respectively. He became an archaeologist and paleontologist, and founded a consulting firm, Applied Paleoscience, in 1993. Chatters is best known his analysis of an ancient human skeleton found along the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, in 1996; the skeleton, referred to by Native Americans as Ancient One and colloquially called Kennewick Man, is among the oldest ever found in North America. Among his published work is the book “Ancient Encounters: Kennewick Man and the First Americans,” published in 2001.
Sources: Vital records on Ancestry.com; information provided by Chatters in his interview; Chatters’s profile on Academia.edu; Chatters’s resume, archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20210624204425/https://host.securelook.com/thomasmarketing/bio.html; “Ancient Girl’s Skeleton Changes Scientist’s Mind on Human Migration,” by Sandi Doughton, Seattle Times, May 16, 2014, (accessed June 2026), https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/ancient-girlrsquos-skeleton-changes-scientistrsquos-mind-on-human-migration/
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Oral history interview with James C. Chatters
Oral history interview with James C. Chatters, conducted by Clark Hansen on May 30, 2000, as part of the Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series. Chatters talks about his research on the effects of climate on human behavior, discusses the archaeological record of Native peoples in the Pacific Northwest, and speaks about the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).