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kyburggap-var-ginnunga:
bitterbitchclubpresident:
nativenews:
DNA links 5,500 year-old Indigenous woman in Canada and her 200x great-grandaughter who still lives nearby
Scientists have traced genetic descent from the 5,500 year-old remains to a second set of 2,500 year-old female remains found nearby and, amazingly, to a woman still living close to both sites on British Columbia’s northern coast.
The study used DNA samples from 60 modern members of the indigenous Tsimshian, Haida, and Nisga’a tribes from the Metlakatla First Nation. The samples were compared with mitochondrial DNA extracted from the teeth of four ancient people: two skeletons aged 6,000 years and 5,500 years unearthed in an ancient shell midden on Lucy Island, and two skeletons aged 5,000 years and 2,500 years found on Dodge Island.
Three living individuals had DNA matches with the older Dodge Island skeleton, and three of the skeletons matched at least one living person. The oldest Lucy Island skeleton didn’t match any living relatives, but did match a 10,300-year-old skeleton previously unearthed on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska.
The team was surprised by the genetic link between the 5,500-year-old Lucy Island female and the 2,500-year-old Dodge Island female, but was elated to find they both had the exact same mitogenome of a living Tsimshian woman – a kinship covering at least 200 generations.
Previous DNA research suggests that 95% of all Native Americans can trace their mitochondrial ancestry to 6 women who lived between at least 18,000 and 21,000 years ago, though not necessarily at exactly the same time.
The genetic picture of North America has proven difficult to understand – mainly due to European colonization from the 16th century onwards, which, as well as adding European DNA into the mix, effectively erased many Indigenous genetic lineages.
Which makes this living mitochondrial link particularly important. The genetic data could create a potentially misleading picture of a completely stable culture, Marsden, who was not involved in the study.
However, in fact, these communities keep meticulously handed-down oral histories that serve in part to track matrilineal heritage, and those oral histories suggest further waves of migration into the region in the last 5,000 years, Marsden said.
Study co-author and Metlakatla treaty official, Joycelynn Mitchell, added: “It’s very exciting to be able to have scientific proof that corroborates what our ancestors have been telling us for generations. It is amazing how fast technology is moving to be able to prove this kind of link with our past.”
[IMAGE: ‘We’ve always been here’ – members of the Metlakatla First Nation community in British Columbia who participated in the genetic study. Metlakatla Treaty Office.]
dope!!! how cool is this!!!
@battle-pope
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bitterbitchclubpresident:
nativenews:
DNA links 5,500 year-old Indigenous woman in Canada and her 200x great-grandaughter who still lives nearby
Scientists have traced genetic descent from the 5,500 year-old remains to a second set of 2,500 year-old female remains found nearby and, amazingly, to a woman still living close to both sites on British Columbia’s northern coast.
The study used DNA samples from 60 modern members of the indigenous Tsimshian, Haida, and Nisga’a tribes from the Metlakatla First Nation. The samples were compared with mitochondrial DNA extracted from the teeth of four ancient people: two skeletons aged 6,000 years and 5,500 years unearthed in an ancient shell midden on Lucy Island, and two skeletons aged 5,000 years and 2,500 years found on Dodge Island.
Three living individuals had DNA matches with the older Dodge Island skeleton, and three of the skeletons matched at least one living person. The oldest Lucy Island skeleton didn’t match any living relatives, but did match a 10,300-year-old skeleton previously unearthed on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska.
The team was surprised by the genetic link between the 5,500-year-old Lucy Island female and the 2,500-year-old Dodge Island female, but was elated to find they both had the exact same mitogenome of a living Tsimshian woman – a kinship covering at least 200 generations.
Previous DNA research suggests that 95% of all Native Americans can trace their mitochondrial ancestry to 6 women who lived between at least 18,000 and 21,000 years ago, though not necessarily at exactly the same time.
The genetic picture of North America has proven difficult to understand – mainly due to European colonization from the 16th century onwards, which, as well as adding European DNA into the mix, effectively erased many Indigenous genetic lineages.
Which makes this living mitochondrial link particularly important. The genetic data could create a potentially misleading picture of a completely stable culture, Marsden, who was not involved in the study.
However, in fact, these communities keep meticulously handed-down oral histories that serve in part to track matrilineal heritage, and those oral histories suggest further waves of migration into the region in the last 5,000 years, Marsden said.
Study co-author and Metlakatla treaty official, Joycelynn Mitchell, added: “It’s very exciting to be able to have scientific proof that corroborates what our ancestors have been telling us for generations. It is amazing how fast technology is moving to be able to prove this kind of link with our past.”
[IMAGE: ‘We’ve always been here’ – members of the Metlakatla First Nation community in British Columbia who participated in the genetic study. Metlakatla Treaty Office.]
dope!!! how cool is this!!!
@battle-pope
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2aHgXM0
via IFTTT
