CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS—According to a report in Science Magazine, a study of nuclear DNA suggests that Native American and First Nations groups living in southern Alaska and the western coast of British Columbia are descendants of people who lived in the region some 10,000 years ago. An earlier study of mitochondrial DNA, which is passed along the maternal line, failed to find a link between the 10,300-year-old skeleton known as Shuká Káa, or “Man Ahead of Us,” and members of the Tlingit tribe that now live near On Your Knees Cave, where the remains were discovered. The new tests also sampled nuclear DNA from a 6,000-year-old skeleton found on Lucy Island in British Columbia, and two skeletons from the Prince Rupert Harbor area—one 2,500 years old, the other 1,750 years old—and compared the DNA sequences to samples from 156 indigenous groups from around the world. They found that the younger skeletons were closely related to groups living in the Pacific Northwest today, while Shuká Káa appeared to be more closely related to groups living in South and Central America. But the results could indicate that the individuals all shared the same ancestors. Ripan Malhi of the University of Illinois in Champaign said the data also indicates there were multiple genetic lineages in the Americas at least 10,300 years ago. To read in-depth about early settlement of the Americas, go to “America, in the Beginning.”
