Genetic Link Discovered Between Ancient Native American Remains and Living Descendants

DNA can unlock the genetic past of our ancient ancestors, revealing more information about the human race as populations of people migrated and settled in different areas. Now, scientists have discovered a direct genetic link between the remains of Native Americans who lived thousands of years ago and their living descendants, allowing them to learn a little bit more about this group of people.

In order to actually track this genetic population, researchers compared the complete mitochondrial genomes of four ancient and three living individuals from the north coast of British Columbia, Canada. This region is home to the indigenous Tsimshian, Haida and Nisga'a people. All of these groups possess oral traditions and written histories that indicate that they have lived in the area for uncounted generations. In addition to these histories, there are archaeological sites that possess remains that date back several millennia. Until now, though, there has been nothing to definitively link the current inhabitants to the ancient human remains.

Mitochondrial DNA does not recombine with paternal DNA. This means that's it's passed down from mother to offspring more or less intact. Because of this, it makes it easier for scientists to track unique sequences through generations. This method is far easier than analyzing nuclear DNA, since there's a historic pattern of European males mixing with Native American females after European contact. This means that a lot of the Y chromosomes trace back to Europe.

"Having a DNA link showing direct maternal ancestry dating back at least 5,000 years is huge as far as helping the Metlakatla prove that this territory was theirs over the millennia," said Barbara Petzelt, an author and participant in the study, in a news release.

The researchers found human remains of a young female that lived about 5,500 years ago matched another female whose remains were about 2,500 years old. These both matched a living participant who carried the same mitogenomic signature. In other words, the findings shows that this group of people has lived in the area for thousands of years.

"Archaeology is one important source of information about the past, and oral traditions give us a lot of verifiable information about the past cultural events and patterns," said David Archer, an anthropology professor at Northwest Community College, in a news release. "But the genetic information is something that is immediately recognizable. If somebody is told that their DNA links to somebody who was present 2,500 years ago and also to someone who was present 5,500 years ago, you can summarize that in a sentence and it's very easily understood and it's exciting."

The findings are published in the journal PLOS One.