Native American Gene Study Pinpoints Migration

There are many theories about exactly where the Native American population of the Americas came from. Some scientists believe that the continent was populated by people walking across a land bridge from Asia, at the Bering Straight. Others have put forward the theory that populations came from Polynesia or South Asia, on boats or rafts.

A new study, collecting genetic data from a number of Native American groups, 29 to be exact, lends weight to the first theory, that the land bridge from Siberia was the most likely route.

The study was conducted by University of Michigan anthropologists and scientists, along with cooperation from scientist from around the world. The study is very comprehensive, making it stronger than many genetic studies, which can tend to be too narrow.

One of the findings is that the populations of the Americas and of some groups in Siberia share a genetic mutation that other groups around the world do not have. The similarity argues not only that Native Americans came from Siberia, but that they did so in one or perhaps just a few migrations from the same population in Siberia, not in a dispersed way.

Linguistic evidence does not always correlate with genetic data, but in this case the researchers found that Native Americans who share the same language groups were more similar to one another genetically than were Native Americans who do not share those linguistic features.

The mutation was very likely acquired shortly before the groups crossed over, which is why groups still in Siberia would share it.

If there had been a number of smaller migrations from groups not sharing similar genetic markers, for example from Polynesia or other areas of Asia, the distribution of this marker would not be so consistent. Because it is shared most of the people must have come from the same region.

The study might help to iron out some of the arguments that have raged over the issue for decades. Many strange theories have been proposed, for example, that Egyptians or even European colonists had long ago peopled the continent. Those theories have long been out of style.

Among other findings it was noted that populations in far South America have not acquired a lot of genetic difference from other groups, arguing that not that much time has passed. It takes time for more isolated groups to start to differ from the general population.

Gene Study, U of Mich