Modern Inuit peoples all descend from populations that lived in the North Slope region of Alaska. This finding, revealed in DNA analysis of ancient and contemporary cultures, could answer questions about migrations thousands of years in the past.
Northwestern University researchers examined genetic material from living Inuit people as well as older samples from Neo- and Paleo-Eskimos. They found that genetic markers seen in people of North Slope villages were also present in the other populations. This suggested that other groups of Inuits examined in the study descended from the North Slope group.
This finding would be consistent with the idea that colonization of the eastern Arctic began in the North Slope and proceeded eastward through Canada and into Greenland. Genetic analysis suggests that two of these migrations took place over the course of colonization. The North Slope refers to the northern slope of the Brooks Range along the coast of the Arctic Ocean, and contains the city of Barrow.
"There has never been a clear biological link found in the DNA of the Paleo-Eskimos, the first people to spread from Alaska into the eastern North American Arctic, and the DNA of Neo-Eskimos, a more technologically sophisticated group that later spread very quickly from Alaska and the Bering Strait region to Greenland and seemed to replace the Paleo-Eskimo," M. Geoffrey Hayes of Northwestern University said.
A third common haplogroup identified in the study, known as C4, is also carried by Native Americans in more southerly locations. This suggests the genetic marker may have been carried by the first people to enter the Americas.
A haplogroup is a genetic population that shares a common ancestor on the paternal or maternal line. Haplogroups are assigned letters of the alphabet, and scientists can further refine the groupings by adding more number and letter combinations. Those of similar haplotypes share a common ancestor having the same single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mutation. A haplogroup is a large grouping, like Vikings or Celts, according to one description.
This new genetic study could assist investigators in answering questions about the arrival and migration of people in the region over the last 5,000 years.
Iñupiat elders are interested in learning more about the history of their people. Hayes led a group of researchers collecting saliva samples from 151 subjects living in eight communities over the North Slope. The researchers examined mitochondrial DNA, which passes almost unchanged from mother to offspring.
One segment of code, the D2 haplogroup, known from the Paleo-Eskimo genetic code, had never before been seen outside those ancient populations. The Neo-Eskimo D4b1a haplogroup was also found in the North Slope populations. This group of people replaced Paleo-Eskimo communities and went on to quickly populate much of the Arctic.
"We found that there were many lineages shared between villages along the coast, suggesting that women traveled frequently between these communities .... This fits well with what the elders and other community members told us about Iñupiat history," Hayes said.
Future research will study the Y chromosome in order to reveal information on males in the genetic record as well as the influence of Europeans beginning in the 19th century.
Analysis of genetic codes of ancient and modern Eskimo communities, and what it could tell us about the colonization of the eastern Arctic, was detailed in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
Photo: Clara Bonnet | Flickr
