All Articles Tagged As: american indians

Examining genetic variations among the Huichol population of Mexico (10/29/2009)

Mexican researchers examined the polymorphisms of three enzymes -- alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH1B), aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2) and cytochrome P4502E1 (CYP2E1) -- in the Mestizo and Huichol groups. The Huichols, an indigenous group, had the highest CYP2E1*c2 allele frequency documented in the world. This high frequency, in conjunction with the absence of protective ADH1B and ALDH2 polymorphisms, may place the Huichols at particularly high genetic risk for alcoholism and alcoholic liver disease. ...> Full Article

The peopling of the Americas (8/18/2009)

At one time or another most of us wonder where we came from, where our parents or grandparents and their parents came from. Did our ancestors come from Europe or Asia? As curious as we are about our ancestors, for practical purposes, we need to think about the ancestry of our genes, according to Cecil Lewis, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. Lewis says our genetic ancestry influences the genetic traits that predispose us to risk or resistance to disease. ...> Full Article

Bioethicist and colleagues call for federal regulation of genetic ancestry testing (7/4/2009)

The lack of federal regulation in instances of DNA use will be addressed in the Policy Forum section in the July 3 issue of Science by Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, Ph.D., of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, and colleagues from four other universities. The need for a clear set of rules governing genetic ancestry testing is becoming more urgent, Lee said, given the proliferation of private corporations that promise consumers insight into their genetic origins. ...> Full Article

Native Americans descended from a single ancestral group, DNA study confirms (5/1/2009)

DNA evidence shows that Native Americans and Greenlanders are more closely related to each other than to any other existing Asian populations, except those that live at the very edge of the Bering Strait ...> Full Article

First Americans arrived as 2 separate migrations, according to new genetic evidence (1/13/2009)

The first people to arrive in America traveled as at least two separate groups to arrive in their new home at about the same time, according to new genetic evidence published online on Jan. 8 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. ...> Full Article

Tahitian vanilla originated in Maya forests, says botanist (8/22/2008)

Team identifies enigmatic orchid's origins; traces its Pacific voyage via Spanish and French trading ships ...> Full Article

Y chromosome study sheds light on Athapaskan migration to southwest U.S. (7/16/2008)

A large-scale genetic study of native North Americans offers new insights into the migration of a small group of Athapaskan natives from their subarctic home in northwest North America to the southwestern United States ...> Full Article

Rewriting Greenland's immigration history (5/30/2008)

The first immigrants in Greenland were not Indians from the North American continent or Canadian Inuit as previously suggested ...> Full Article

Getting to the Roots of Sunflower Cultivation (5/23/2008)

Genetic information from ancient stocks could help address effects of global warming on valuable food crop ...> Full Article

The first humans went to America earlier than was thought (4/16/2008)

With the aid of DNA analysis of 14,500-year-old feces, researchers have now been able to show that American Indians were present in America earlier than has long been thought ...> Full Article

Archaeologist find pre-Clovis human DNA (4/4/2008)

Human DNA from dried excrement recovered from Oregon's Paisley Caves is the oldest found yet in the New World -- dating to 14,300 years ago, some 1,200 years before Clovis culture -- and provides apparent genetic ties to Siberia or Asia ...> Full Article

Humans inhabited New World's doorstep for 20,000 years (2/14/2008)

The human journey from Asia to the New World was interrupted by a 20,000-year layover in Beringia, a once-habitable region that today lies submerged under the icy waters of the Bering Strait. ...> Full Article

Gene study adds weight to theory that native people of the Americas arrived in a single main migration across the Bering Strait (11/28/2007)

Researchers analyze 678 genetic markers in 29 native populations ...> Full Article

Archaeology Team Discovers First Ancient Manioc Fields In Americas (8/24/2007)

A University of Colorado at Boulder team excavating an ancient Maya village in El Salvador buried by a volcanic eruption 1,400 years ago has discovered an ancient field of manioc, the first evidence for cultivation of the calorie-rich tuber in the New World. ...> Full Article

Student's Discovery Could Help Rewrite Prehistory (8/13/2007)

A little boy's natural curiosity may have turned up archeological evidence that the earliest Native Americans came from Europe, not Asia. ...> Full Article

U.S.-Cuban Dig Seeks Insight Into People Columbus Encountered (8/6/2007)

Researchers in an ongoing U.S.-Cuban archaeological expedition, co-led by The University of Alabama, are attempting to learn more about the native people Christopher Columbus encountered on his first voyage to the New World. ...> Full Article

Anthropologist Researches Monacan Tribe (7/1/2007)

Karenne Wood carries with her a responsibility that most anthropologists never consider. As a Monacan Indian, she brings her people along with her wherever she goes. This includes into the halls of academia, which, when it comes to cultural research, has not always been kind to Native Americans. ...> Full Article

Students Dig Into Iroquois Culture (6/30/2007)

The hot, dirty and exacting conditions of fieldwork can be a love-it-or-hate-it proposition for archaeologists and anthropologists. ...> Full Article