Dr. Theodore Schurr, an anthropologist, along with his assistant Matthew Dulik and Professor Lyudmila Osipova from the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, conducted a series of extensive studies on genetic material collected from excavations across Greater Central Eurasia. They established the genetic origin of the earliest indigenous inhabitants of North America. This region, the Altai, is where, approximately 20-25 thousand years ago, prehistoric humans carried their lineages into Siberia, and then across the Bering Strait into North America.
The research team investigated the genetics of modern Altai residents, searching for markers that could link the Altai people to the Native Americans of the USA and Canada. Prior genetic studies of the local population in Altai revealed a distinction between inhabitants of the northern and southern regions of the mountain range. Linguistically and culturally, the northern Altai people are connected to the indigenous populations of the Ural region, including the Samoyedic people, while the southern Altai people have stronger connections to the Mongols, Uyghurs, and Buryats.
Schurr and his colleagues conducted laboratory studies on mitochondrial DNA (maternal line) and Y-chromosome DNA (from father to son). They compared their samples with previously collected material from the territories of southern Siberia, Central Asia, Mongolia, East Asia, and among representatives of the major tribal groups of the indigenous population of North America. Due to the large number of genetic markers at the team’s disposal, the results of the studies have a high degree of accuracy.
In studying the Y-chromosome DNA (paternal line), the researchers discovered a unique mutation common to both Native Americans of North America and residents of Southern Altai – the Q mutation.
This same commonality was demonstrated in mitochondrial DNA, that is, the maternal lines. In the southern Altai people, haplogroups C and D were found, while in the northern population, D dominates, which are considered the «founders» of North American Native American genetics. The northern Altai people, predominantly belonging to haplogroup D, are especially closely related to Native Americans. The South Altai genotype, slightly different from that of the northern Altai people and Native Americans of North America, diverged from them about 13-14 thousand years ago, approximately at the same time when the Altai migrations to Siberia and beyond began. If Altai is unequivocally established as the Eurasian homeland of modern Native Americans, there is no geographic location in North America from which the northern Native Americans can trace their lineages back in time. This is most likely due to the fact that migrations through the region now known as the Bering Strait occurred more than once. Each time, a new wave of migrants settled in a different location, giving rise to branches like the Potomac (in the eastern USA), Apache (central USA), Tohono O’odham (Arizona and northern Mexico), and other major tribes and clans of indigenous North America. This can also include the Hopi culture in the southern USA and the Oceola-Seminole in Florida.
