The last known members of the Beothuk indigenous people of Newfoundland are believed to have died 200 years ago. But the genes of these people have been found today in a man living in Tennessee, the researchers reported.
Shanawdithit, a Beothuk woman who died of tuberculosis in 1829, it was the last known Beothuk. The group had thrived in Newfoundland with up to 2,000 people there, until the Europeans arrived in the early 1500s, bringing disease and pushing the Beothuk inland, away from their traditional hunting and fishing areas, leading to starvation.
However, even though the Beothuk culture it is extinct, its genes are not. The new genetic study found “identical” Beothuk genes from Shanawdithit’s uncle in a Tennessee man. They also found fairly well-matched genetic sequences in members of the modern Ojibwe people (also known as Chippewa), study researcher Steven Carr, a professor of biology at Memorial University in Newfoundland, said with a cross-citation in population genetics. with the university’s medical school.
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The idea that the Beothuk live is not surprising to other indigenous groups in the Newfoundland region. For example, the oral traditions of the Mi’kmaq First Nation (also spelled Miawpukek First Nation), a group whose history and geography overlap with that of the Beothuk, hold that Beothuk’s descendants have survived through the centuries.
Carr conducted the study, in part, because “everyone wonders what happened to the Beothuk,” he said. “There are people who claim to be descendants of the Beothuk Indians,” even though they have no evidence to support those family ties. For example, in 2017, a woman in North Carolina claimed to be a descendant of Beothuk after a company of commercial descent, using incomplete data, wrongly suggested this descent, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
New findings about an old culture.
In a previous study, published in 2017 in the journal Current biologyThe researchers reported that there was no close genetic relationship between three First Nations groups in Newfoundland: the Archaic Maritime, which lived in Newfoundland approximately 8,000 to 3,400 years ago before mysteriously disappearing; the Paleoeskimal, who visited and then lived in Newfoundland some 3,800 to 1,000 years ago, which means that they overlapped with the Maritime Archaic and the Beothuk; and the Beothuk, who lived in Newfoundland some 2,000 to 200 years ago.
In the new study, published April 13 in the journal. GenomeCarr re-analyzed the already published genetic data from the Beothuk. In a nutshell, he looked at mitochondrial DNA (genetic data transmitted from mothers to offspring) taken from the archaeological remains of 18 Beothuk individuals and the skulls of Aunt and Uncle of Shanawdithit, Demasduit and Nonosabasut, respectively. (These skulls had been stolen in 1828 and sent to the University of Edinburgh, but were repatriated to Newfoundland in March after a long campaign by the Mi’kmaq and other indigenous groups, according to the Guardian.)
Carr searched for matches with Beothuk’s mitochondrial DNA on GenBank, a database administered by the US National Institutes of Health that is packed with DNA sequences from research projects conducted around the world, as well as from people who they use commercial DNA test.
The search showed that a Tennessee man had mitochondrial DNA that matched Nonosabasut, Carr said. The man told Carr that he had tracked down his mother’s family side five generations ago, and that he was surprised by his link to the Beothuk. , as he was unaware of any relationships with First Nations on his family tree.
“Now he is extremely intrigued and will continue to search for that. [First Nations link]Carr said.
Similar to the Current Biology study, Carr discovered that the Maritime Archaic was not closely related to the Beothuk. However, the two groups share a very distant ancestor; The oldest known archaic maritime individual, who died around the age of 12 in southern Labrador about 8,000 years ago, according to an analysis of the burial, has DNA similar to the historic Beothuk, said William Fitzhugh, director of Arctic Studies. Smithsonian Institution Center, which was not involved in any of the studies.
That’s likely because the common ancestor of North America’s indigenous northeast (except for the Innu and Innuit) dates back at least 15,000 years ago, and the different groups that spanned this region likely descended from this ancestor, Carr said. However, the relationship between the Archaic Maritime and the Beothuk is distant, unlike the extremely close relationship Carr found between the Beothuk and the Tennessee man.
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The GenBank search also showed that the Beothuk and the ancient Archaic Maritime peoples of Newfoundland “share ancestry with modern Canadian Ojibwe, meaning that their genes date back to ancestral indigenous peoples in geographically more central regions [of Canada]Fitzhugh told Live Science in an email.
However, the new study is limited by sample size, Fitzhugh noted.
“One of my reactions is how complicated these DNA studies are and how dependent they are on the samples available; that the genomic analysis technology is relatively new and evolving rapidly, perhaps leading to different results,” Fitzhugh said.
Next steps
In an earlier study, Carr and his colleagues looked for genetic links between Beothuk and Mi’kmaq. But this 2017 study, published in the journal Mitochondrial DNA Part AIt was small and the results were inconclusive, Carr said.
Despite these results, the study put them on the radar of Chief Mi’sel Joe of the Mi’kmaq First Nation. “The chief was interested in his demonstrating what he believed to be true,” Carr said, that the Mi’kmaq and Beothuk had sought “family relationships” with each other before the Beothuk became culturally extinct, Joe told Live Science.
There is only one Mi’kmaq on GenBank, so the next Carr plans to work with the Mi’kmaq First Nation to determine if the Beothuk and Mi’kmaq are closely related, he said. This new study will include at least 200 or more registered Mi’kmaq people (also spelled Mig’maw), making it larger than the 2017 study, he noted. (Carr added that he is serving as principal investigator and study advisor for the Mi’kmaq in a private capacity, through his company Terra Nova Genomics. This project is being funded through a National Geographic Explorer grant to Mi’kmaq First. Nation).
The results of this study can help detail the historical relationship between the Beothuk and Mi’kmaq people.
“We share the same island [of Newfoundland] and the island really isn’t that big, “said Joe.” Of course, from time to time, our people would find them and sometimes live with them, “said Joe.” It wasn’t always friendly, “due to rivalries, but other times it was, he said.
Originally published in Live Science.
