Ancient Native American 'Twins' Had Different Mothers

Native American "twins" who died 11,500 years ago in the area that's now Alaska actually had different mothers, a new genetic analysis suggests.

The genetic lineage of one of the fake twin babies suggests all Native Americans can trace can trace their lineage to a single wave of migrants who crossed the Bering Strait, said study co-author Justin Tackney, a doctoral candidate in anthropology at the University of Utah.

Past studies had suggested that a separate wave of migrants might have entered the continent from other regions.

Murky migration history

Native Americans descend from people who first left Siberia and crossed the Bering Strait when sea levels were lower and the region formed a land bridge, sometime between 23,000 and 30,000 years ago.

But the details and timing of that process are up for debate. During the last ice age, the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered all of Canada and blocked the entrance to North America as recently as 20,000 years ago. Many geneticists and archaeologists have suggested that the ancestors of Native Americans were stuck and therefore lingered in the region between Siberia and Southern Alaska, called Beringia for millennia — a theory called the Beringia standstill hypothesis.

Though northern Alaska is now an extremely forbidding environment, at that time, "there were pockets of tundra, and maybe even forests, that large mammals and humans could actually live in, and it wasn't as harsh as it is nowadays," Tackney said. "People could eat, find food and find freshwater and survive for thousands of years."

But archaeologists and geneticists don't agree on just how long people were stuck in Beringia. And some have even argued that people came to North and South America in multiple migration waves, some of which didn't pass through Beringia.

One reason for the uncertainty is that there are no human remains that date to the probable time of the migration, and no ancient human remains from anywhere near Beringia. The earliest human remains in North America come from a child, known as the Anzick Boy, who died 12,600 years ago in what is now Montana. Other ancient remains, such as those of the Kennewick Man found in Washington, are thousands of years younger.

Ancient surprises

The recently discovered remains, which are 11,600 years old, were uncovered deep in Alaska's interior, at a site known as Upward Sun River.

"This is the oldest human remain we've found so far north," Tackney said.

The site contained the burials of three children; a cremated 3-year-old; a premature baby; and a 6-week-old infant.

The researchers analyzed the little ones' mitochondrial DNA (DNA that is passed on from mothers to their children). It turned out that the two babies, originally believed to be twins, had different mothers. (The cremated baby had no usable DNA.) One of the babies had a genetic lineage, or haplogroup, known as C1b, whereas the other had a B2 lineage, the researchers reported today (Oct. 26) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Both lineages appear in modern Native Americans, but B2 has previously been found only in tribes that currently live farther south, such as the Navajo and the Anasazi of the American Southwest.

Because the B2 lineage is common in Native Americans but has never been found in modern-day northern Siberians or North American Indians at high latitudes, some researchers have proposed that one wave of migrants from Siberia colonized the Americas, while a second colonization wave carried the B2 lineage, said Connie Mulligan, a genetics professor at the University of Florida in Gainesville, who was not involved in the study. But the new findings nix that notion, she said.

The new result "really solidifies the argument for a single migration by showing that all major New World mitochondrial haplogroups can be found in ancient populations in the New World at the right time and in the right place," Mulligan told Live Science.

The genetic data suggests that the ancestors of modern people with the B2 lineage came across the Bering Strait, whereas their ancestral population in Siberia died out, she added.

Still, the new study can't settle the debate about how long people hung out in Beringia, Tackney said. Native Americans reached a site in southern Chile, called Monte Verde, 14,800 years ago, meaning the migration out of Beringia occurred at least 3,000 years before these ancient babies died.

Completing the timeline for the settlement of the Americas would require finding older human remains in the Beringia heartland — which is unlikely, given that most of that territory is now covered by ocean, he said.
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Reference:

Ghose, Tia. 2016. “Ancient Native American 'Twins' Had Different Mothers”. Live Science. Posted: October 26, 2015. Available online: http://www.livescience.com/52582-alaskan-burials-genetic-history.html

Language 'evolution' may shed light on human migration out-of-Beringia: Relationship between Siberian, North American languages

Evolutionary analysis applied to the relationship between North American and Central Siberian languages may indicate that people moved out from the Bering Land Bridge, with some migrating back to central Asia and others into North America, according to a paper published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on March 12, 2014 by Mark Sicoli, from Georgetown University and Gary Holton from University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Languages evolve slowly overtime and may even follow human migratory patterns. A proposed language family known as the Dené-Yeniseian suggests that there are common language elements between the North American Na-Dene languages and the Yeniseian languages of Central Siberia. To investigate this further, scientists employed a technique originally developed to investigate evolutionary relationships between biological species called phylogenetic analysis, where a tree is constructed to represent relationships of common ancestry based on shared traits. Scientists used linguistic phylogeny to work out how approximately 40 languages from the area diffused across North America and Asia. The authors first coded a linguistic dataset from the languages, modeled the relationship between the data, and then modeled it against migration patterns from Asia to North America, or out-of-Beringia.

Results show an early dispersal of Na-Dene along the North American coast with a Yeniseian back migration through Siberia and a later dispersal of North American interior Na-Dene languages. Sicoli explained, "we used computational phylogenetic methods to impose constraints on possible family tree relationships modeling both an Out-of-Beringia hypothesis and an Out-of-Asia hypothesis and tested these against the linguistic data. We found substantial support for the out-of-Beringia dispersal adding to a growing body of evidence for an ancestral population in Beringia before the land bridge was inundated by rising sea levels at the end of the last ice age."

Although the authors cannot conclusively determine the migration pattern just from these results, and state that this study does not necessarily contradict the popular tale of hunters entering the New World through Beringia, it at the very least indicates that migration may not have been a one-way trip. This work also helps demonstrate the usefulness of evolutionary modeling with linguistic trees for investigating these types of questions.

These finding suggest that phylogenetics may be used to explore the implications of deep linguistic relationships.
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References:

Science Daily. 2014. “Language 'evolution' may shed light on human migration out-of-Beringia: Relationship between Siberian, North American languages”. Science Daily. Posted: March 12, 2014. Available online: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140312182018.htm

Aleutian Ikyax aka Baidarka

(Note that sound was disabled at the source i.e. YouTube.)
Note that no nails were harmed in the making of the ikyax. There are no fixed joints, which makes the craft ocean ready as demonstrated at the beginning of this video.

There is a rich heritage of Indigenous people’s traversing the oceans of the world. These voyages were not merely shadowing the coast, but actual trips into the vastness, hundreds of miles from shores. According to Balick and Cox [1996, pp.100 - 101] these journeys were more frequent than the much described Norse voyages. In fact, the journeys helped to populate the Polynesian islands, “and the precise star course has been preserved in chants.” [Ibid. p.101] Going northwards, one comes across a string of barren, desolate islands separating the Old World from the New. These are the Aleutian Islands. They sit in the North Pacific between Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula and the Alaska Peninsula.

“Island vegetation reflects the varying landform characteristics. Vegetation at the more exposed higher elevations support willow and crowberry dominated dwarf shrub communities. Vegetation at lower elevations, which tend to be more sheltered, comprises mesic graminoid herbaceous meadows dominated by a variety of herbs, especially bluejoint. Coastal areas tend to support dry graminoid herbaceous vegetation, while bogs are home to low scrub species (Ricketts et al. 1999). Introduced spruce constitutes the only tree species to be found in the ecoregion.” [3. Aleutian Islands. 2003.]

This describes the home of the Aleutian Island people. They are the makers of an ocean-going canoe that they use for whaling, sealing and other fishing activities. It is better known by its Russian name, baidarka (pronounced Bye-dark-uh), but the Aleutian islanders call the single baidarka, Ikyax and the double/treble Uluxtax, (prounounced oo-look-tock). There are two striking features of the ikyax. The first is the design of the vessel and the second is the framing.

The ikyax has a unique design to it that makes it a formidable vehicle in the water, but awkward when not being used. It is light enough for a child to carry it. Traditionally the Aleut used one and two-holed ikyax/uluxtax. However, once the Russians discovered them, they were encouraged to design a three-holed uluxtax. (This design allowed the Aleut to ferry missionaries, traders, and so on).

Experienced kayakers and kayak builders were skeptical of its design being functional at all. George Dyson, a leading expert on the ikyax is responsible for bringing back the boat after an 80-year absence. For his project to build a ikyax, he used the traditional structure, but his own materials. The first test was the design. He wanted to learn why the boat had such an odd design. That “odd” feature of the ikyax is the bifurcate bow. That is, it is forked or split into two distinct parts. The top piece is straight, following the shape of the canoe, but it stops short and is has a flat end. From below, from the keel line the bottom fork follows the line and curves upwards as one would expect. Looking at the stem of the boat, one sees another difference. The stem “seems to stop suddenly in a small vertical ‘fin’.” [Baker, 2003]

The University of Houston’s College of Engineering produced a series that included a discussion of the ikyax. In their discourse, they talked about the forked prow of the ikyax.
“The prow, for example, is forked with two tines, one above the other. We’d thought that was traditional decoration. Now we see the lower tine is deep and narrow. It cuts into the water and stabilizes the boat. The top is flat – it planes over waves for a smoother ride.” [Lienhard, 1988]

The second feature of its design is the overall flexibility of the design. The joints, including the lashings were formed so that there was movement. Even the keel was built in three pieces so that it could flex. The craft was designed to move with the water, not in spite of it.

The second feature is the framing. The traditional ikyax was framed with carved driftwood. There are no natural trees on the Aleutians that are big enough to frame this boat. The islanders have adopted a cultural pattern that relies on the randomness of driftwood arriving on their shores. The driftwood is collected and then steam-bent to shape the ribs, keel, etc. The frame is then covered in sealskin sewn with sinew.

The ikyax was not decorated on the outside. The driftwood was dyed red with most likely red hematite, but only part of this was seen when the skin was put on the frame. One researcher asked about the colour, but the informant did not know why the colour red was used for the frame. There were “decorative” markings on the wood in the interior of the vessel, but there is only speculation as to what their purpose is. These “spirit lines” were carved into the gunwale. Although they’ve been referred to as “spirit lines” some ikyax enthusiasts were more inclined to interpret them as assembly instructions, “this end up, insert in slot B” etc. [Kohut, 1999] Wolfgang Brinck mentions in an earlier post that he made up the term for his book on the subject. [Brinck, 1999] However, there was a spiritual connection between pilot and craft.

“In Aleut oral tradition the kayak was his male hunting partner, to share
there lives together, even in marriage. When the hunter rose in the morning
to greet the sun he greeted his kayak and shared the nights activities in
spoken word. They were bound together truely. They would either share the
same grave or be LOST at Sea.” [Monge, 1997 quoting from Lamblin, 1980]

The above comment regarding the gunwales alludes to the way the ikyan were manufactured. The men gathered in a building and began to assemble the pieces for the vessel. The women’s job was to sew together the seal-skins for the coverings. They worked elsewhere and not in the place where the men were working.

“From QAYAQ by DW Zimmerly:

"As the last flap is sewn the now naked owner, accompanied by all men present, sings his childbirth song to his new kaiak."
…
"The owner washes the cover with urine to remove any oil that may adhere to the surface."

George Dyson says that the Aleutian Islanders tinkered with their design over the years and even when the Russians arrived at their islands, they accepted some of the changes they brought. These include a rudder, sail and three-holes. The rudder as adapted was more of a “trim tab to counteract wind and currents. Steering was usually done with the paddle.” [Zimmerly, 1983. p.83] The sails were also used to help the heavier three-man boats sail further and faster.

But the bifurcated frame stayed the same. For all the Indigenous watercraft in the area, it is surprising that there is no replication of design. The Aleutian Islanders are the sole users of the ikyax, while their mainland counterparts use several different styles of kayaks. There are also other boats used by all these people for other uses.

It is amazing that for a woodless terrain, the Aleutian islanders have designed such a unique craft with a random resource. They are fully connected to their environment and understand the implications of their existence. Yet, they have engineered the perfect vessel that can take them from their barren land into the life-giving sea using the resources of the sea, drift wood and sea mammals.

When the Aleut rise in the morning, they stand naked facing the East, inhaling the light and air and cry; “I do not sleep. I am alive. I face you, the life-giving light, and will always live with you.” [Lienhard, 1997 as taken from Veniaminov, 1980]

References:

“3. Aleutian Islands Tundra. : Landscape Description And History”. CBI – Eco Region Assessment. April 2003. Conservation Biology Institute. November 22, 2003.

Balick, Michael J. and Paul Alan Cox. Plants, People, and Culture: The Science of Ethnobotany. New York:Scientific American Library. 1996.

Baker, Shawn W. “Baidarka”. Kayak Forum. January 29, 2003. Kayak Wiki. October 28, 2003.

Baselt, Randall. “Questions re skin completion ritual” Baidarka Mailing List. January 29, 2003. Baidarka Mailing List Archive. October 28, 2003.

Brinck, Wolfgang. “Re: baidarka Vernon’s reply”. Baidarka Mailing List. January 12, 1999. Baidarka Mailing List Archive. October 28, 2003.

Kohut, Chris. “Re: baidarka ouchie?”. Baidarka Mailing List. July 25, 1999. Baidarka Mailing List Archive. October 28, 2003.

Lienhard, John H. “No. 669: Baidarka”. Engines of our Ingenuity. 1997. University of Houston. October 28, 2003.

Mongue, Randal. “Re: Skin Boat and Hard-shell”. Baidarka Mailing List. November 18, 1997. Baidarka Mailing List Archive. October 28, 2003.

The Dogrib Birchbark Canoe. 1997. 28 mins. Lone Woolf TV Production Services.

Zimmerly, David W. 1983. “Building the One-Hole Aleut Bidarka: Part II” in Small Boat Journal (30): 78 – 83.