Multimedia Reporting (Adler-Noland)

People first arrived in North America about 20,000 years ago, but many details of what happened between then and now remain a mystery. One University of Kansas professor is trying to put this puzzle together.

Dr. Michael Crawford, a KU Professor of Anthropology, is heading a study about the migration of people in the Aleutian Islands, near Alaska. The study compared DNA of ancient Aleut civilizations with DNA of contemporary Aleuts. Two teams worked together on the study. Crawford and his KU team analyzed the contemporary DNA. Dennis O’Rourke, a former KU student who is now a professor at the University of Utah, led the team that studied the ancient DNA. Crawford said the purpose of the study was to find out where the Aleuts came from, when they migrated to the North America, and how they got there.

“I was very interested in trying to figure out where Native Americans come from,” Crawford said.

Through the research, Crawford and his team found that the Aleuts closely related genetically to the people of the Chukchi region of Siberia, more commonly known as Siberian Eskimos. This contradicts previous beliefs that the Aleuts descended from the Alaskan Eskimos of northern Alaska. Previous knowledge was that the Aleuts traveled with the Alaskan Eskimos when they migrated to North America 9,000 years ago, and broke off to head south to the Aleutian Islands. The team found that the Aleuts migrated much later, 3,000 to 3,500 years ago. Through the DNA analysis, the team was also able to see that the Aleuts migrated to the islands from the east.

“The timing and routes of these migrations had been mostly revealed through the archaeological record, but now, with our growing proficiency at characterizing the human genome, demographic signatures hidden at the DNA level are being uncovered and are contributing to our complex evolutionary picture,” said Mark Zlojutro, one of Crawford’s Graduate Research Assistants.

The Aleut DNA also showed diversity in Y-chromosomes, which is the male sex gene in DNA. However, they did not find the same variation in the female gene. Rohina Rubicz, Graduate Research Assistant and part of Crawford’s team, said that this was likely due to Russian fur traders and Scandinavian fishermen moving into the area.

“The study can provide information about the peopling of the Americas; it can also provide information about the genetic consequences of cultural collision,” Rubicz said.

Crawford and the KU team, comprised of about eight people, conducted all of their DNA analysis in the labs on campus. Members of the team also made several trips to the Aleutian Islands to collect samples. The National Science Foundation funded all of the research.

“The results of the KU Aleut Project contribute to the science community’s growing understanding of human evolutionary history,” Zlojutro said.

Crawford has been making his mark in the Biological Anthropology field for some time. He has been conducting research in the arctic area for more than 30 years. He began his research in St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, in 1976. Throughout his eight years of work in the Aleutian Islands, Crawford has periodically posted his findings on the PubMed Central website. Crawford’s Aleut research was featured in the March-April, 2007, issue of the American Journal of Human Biology.

“We, like many people, are interested in learning about the history of population. Mike’s work, in particular, has contributed to answering these questions. He is one of the most prominent people in the field,” O’Rourke said.

Crawford said that a book cataloging his findings is in the works. He said that the Utah University Press will be putting the book out as a part of its Arctic Series, and that it should be going into press sometime in May.