Collection: Directories and Documents > Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection

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Title: Genetics, Linguistics, and Prehistoric Migrations [DNA Analysis] Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection # of Pages: 32 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

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32 — Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology . Vol. 26, No. 1 (2006) period, perhaps 5,000 years ago, noting the geographic distribution of certain distinctive items of material culture throughout much of the range known to have been occupied historically by Uto-Aztecan speakers (Raab and Howard 2002). The coming of age of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genetic research by human biologists has provided an important new means of examining past migrations in many parts of North America (see Eshleman and Smith, in press). Mitochondrial DNA is inherited only maternally, so over many centuries mutations gradually accumulate in daughter lineages, making it possible to reconstruct ancestral types and derived lineages and relate these to one another. All of the mtDNA lineages in the Americas are associated with five recognized “haplogroups” that originated earlier in prehistory among human populations in Asia (Eshleman, Malhi, and Smith 2003; Merriwether 2002; Schurr 2004; Torroni 2000). Observations of genetic affinities between ancient peoples and ethnographically documented groups have been matched with archaeological and linguistic evidence to reconstruct population movements that led to patterns observed at the time of European contact (Eshleman, Malhi, and Smith 2003; Eshleman et al. 2004; Kaestle and Smith 2001; Kemp et al. in press; Lorenz and Smith 1996, 1997; Malhi, Schulz, and Smith 2001; Malhi et al. 2002, 2003, 2004; O’Rourke, Hayes, and Carlyle 2000; Rubicz et al. 2003; Schurr 2004). Over the past thirteen years, the two coauthors of this study have collaborated to study the mtDNA from 126 separate California Indian matrilines (direct female lineages). These lineages have been traced through genealogical methods to specific native groups, mostly in south-central and southern California, thus providing a new database that elucidates the mosaic of genetic relationships in the region. This paper will use the sequences of the principal mtDNA hypervariable segment (HIVS1) of 121 of these lineages in its analysis. Earlier publications of portions of these data (Lorenz and Smith 1996, 1997) and subsequent unpublished additions have been used in a number of comparative studies of native North American genetic relationships (e.g., Eshleman 2002; Eshleman et al. 2004; Kaestle and Smith 2001; Kowta 2003; Malhi et al. 2002, 2003; O’Rourke, Hayes, and Carlyle 2000). Continuing genealogical research has revised the ethnolinguistic group affiliations of some of these previously reported samples, and the accumulation of additional samples has augmented our database significantly. The expanded and refined database produced by our continuing efforts now provides us with a clearer picture of mtDNA diversity among California Indian groups than has heretofore been available. LANGUAGE CHANGE IN CALIFORNIA PREHISTORY At the time of European contact, California was made up of a veritable patchwork of local groups often called tribelets (Kroeber 1963). In some regions, especially in areas of higher population density supported by fishing economies, there existed different levels of sociocultural integration and hierarchical relations among these local groups (Bean 1978; Johnson 1988, 2000; Jorgensen 1980). Contributing to the cultural mosaic represented by different tribelets and regional differences in sociopolitical organization was a high degree of linguistic differentiation. Some 88 distinct languages were spoken between the southern tip of Baja California and Oregon (Goddard 1996a, 1996b; Laylander 1997; Mithun 1999). These have been classified into fourteen language families and seven isolate languages. A number of these families and individual languages traditionally have been grouped into two macro-units or superfamilies, Hokan and Penutian, although the reality of these larger taxonomic entities remains hypothetical and is a subject of current investigation and debate among specialists in comparative linguistics. One interpretation is that these macro-units appear to represent ancient language families that became dispersed and evolved into descendant families and isolated languages through linguistic processes (Golla 2000a). Linguists and archaeologists have been interested in explaining the distribution of languages in the Pacific Coast region and adjacent Great Basin and have devoted much effort to reconstructing linguistic prehistory and proposing likely cultural processes (e.g., Bettinger and Baumhoff 1982; Breschini 1983; Bright and Bright 1976; Golla 2000b; Hill 2002; Hughes 1992; Jackson 1989; King 1986; Krantz 1977; Levy 1997; Madsen and Rhode 1994; Moratto 1984; Nichols 1988; Whistler 1977, 1978, 1988). It is often assumed that populations speaking related languages might share genetic lineages in common, because they once had belonged to the same group