Deep Ancestry

Spencer Wells was the keynote speaker for the annual NMDP Council Meeting in 2007. Through a partnership with National Geographic and IBM, he represents The Genographic Project. His team uses "genetic and computational technologies to analyze historical patterns in DNA from participants around the world to better understand our human genetic roots. The three components of the project are: to gather field research data in collaboration with indigenous and traditional peoples around the world; to invite the general public to join the project by purchasing a Genographic Project Public Participation Kit; and to use proceeds from Genographic Public Participation Kit sales to further field research and the Genographic Legacy Fund which in turn supports indigenous conservation and revitalization projects. The Project is anonymous, non-medical, non-profit and all results will be placed in the public domain following scientific peer publication."
https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/07/genographic200707

I purchased a Genographic Project Public Participation Kit as a Christmas gift for BaPa EIO in 2007. He submitted his DNA via buccal swabs and learned that he and generations of Hamann men before him descend from Haplogroup H. "Ancestors of haplogroup H migrated along the steppe superhighway from the Middle East around 45,000 years ago, continuing toward India. On this journey, a boy was born approximately 30,000 years ago with the M69 marker, which came to define this new lineage. Although M69 is known as an "Indian Marker," this male ancestor may have been born in southern central Asia. His descendants were part of the first major inland settlement of India.

Geneticists believe that haplogroup H might have originated somewhere along the migration route of peoples carrying the M20 Y-chromosome marker (Haplogroup L). The peoples of these clans migrated along the steppe highway from the Middle East, and then moved south into India.

These were not the first humans to arrive in India, but they likely undertook the first major settlement of the region some 30,000 years ago. The earliest waves of African migrants had traveled along the Indian coastline 50,000 to 60,000 years before; some settled along the coastal route, but inland areas were largely populated by H members coming down from the north."

I learned on Sunday during our visit to Hill City that two of Grandma Shirley's (Christianson) siblings, Dale and Suzanne, have also participated in the project.

The male Christiansons are descendants of Haplogroup R1b (M269). "Around 30,000 years ago, a descendant of the clan making its way into Europe gave rise to marker M343, the defining marker of haplogroup R1b. These travelers are direct descendants of the people who dominated the human expansion into Europe, the Cro-Magnon. The Cro-Magnon created the famous cave paintings found in southern France, providing archaeological evidence of a blossoming of artistic skills as people moved into Europe. Prior to this, artistic endeavors were mostly comprised of jewelry made of shell, bone, and ivory; primitive musical instruments; and stone carvings. The cave paintings depict animals and natural events important to Paleolithic life such as spring molting, hunting, and pregnancy. The paintings are far more intricate, detailed, and colorful than anything seen prior to this period."

Suzanne and the Christianson women (Grandma Shirley, Wendy, Laura), or perhaps more accurately, the Richards (Edna) women, descend from Haplogroup X. "Haplogroup X is primarily composed of two distinct subgroups, X1 and X2, whose widespread and sporadic distribution have been the cause of much debate. X1 is largely found in North and East Africa. The other subgroup, X2, is spread widely though out western Eurasia. X2 makes up around 2 percent of the European mtDNA lineages and is more strongly present in the Near East, Caucasus region, and Mediterranean Europe. In some western Eurasian groups, it is found at significant frequencies of 10 to 25 percent, though this is likely due to expansion events following the last ice age around 15,000 years ago.

The real controversy surrounding haplogroup X is its place as one of the five haplogroups found in the indigenous peoples of the Americas, where it is found exclusively in North America at varying frequencies. In the Ojibwa from the Great lakes region it is found at around 25 percent, in the Sioux at around 15 percent, the Nuu-Chah-Nulth at more than 10 percent, and in the Navajo at 7 percent. But X2 is almost entirely absent from Siberia, the proposed land route of the first migrations into the New World.

Unlike the four main native American haplogroups (A, B, C and D), haplogroup X is entirely absent in East Asian populations, indicating that it played no role in colonizing of those regions. However, its age estimate in the Americas, around 15,000 years old, does indicate that members of this group were among the first modern humans there. One group in southern Siberia has been found containing X lineages, but the almost identical sequences in these individuals indicate that these X-bearing individuals are the result of recent gene flow into the area during the more recent Neolithic expansions of agriculturalists.

The widespread geographic distribution of this haplogroups, and its virtual absence in Siberia despite a prevalence among some Native American groups, promises to remain the focus of much scientific interest as anthropologists look to re-create the migrations that first brought humans to all corners of the globe."

Hopefully, in learning more about our common ancestry, we are better able to appreciate our differences. Maybe, just maybe, it will help us remember we are all brothers and sisters on this journey...so we can stop fighting, persecuting...and killing each other.