For the archetypal time, a people successful the U.S. has led probe utilizing DNA to amusement their ancestral transportation to Chaco Canyon, 1 of the past centers of Pueblo civilization and society.
The members of Picuris Pueblo, a sovereign federation successful New Mexico, person oral histories and taste traditions that nexus them to the portion of Chaco Canyon.
“We’ve been telling our stories arsenic agelong arsenic clip immemorial,” said Picuris Lt. Gov. Craig Quanchello. But helium said those traditions were often "overlooked and erased."
As members of the Picuris Pueblo question a greater dependable successful shaping decisions astir the aboriginal of Chaco Canyon, wherever debates astir lipid and state drilling loom, leaders including Quanchello decided that utilizing DNA sequencing to complement oregon corroborate their oral histories could beryllium a utile tool. The radical began a collaboration with an planetary squad of geneticists.
"The DNA could assistance america protect" our heritage, helium said. "Now we tin say, ‘This is ours, we request to support it.’"
The findings, published Wednesday successful the diary Nature, amusement adjacent links betwixt the genomes of 13 existent members of Picuris and past DNA recovered from 16 Picuris individuals who lived betwixt 1300 A.D. and 1500 A.D. successful oregon adjacent Chaco Canyon.
Today the members of Picuris Pueblo unrecorded astir 170 miles westbound of Chaco Canyon, betwixt Santa Fe and Taos.
“The results amusement a beardown narration betwixt past and present-day Picuris,” said co-author Thomaz Pinotti, a geneticist astatine the University of Copenhagen.
The familial investigation was led by the Picuris. The researchers said this exemplary of collaboration contrasts with a agelong past of archaeologists and geneticists seizing and studying artifacts and remains without the consent of Indigenous groups.
“It wasn’t an casual decision” to statesman the collaboration with scientists, said co-author and Picuris Gov. Wayne Yazza. “This is life-changing data.”
There are 19 Pueblo tribes successful New Mexico. The caller survey does not refute the historical connections of different tribes to Chaco Canyon.
Chaco Culture National Historical Park is simply a UNESCO World Heritage tract managed by the U.S. National Park Service. It is celebrated for sweeping godforsaken vistas and for monumental sandstone structures — including multistory homes and ceremonial structures — built by ancestral Pueblos.
“It’s ace important that we don’t speech astir Chaco successful the class of ‘lost civilizations,’ similar the Egyptian pyramids oregon Stonehenge,” said Paul Reed, a preservation archaeologist astatine Archaeology Southwest, who was not progressive successful the study. That conception "is peculiarly damaging successful this lawsuit due to the fact that it disenfranchises the Pueblo radical who unrecorded each astir the canyon to this day.”
Brian Vallo, a subordinate of the Acoma Pueblo who leads the Chaco Heritage Tribal Association, said a existent interest revolves astir drilling and mining permits connected national onshore adjacent to the park, which besides interaction the situation wrong the canyon.
“We person these adjacent connections due to the fact that our ancestors migrated and built these places –- they stay cardinal to the preservation of our ain Indigenous culture,” said Vallo, who was not portion of the research.
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