The ancestry and affiliations of Kennewick Man

Abstract

Kennewick Man, referred to as the Ancient One by Native Americans, is a male human skeleton discovered in Washington state (USA) in 1996 and initially radiocarbon-dated to 8340–9200 calibrated years BP1. His population affinities have been the subject of scientific debate and legal controversy. Based on initial study of cranial morphology it was asserted that Kennewick Man was neither Native American nor closely related to the Claimant Plateau tribes of the Pacific Northwest, who claimed ancestral relationship and requested repatriation under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The morphological analysis was important to judicial decisions that Kennewick Man was not Native American and that therefore NAGPRA did not apply. Instead of repatriation, additional studies of the remains were permitted2. Subsequent craniometric analysis affirmed Kennewick Man to be more closely related to circumpacific groups such as the Ainu and Polynesians than he is to modern Native Americans2. In order to resolve Kennewick Man’s ancestry and affiliations, we have sequenced his genome to ~1× coverage and compared it to worldwide genomic data including the Ainu and Polynesians. We find that Kennewick Man is closer to modern Native Americans than to any other population worldwide. Among the Native American groups for whom genome wide data is available for comparison, several appear to be descended from a population closely related to that of Kennewick Man, including the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (Colville), one of the five tribes claiming Kennewick Man. We revisit the cranial analyses and find that, as opposed to genomic-wide comparisons, it is not possible on that basis to affiliate Kennewick Man to specific contemporary groups. We therefore conclude based on genetic comparisons that Kennewick Man shows continuity with Native North Americans over at least the last eight millennia.

Deep History of East Asian Populations Revealed Through Genetic Analysis of the Ainu

“…Under this scenario, the split between the Ainu and Native American ancestors is likely to have occurred earlier than the gene flow of western Eurasian ancestry into the Native American ancestors (Raghavan et al 2014), because the Ainu and other East Asians are symmetrically related to contemporary Europeans and to the ancient MA1 sample (Table S2). However, a recent study reported no genetic affinity between the Ainu and the Kennewick man (Rasmussen et al 2015). An alternative to this scenario is that there may have been more recent gene flow between the Ainu and northeast Siberian populations ("scenario 2" in Figure 5B).…”

Ancient individuals from the North American Northwest Coast reveal 10,000 years of regional genetic continuity

“…(14). Kennewick Man also displays surprising results as an early Holocene individual who resided in the Pacific Northwest.…”

Genetic analysis of paleo-colombians from Nemocón, Cundinamarca provides insights on the early peopling of northwestern South America

“…Haplogroups observed in Checua remains, listed from highest to lowest frequency, were: A2 (N = 7), B2 (N = 3), C1 (N = 1) and D4h3a (N = 1) (see Table 2). The X2a haplogroup was not detected in Checua samples, which is not surprising since X2a is restricted to northern North America and Europe (Perego, et al 2009, Rasmussen, et al 2015. The observed haplogroups can be distinguished according to human occupation zones [I = Stratum 4, and II = Stratum 5 (Tables 1, 2)].…”