By Canadian Press

DNA analysis suggests Dene descended from first North Americans

Jun 5, 2019 | 12:19 PM

Genetic research is showing that the Indigenous people of Canada’s Western Arctic are descended from some of the first humans to live in North America.

A newly published paper says the Dene who live along the Mackenzie River have roots thousands of years older than previously thought.

The Dene were believed to have arrived in North America in a wave of migration from Siberia about 5,000 years ago.

DNA analysis suggests they in fact sprung from those migrants mixing with the continent’s earliest inhabitants, who arrived much earlier.

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That means the Dene have roots in North America going back 15,000 years.

University of Toronto archeologist Max Friesen, one of the paper’s 35 co-authors, says modern Dene still show DNA from both groups that went into their make-up.

The Canadian Press