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In this study, we present the results of community-engaged ancient DNA research initiated after the remains of 36 African-descended individuals dating to the late 18th century were unearthed in the port city of Charleston, South Carolina. The Gullah Society of Charleston, along with other Charleston community members, initiated a collaborative genomic study of these ancestors of presumed enslaved status, in an effort to visibilize their histories. We generated 18 low-coverage genomes and 31 uniparental haplotypes to assess their genetic origins and interrelatedness. Our results indicate that they have predominantly West and West-Central African genomic ancestry, with one individual exhibiting some genomic affiliation with populations in the Americas. Most were assessed as genetic males, and no autosomal kin were identified among them. Overall, this study expands our understanding of the colonial histories of African descendant populations in the US South.

For decades, the peopling of the Americas has been explored through the analysis of uniparentally inherited genetic systems in Native American populations and the comparison of these genetic data with current linguistic groupings. In northern North America, two language families predominate: Eskimo-Aleut and Na-Dene. Although the genetic evidence from nuclear and mtDNA loci suggest that speakers of these language families share a distinct biological origin, this model has not been examined using data from paternally inherited Y chromosomes. To test this hypothesis and elucidate the migration histories of Eskimoan- and Athapaskan-speaking populations, we analyzed Y-chromosomal data from Inuvialuit, Gwich'in, and Tłįch populations living in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Over 100 biallelic markers and 19 chromosome short tandem repeats (STRs) were genotyped to produce a high-resolution dataset of Y chromosomes from these groups. Among these markers is an SNP discovered in the Inuvialuit that differentiates them from other Aboriginal and Native American populations. The data suggest that Canadian Eskimoan- and Athapaskan-speaking populations are genetically distinct from one another and that the formation of these groups was the result of two population expansions that occurred after the initial movement of people into the Americas. In addition, the population history of Athapaskan speakers is complex, with the Tłįch being distinct from other Athapaskan groups. The high-resolution biallelic data also make clear that Y-chromosomal diversity among the first Native Americans was greater than previously recognized.

Students of the time of entry of the ancestors of the Amerinds into the New World are divided into two camps, one favoring an "early" entry [more than approximately 30,000 years before the present (YBP)], the other favoring a "late" entry (less than approximately 13,000 YBP). An "intermediate" date is unlikely for geological reasons. The correlation of the appropriate data on mtDNA variation in Amerinds with linguistic, archaeological, and genetic data offers the possibility of establishing a time frame for mtDNA evolution in Amerinds. In this paper, we estimate that the separation of the Chibcha-speaking tribes of Central America from other linguistic groups/nascent tribes began approximately 8000-10,000 YBP. Characterization of the mtDNA of 110 Chibcha speakers with 14 restriction enzymes leads on the basis of their time depth to an estimated mtDNA nucleotide substitution rate for Amerinds of 0.022-0.029% per 10,000 years. As a first application of this rate, we consider the mtDNA variation observed in 18 Amerind tribes widely dispersed throughout the Americas and studied by ourselves with the same techniques, and we estimate that if the Amerinds entered the New World as a single group, that entry occurred approximately 22,000-29,000 YBP. This estimate carries a large but indeterminate error. The mtDNA data are thus at present equivocal with respect to the most likely times of entry of the Amerind into the New World mentioned above but favor the "early" entry hypothesis.