title: 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 8,340-9,200 calibrated years before present (BP). His population affinities have been the subject of scientific debate and legal controversy. Based on an 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 permitted. 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 Americans. 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 for 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 are available for comparison, several seem 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 genome-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.
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark.|Department of Genetics, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Littlefield Center, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Morten
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sikora
authors.affiliation: The Bioinformatics Centre, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Ole Maaloes Vej 5, DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark.
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Albrechtsen
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark.
authors.forename: Thorfinn Sand
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Korneliussen
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark.
authors.forename: J Víctor
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Moreno-Mayar
authors.affiliation: Program in Biomedical Informatics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: G David
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Poznik
authors.affiliation: Anthropological Institute, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Christoph P E
authors.initials: CPE
authors.lastname: Zollikofer
authors.affiliation: Anthropological Institute, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Marcia Ponce
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: de León
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark.
authors.forename: Morten E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Allentoft
authors.affiliation: The Bioinformatics Centre, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Ole Maaloes Vej 5, DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark.
authors.forename: Ida
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Moltke
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark.
authors.forename: Hákon
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jónsson
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark.|Department of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3086, Australia.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Valdiosera
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology and Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 209F Davenport Hall, 607 Matthews Avenue, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Ripan S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Malhi
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark.
authors.forename: Ludovic
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Orlando
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Littlefield Center, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.|Center for Evolutionary and Human Genomics, Stanford University, Littlefield Center, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Carlos D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Bustamante
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark.|AMS 14C Dating Centre, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Aarhus, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
authors.forename: Thomas W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Stafford
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275, USA.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Meltzer
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark.|Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, 4134 Valley Life Sciences Building, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Rasmus
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark.
authors.forename: Eske
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Willerslev
mesh_terms: D000569:Americas; D015894:Genome, Human / Q000235:genetics; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D010802:Phylogeny; D012863:Skeleton; D012886:Skull / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D014861:Washington