Indi-gene-ous conflict.

W ith nearly two-thirds of the population afflicted, the Nuu-chah-nulth Indians of Vancouver Island in British Columbia have one of the highest rates of arthritis in the world. Often passed down family lines, the genetics of arthritis in this unique population was studied extensively during the 1980s by Richard Ward, now head of the Institute of Biological Anthropology at the University of Oxford in England. As part of his study, Ward traveled through Nuu-chah-nulth territories in 1985 and collected 833 vials of blood from subjects who signed a consent form allowing him to screen the samples for arthritis biomarkers. Ultimately, Ward never was able to find the gene he was looking for. But he kept the blood samples and, unbeknownst to his donors, used them in genetic anthropology studies that identified the Nuu-chah-nulth as a distinct indigenous population dating back nearly 70,000 years.