Nucleotide sequence analysis of the major noncoding region of human mitochondrial DNA from various races was extended with 72 Native Americans from 16 different local populations (nine populations from Chile, four from Colombia, and one each from Brazil and from Maya and Apache Indians). The sequences were determined directly from the polymerase chain reaction products. On the basis of a compar...

The eHumanity Project, developed by Indiana University in collaboration with the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), aims to create an evolving online cultural repository for the native tribes of the North American continent. By establishing a database from the collections of the Smithsonian Natural Museum of the American Indian and Autry Southwest Museum of the American Indian...

Mainstream American culture frequently minimizes the prevalence and significance of sexual abuse. Unfortunately, this denial of extensive victimization of women is also present in many underserved populations. In June 2007, Amnesty International released its report on sexual abuse in indigenous women, which states that, "One in three Native American or Alaska Native women will be raped at some ...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions and knowledge of, and access to, Papanicolaou (Pap) testing among Hispanic and Native-American women. DESIGN A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted by surveying Hispanic and Native-American women. The survey was developed with the constructs of the Preventive Health Model and was designed to assess background charac...

Before the arrival of the Spaniards in Nicaragua, diverse Native American groups inhabited the territory. In colonial times, Native Nicaraguan populations interacted with Europeans and slaves from Africa. To ascertain the extent of this genetic admixture and provide genetic evidence about the origin of the Nicaraguan ancestors, we analyzed the mitochondrial control region (HVSI and HVSII), 17 Y...

An accurate estimate of the divergence time between Native Americans is important for understanding the initial entry and early dispersion of human beings in the New World. Current methods for estimating the genetic divergence time of populations could seriously depart from a linear relationship with the true divergence for multiple populations of a different population size and significant pop...

South America has a complex demographic history shaped by multiple migration and admixture events in pre- and post-colonial times. Settled over 14,000 years ago by Native Americans, South America has experienced migrations of European and African individuals, similar to other regions in the Americas. However, the timing and magnitude of these events resulted in markedly different patterns of ad...

In this study, we explore the geographic and temporal distribution of a unique variant of the O blood group allele called O1v(G542A) , which has been shown to be shared among Native Americans but is rare in other populations. O1v(G542A) was previously reported in Native American populations in Mesoamerica and South America, and has been proposed as an ancestry informative marker. We investigate...