Mitochondrial DNA and Prehistoric Settlements: Native Migrations on the Western Edge of North America

Human Biology, Feb 2004 by Eshleman, Jason A, Malhi, Ripan S, Johnson, John R, Kaestle, Frederika A, Et al

Alternatively, the Washo, Yuman, and Takic similarities may be seen as more generally similar of Southwestern desert populations, which likewise share relatively high frequencies of haplogroup C (Malhi et al. 2003). The Washo likely inhabited parts of the southern Sierra Nevada and Great Basin, closer to Yuman populations, before the Numic spread (V. Golla, personal communication, 2002). If so, regional patterning would explain the similarities.

No close genetic ties are evident between Chumashan peoples and either Yuman or Washo, although all were once hypothesized to be linguistically related within the wider scope of Hokan (Dixon and Kroeber 1919; Sapir 1929). That Chumashan-Hokan language ties have largely been dismissed (Campbell 1997; Mithun 1999) is consistent with the mitochondrial evidence, which shows sharp divides between the Chumash on the one hand and the Washo and Yumans on the other. The mtDNA diversity of Northern Hokan populations is known only through a limited sample (n = 6) (Kaestle and Smith 2001; Lorenz and Smith 1996) but appears rather divergent from the Chumash, because haplogroup A, the frequency of which approaches 50% in the Chumash, is yet unknown among the Northern Hokan. If both the Northern Hokan and Chumash were members of a common mtDNA gene pool in which the frequency of haplogroup A was 0.5, then the probability of sampling 6 individuals, none of whom were members of haplogroup A, is (0.5)6, or less than 0.016. Although the Washo, Yuman, and Northern Hokan groups might descend from a common genetic stock consistent with the Hokan language hypothesis, it is unlikely that the Chumash are closely related to any of these populations.