Origins and divergence of Aleuts, Eskimos, and American Indians

The apportionment of average gene frequency differences into within and between groups of Aleuts, Eskimos and Athabascans reveals a testable model of the time of origin and differentiation of these populations. Based on the ratio of average difference between Aleuts and Eskimos, to the average difference between Bering Sea Mongoloids and Athabascans, we estimate that Athabascans diverged from Bering Sea Mongoloids at approximately 15 000 BP. The ratio of Aleut/Eskimo to Yupik/Inupiaq suggests the split between the latter occurred 5100 BP. Similarly, the within-group average gene frequency differences suggest that North American natives originated some 19 000 BP and that Bering Sea Mongoloids originated 10 200 BP. These estimates are highly concordant with independent archaeologic, linguistic and biological data.