Remember when Mormons used to claim Native Americans were descendants of the Lost Ten Tribes and that your DNA would magically become Jewish after baptism and other ridiculous nonsense?

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https://www.dw.com/en/dna-study-fills-gaps-in-indigenous-americans-ancestry/a-72558361

The first people to colonize the Americas migrated from modern-day Russia about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago, a new study has found.

Published on May 15 in the journal Science, the study suggests the languages ​​and traditions of Indigenous groups living in the Americas today can be traced back to these early settlers. Traces of their cultures exist in the genes of modern Indigenous groups.

The study also found that the early settlers split into groups that became isolated in different environmental settings. The findings provide a new genetic and cultural understanding of present-day South American communities, said the researchers.

"[It fills] key gaps in our understanding of how the diverse populations of present-day South America came to be," said Elena Gusareva, the study's lead author, who is based at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Gusareva said the participants in the study had been "deeply motivated" to uncover their people's history, showing the importance of ancestral knowledge for people's identities.

The researcher cited an "urgent case" involving the Kawesqar people of Patagonia, whose population and 6,000-year-old cultural heritage is in danger of disappearing. "This genetic record is one of the last chances to preserve their legacy."

Tracing how these genetic codes changed in people from different geographical regions and various Indigenous groups allowed them to study patterns of population history, migration and adaptation over thousands of years.

"Our genetic analysis of Indigenous groups is crucial because their genomes carry unique insights into the earliest human history in the region," said Gusareva's colleague, Hie Lim Kim, a geneticist at Nanyang Technological University.

Their analysis appears to corroborate existing archaeological evidence, showing the first peoples in the Americas diverged from North Eurasians between 19,300 and 26,800 years ago.

The dates are "consistent with a large body of archaeological evidence," said Francisco Javier Aceituno, an archaeologist at the University of Antioquia, Colombia, who was not involved in the new study.

By comparing genetic datasets, the researchers said they had been able to find the closest living relatives of Indigenous North Americans are west Beringian groups, such as the Inuit, Koryaks and Luoravetlans. Beringia was an ice bridge between modern-day Russia and North America during the last ice age.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2025 07:19AM by anybody.

https://www.wrs.edu/assets/docs/topics/Mormons_and_DNA.pdf



Western Reformed Seminary (www.wrs.edu)
MORMONS AND DNA
John A. Battle, Th.D.


One of Mormonism’s key doctrines is under increasing attack, and the coup de grace
may now have been delivered. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints teaches that all
the Native American tribes are descended from a Jewish family who came to these uninhabited
continents in the sixth century before Christ. Here Christ himself visited them after his
resurrection. For years scientists have been questioning this belief, and now DNA evidence
demonstrates conclusively that this belief is false.

Here's a possible rewrite for the Book of Mormon title page:

"Lehi and his descendants are among the ancestors of well.. uh...nobody"