Founding mothers

According to National Geographic (thanks to Sally for the link), “nearly all of today’s Native Americans in North, Central, and South America can trace part of their ancestry to six women whose descendants immigrated around 20,000 years ago, a DNA study suggests.”

Those women left a particular DNA legacy that persists to today in about about 95 percent of Native Americans, researchers said.

The finding does not mean that only these six women gave rise to the migrants who crossed into North America from Asia in the initial populating of the continent, said study co-author Ugo Perego.

Not that DNA testing is conclusive, but it’s certainly an interesting thought, particularly considering Book of Mormon history. (Yes, yes, I know the dates are all off. :))

The six “founding mothers” apparently did not live in Asia because the DNA signatures they left behind aren’t found there, Perego said.

I wonder if they’d find those DNA signatures in Israel… ;)

No, really, I don’t think that any of this kind of stuff proves the Book of Mormon — it’s nowhere near solid enough for that — but it’s fun to think about. (But maybe that’s the storyteller inside me talking.)

Thoughts?

I think this is the sort of mystery that’ll be wrapped up once we get scripture from Lost Tribes and rest of the world (2 Nephi 29).
Man, being the librarian of the New Jerusalem Library… now there’s an exciting post.

Haha, I agree. :) (My question is, who’s going to translate those scriptures? Pres. Monson? The translation department? And are they going to use the Urim and Thummim? ;))

Getting back to the “founding mothers” theory, I came across an article this morning on FAIR called Amerindians as Lamanites. Good stuff there.

:-) It is an interesting concept. There have been lots of studies trying to connect Native American DNA to Israel, but there’s been a lot of changes in the genetic makeup in over 1000 years. Of course, they’ve also had a world of trouble with Asian DNA matching Native American DNA, and one of the more popular theories is that early Americans were descended from Asian travelers.

I can’t wait for the records of the 10 Tribes to come forth. Seriously, what a library that will be…. I hope it’s available digitally. ;-)

Yeah, a lot can happen in a thousand years. :) That bit about the records of the Ten Tribes is interesting; if they’re just scattered throughout the world, do we already have their records? (Personally, the storyteller in me wants them to return in the opposite of an exodus, a grand immigration en masse back from wherever they are, with fanfare and all. That would be awesome. But I have a feeling it may be a lot more subdued. ~sigh~)