Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas

Chapter 8
1. Anne M. Jensen, “Nuvuk, Point Barrow, Alaska: The Thule Cemetery
and Ipiutak Occupation,” PhD diss., Bryn Mawr College, 2009,
https://repository.brynmawr.edu/dissertations/26.
2. Scott Elias, Threats to the Arctic (Elsevier, 2021).
3. Interested readers can find out more about Anne and her projects at her
blog: Out of Ice: Arctic Archaeology as Seen from Utqiaġvik (Barrow),
Alaska, https://iceandtime.net/author/ajatnuvuk.
The results from the Nuvuk ancient mitochondrial DNA project can
be found in a paper by Justin Tackney, Anne M. Jensen, Carolie
Kisielinski, et al., “Molecular Analysis of an Ancient Thule Population at
Nuvuk, Point Barrow, Alaska,” American Journal of Physical
Anthropology 168 (2019): 303– 317.
4. Justin Tackney and I briefly discuss this history in “A Different Way:
Perspectives on Human Genetic Research from the Arctic,” SAA
Archaeological Record 19, no. 2 (2019): 20–25.
5. The common term used for these peoples has long been “Paleo-E*kimo.”
However, following the lead of Max Friesen, some Arctic scholars,
including our own research group at the University of Kansas and our
collaborators (Lauren Norman, Justin Tackney, Dennis O’Rourke, Geoff
Hayes, Deborah Bolnick, Austin Reynolds, myself, and a number of
other archaeologists), have replaced it with the term Paleo-Inuit. As
Friesen writes, “the term ‘Paleo-E*kimo’ maintains the use of the root
word ‘E*kimo,’ which is often now seen as inappropriate given that it is
not a self-designation for Inuit and can be considered pejorative in some
instances. While no alternative term has gained widespread use in the
literature, a logical choice is ‘Paleo-Inuit’ since this name was advocated
by the Inuit Circumpolar Council (Resolution 2010-01), which represents
the interests of all Inuit, Iñupiat, Inuvialuit, and Yupik peoples from
Siberia to Greenland…Thus, adoption of this term allows archaeologists
a rare concrete opportunity to follow the lead of an Inuit organization,
rather than relying on ‘southern’ academic discussions of which terms
are appropriate” (Friesen, “Archaeology of the Eastern Arctic,” p. 144). I
will be using Paleo-Inuit and Inuit instead of Paleo-E*kimo and Neo-
E*kimo throughout this chapter, except where I am quoting others’ work.