Paleo-Eskimo Ancestry Still Survives Today

A 2014 DNA study concluded that the first Paleo-Eskimo settlers reached the North American Arctic around 5,000 years ago and lived in near-isolation for more than 4,000 years. Their culture disappeared about 700 years ago as the Thule people spread across the region, but researchers still do not know exactly why. Later genetic research found that Paleo-Eskimo ancestry survived indirectly among modern Inuit, Yupik, Aleut, and Na-Dene-speaking peoples, overturning the earlier claim that they left no descendants.

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