These responses are not mutually exclusive, and they are not all resolvable by additional scientific research.

They reflect the genuine complexity of the relationship between Western science and Indigenous communities — a relationship shaped by a long history of research conducted without meaningful consent, findings used to serve non-Indigenous interests, and the systematic displacement of Indigenous knowledge by scientific authority.

The Upward Sun River project has been, by most accounts, a more conscientious engagement with these questions than much previous ancient DNA research in North America.

Whether it was sufficient — whether the consultation was genuinely meaningful, whether the communities affected had the power to shape the research in ways that mattered, whether the findings have been used and communicated in ways that serve Indigenous interests — is a question that the communities involved are best positioned to answer, and their answers are worth listening to.