The genome is powerful evidence about one important question: were the people who made Clovis tools the biological ancestors of the people who have been calling the Americas home ever since?

The answer is yes, in the broad population-genetic sense.

That is an important answer, and it is one that matters for some of the political and legal debates about Indigenous presence and belonging in the Americas.

But it is not the whole story, and it was never intended by the researchers who published it to be treated as such.

What Changed And What Remained Contested

In the years following the Anzick-1 publication, the field of ancient American genomics expanded rapidly.