This consultation process is worth understanding in some detail, because it represents a significant evolution in how ancient DNA research involving Indigenous ancestors is conducted.

The Native American Community and the Anzick Child

The question of who had authority over the Anzick child’s remains — and what should happen to them — was not a simple scientific question.

It was a question about Indigenous rights, about the relationship between scientific knowledge and Indigenous sovereignty, and about how researchers and Native communities should relate to each other in the study of the deep past.

The Clovis culture, while ancient, is not a culture without living connections.