The Mal’ta case, because it involves remains from a Siberian site rather than from within the Americas, sits somewhat to the side of the most directly contested cases in Indigenous genetics.

But the broader lesson — that genetics can contribute to understanding the deep history of human populations without claiming to have the final word on questions of identity and belonging — is relevant here as it is everywhere.

What the Mal’ta genome tells us is something about the ancestry of the founding population of the Americas.

It does not tell us what it means to be Indigenous.

That is a question with cultural, historical, legal, and political dimensions that no genome can answer.