Oldest DNA in America traced back in Montana Man

DNA tests are used for many things. They can prove if someone was involved in a crime and a paternity testing clinic can find out if a child really is their son or daughter by comparing their DNA. A growing trend with DNA testing is to trace back genetic ancestry and one man may have found he has the oldest DNA in America.

A new client has taken the status of the oldest traceable DNA in the Americas, according to one genetic company. A Great Falls Tribune article shows the DNA of Alvin ‘Willy’ Crawford traced back 55 generations with a shocking 99 percent accuracy, making his lineage the longest ever traced by CRI Genetics, the ancestry testing company.

The genetic tests, according to the study, traced Crawford’s DNA back a whopping 17,000 years.

The length and accuracy of Crawford’s lineage are so rare that the company told Crawford’s family that it was ‘like finding Big Foot.’

According to the report, Crawford died of a heart attack shortly before the results of CRI’s genetic testing had concluded, but was told that his ancestors had migrated across the Bering Land Bridge during an Ice Age.  

According to Crawford’s DNA, however, he belonged to the mtDNA Haplogroup B2 — a genetic subgroup — which is very common in southwestern America. 

Likely, Crawford’s ancestors traveled from Asia to South America and traveled north according to CRI.

Crawford’s DNA was 83 percent native American according to the report, with 73 percent of that coming from one tribe alone, the Blackfeet Nation.

As the ability to sequence and understand genomes has steadily advanced, so too has our understanding of the way species, including humans, have evolved.  

In 2010, a bit of luck led to the first fully sequenced genome of early humans.

Scientists were able to map the entire genome of an early ancient human after analyzing a 4,000-year-old hairball found frozen in Greenland soil — the piece of genetic history pales in comparison to other ancient human DNA which has been dated as far back as 430,000 years. 

Similarly, after studying the discovered DNA of a six-week-old Native American infant who died 11,500 years ago, researchers revealed last year that humans likely migrated across the Bering Strait land bridge into Alaska in one fell swoop as opposed to coming in waves like previously thought.

For individuals in Native American communities like that to which Crawford and his family belong, the impacts of genetic testing have had more personal ripple effects. 

Genetic testing is now used, to some controversy, to test people’s enrollment in tribes — if tests come back under certain percentages of a tribe’s DNA then they may not be allowed in. 

Arguments over Native American ancestry have even made the national stage, namely through a public spat between the presidential candidate, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and President Donald Trump over Warren’s alleged Native American background. 

To prove her claim, she resorted to genetic testing. 

A Representative from CRI Genetics did not respond to a request for comment before the time of publication.