The primary objective of this project is to clarify the evolutionary relationships of a number of Southwestern American Indian tribes through the analysis of blood samples gathered through the Albuquerque Indian Hospital. The genetic relationships of these tribes have been a source of debate for many years. With the development of DNA typing techniques, it is now possible to estimate the genetic relatedness of the populations with much greater precision than previously. As linguists have also developed measures of linguistic divergence for the tribes, it will be possible to measure the similarities between the trees of relatedness as judged by genetic and linguistic criteria. Fifteen populations will be sampled and typings done on over 100 polymorphic loci. Mathematical models which take into account both similarities due to descent from a common ancestor and those due to migration and admixture will be employed.
