Looking for a Link to Ancient Ice Man

The pinprick to draw Loretta Marvin’s blood was a slight inconvenience but an extraordinary opportunity for her to help unravel the mystery of a man who died five centuries ago.

Researchers hope the drops of blood taken from more than 50 Southeast Alaska Natives recently will help determine if there are genetic links to the ancient man found in 1999 on the ice in British Columbia, Canada.

“This is pretty interesting, very fascinating, to be able to find out and check back what is it, 500 years, and there is maybe a possibility I could be a relative,” Marvin said. “It’s just kind of fascinating to know what DNA can do.”

The headless body of Kwaday Dan Sinchi, or “Long Ago Man Found,” was discovered by sheep hunters at the foot of a melting glacier in Tatshenshini-Alsek Park near the British Columbia-Yukon border.

Studies so far have shown he was probably in his late teens or early 20s and in good health. He had food with him--a pouch of dried chum salmon in his robe.

Although his head was missing, most of his body was preserved. It was found in an area shared by Canadian and Alaska tribes, where there was considerable intermarriage, trade and commerce.

Where Kwaday Dan Sinchi was from is a puzzle.

“People are very interested to find out, if it’s possible, which communities he may be connected to,” said Chuck Smythe, an ethnologist with Juneau’s Sealaska Heritage Foundation.

Hunting tools, a hat, a robe and other artifacts lay near the body. The hat and robe are dated between 1415 and 1445.

His finely woven spruce-root hat was in the style of the coastal Tlingit of Southeast Alaska, but his robe was of interior gopher fur. The hunting tools offer conflicting clues. Some of the wood is from coastal trees. Other wood comes from the interior.

Researchers found pollen on the robe from a meadow-like area, from high alpine alder, from river valley vegetation and from coastal hemlock.

“There’s four ecosystems represented in the coat alone, which means it was a well-traveled coat,” said Sarah Gaunt, heritage planner for Champagne and Aishihik First Nations.

Champagne and Aishihik First Nations in Canada decided to take DNA samples from present-day Tlingit and Athabascan Tutshone people in Canada.

In Alaska, the First Nationsgroup is also testing DNA of people with ancestors from Yakutat, Klukwan and Haines.

Genealogical information is being collected from donors, many of whom lined up day at the Sealaska building to donate blood samples and share stories with First Nations workers.

Harryet Rappier, of Juneau, said she was curious to learn about her northern relatives, especially her mother, who was born in 1903 in Klukshu, Yukon.

“I just can’t get enough information from that part of the country,” Rappier said.

The Kwaday Dan Sinchi study is one of two dozen underway by the First Nations and universities in Canada, Great Britain and Australia, Gaunt said.

She said the ancient man’s cause of death may have been exposure. Oral history suggests his fate may have been common.

“There’s quite a lot of stories here and in the interior of people who traveled and didn’t come home,” Gaunt said.

While some Lower 48 Native Americans have objected to studies of ancient remains, a legal agreement between Champagne and Aishihik First Nations and the British Columbia government gave First Nations ownership of the body and the artifacts.

That level of control provided the comfort needed to proceed, Gaunt said.

First Nations plan to continue taking blood samples until the end of the summer. Results should be available near the end of the year.

Smythe said DNA tests in Cheddar, England, found a teacher who was a direct descendant of a person whose 9,000-year-old bones were found in a nearby cave.

There are no guarantees that will happen in this case, however. Gaunt noted that intermarriage-- both past and present--may frustrate those hoping for clear-cut genetic answers.

“There may not be any matches at all,” Gaunt said. “Even if we do find a match, it may not tell us he was necessarily Tlingit or necessarily Tutshone.”