The Pre-History Of California

A new study looks at genetics, archeology, and linguistics to explain linguistic diversity in pre-Columbian California. 

Before the colonial period, California harboured more language variation than all of Europe, and linguistic and archaeological analyses have led to many hypotheses to explain this diversity. 

We report genome-wide data from 79 ancient individuals from California and 40 ancient individuals from Northern Mexico dating to 7,400–200 years before present (BP). Our analyses document long-term genetic continuity between people living on the Northern Channel Islands of California and the adjacent Santa Barbara mainland coast from 7,400 years BP to modern Chumash groups represented by individuals who lived around 200 years BP. 

The distinctive genetic lineages that characterize present-day and ancient people from Northwest Mexico increased in frequency in Southern and Central California by 5,200 years BP, providing evidence for northward migrations that are candidates for spreading Uto-Aztecan languages before the dispersal of maize agriculture from Mexico. 

Individuals from Baja California share more alleles with the earliest individual from Central California in the dataset than with later individuals from Central California, potentially reflecting an earlier linguistic substrate, whose impact on local ancestry was diluted by later migrations from inland regions. 

After 1,600 years BP, ancient individuals from the Channel Islands lived in communities with effective sizes similar to those in pre-agricultural Caribbean and Patagonia, and smaller than those on the California mainland and in sampled regions of Mexico.

Nathan Nakatsuka et al, "Genetic continuity and change among the Indigenous peoples of California", Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06771-5 (further discussion in this news article).