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Icemans Family Found
Topic Started: Apr 26 2008, 07:36 PM (1,132 Views)
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Iceman's family found
DNA testing links body found in melting glacier in 1999 to modern-day relatives
Judith Lavoie, Canwest News Service
Published: Saturday, April 26, 2008
Sisters Sheila Clark and Pearl Callaghan of Whitehorse clutched each other's hands and blinked back tears Friday as they talked about their ancestor Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi, better known as Long Ago Person Found.

Eight days ago, 17 aboriginal people from northern B.C., Yukon and Alaska were told that DNA testing has proved they are direct descendants of the iceman.

The body of the young aboriginal man was found in 1999 by three hunters at the foot of a melting glacier in Tatshenshini-Alsek Park, part of the traditional territory of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations.


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Pearl Callaghan (left) and Sheila Clark were moved to find out they are related to the iceman.
Darren Stone, CNS

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Font:****In a strange coincidence, the head and other artifacts were discovered four years later, when two of the same hunters returned to the same area and found the ice had receded at least another 20 metres.

Initially it was believed the body had been in the ice about 500 years, but the latest radiocarbon dating shows the man died between 1670 and 1850, preceding or just overlapping the earliest European contact on the West Coast.

Voluntary DNA testing of first nations people is one aspect of intense, international research spurred by the almost perfectly preserved body and the startling results were announced at a scientific symposium in Victoria.

Clark, one of seven sisters, said she found it overwhelming when she was told their matriarchal line could be traced back to Long Ago Person Found.

"It was extremely moving. I couldn't believe it," she said. "Our family is extremely excited to find out who our other relatives are."

It triggers everyone's imagination as they think about the young man's trek across the glacier, Callaghan said.

The family is now pumping their 84-year-old mother for information as they try to establish a family tree, they said.

Clark and Callaghan are members of the Tselin-Tlingit First Nation and research shows the iceman moved between the coast and the Interior.

For Champagne and Aishihik First Nations Chief Diane Strand it is a remarkable reminder of the close, historical trading partnership between coastal and Interior bands.

A total of 240 people volunteered to be part of the DNA study and 17 were found to be directly related, she said.

"What is the most exciting news is that half of them are from the Yukon and half from the coast."

Out of those, 15 people self-identify as being from the wolf clan, meaning the young man was probably wolf clan, she said.

That is important as, while first nations deliberated how to treat the remains and whether to allow the research, a thorny problem was that traditionally, when a member of one clan dies, another clan takes care of the rites, Strand said.

"The majority of people who have worked on this project were Crow people and I believe things happened in the way they were meant to happen. Spiritually, he was a wolf person and the people who looked after him came from the proper clan," she said.

It is a wonderful illustration to young people of the strength of the clan system and how science, oral history and tradition can work together, Strand said.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/we...12-4e27e8e1d933
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