The Genographic Project

The Genographic Project was launched in April of 2005 by IBM, the National Geographic society, and the Waitt Family Foundation, to find out human migration patterns through collecting and analyzing DNA samples from more than 100,000 people from five continents. For $100 US (in 2005), anyone in the world can order a self-testing kit with a saliva swab and mail it back so the scientists can analyze it, and find the person's genetic history.

There are mixed views about this. Over 115,000 people have participated in this project, but this project has come in suspicion. Indigenous people are an integral part of this five-year project. This project has caused great distaste towards indigenous people. As of December 2006, all recognized North American tribes have refused to take part in this study. The Indigenous Peoples Council of Biocolonialism (IPCB) protested after the launch, boycotting IBM, National Geographic, and Gateway Computers. The feelings towards this program was heard through Maurice Foxx, member of the Mashpee Wampanoag, and chairman of the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs "What the scientists are trying to prove is that we’re the same as the Pilgrims except we came over several thousand years before. Why should we give them that openly?"

This project would probably not have occurred a hundred, fifty, or even twenty five years ago. Yes, Friedrich Miescher was the first to isolate DNA in 1869, and Watson and Crick who found the first accurate model of the DNA structure in 1953, but technology was very primitive back then. The first "computer" was actually a person who could perform calculations under a mathematician. The first "modern" computer was developed by the US military in the Second World War, and computers only shrunk to the approximate size of today in the 1980s. The rapid growth of technology in the last twenty years made this project possible.

The scientists consider the indigenous people more accurate than anyone else in the results of this project. Yet, the indigenous people refuse this "intrusion" of western society. The distrust between the two parties will make it a lot more interesting whether their can be common ground. The scientists need the indigenous people but they are not giving in, and will probably not in the future. This will be interesting.