“Paleogenomics, Community Engagement & Evolutionary Histories of Indigenous Peoples of North America”

The paleogenomics field is rapidly growing due to recent advances in genomic technologies and analyses. In addition, the field has recently taken ethical steps to engage linked Indigenous communities in the research process to become more aware of the social implications of the work. In this presentation, I discuss our research program on paleogenomics in
partnership with Indigenous communities in North America to address questions of history from an evolutionary viewpoint. Specifically, I focus on (1) our efforts to engage Indigenous community members and students in genomic research using community-based methods and the Summer internship for Indigenous peoples in Geomics (SING) Program, (2) the impacts of European colonization on the genomes of Indigenous peoples as a result of changing environments after European Contact and (3) questions related to the early population histories of the Americas.