The mound builders' mothers: Hopewell mtDNA ties to the Mississippians, and to the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Sioux (Ohio, Illinois, Ontario; 2008)

SUMMARYThe mound builders' mothers: Hopewell mtDNA ties to the Mississippians, and to the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Sioux (Ohio, Illinois, Ontario; 2008) [Connections: Genetics (honest), Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDShook and Smith, "Using Ancient mtDNA to reconstruct the population history of northeastern North America," American Journal of Physical Anthropology 137:14–29 (2008), per Ohio History Connection: the Hopewell Mound Group (about AD 200) closely resembles Mississippian/Late Prehistoric people at Great Western Park, Orendorf and Norris Farms, suggesting continuity from Hopewell to Mississippian. Hopewell and Orendorf people were most closely related to the Cheyenne/Arapaho and Sisseton/Wahpeton Sioux. "seven of nine Hopewell haplogroup A haplotypes" may be lineages that are now extinct. Limits: small samples, one marker (mtDNA)

PATTERNthe published mound-builder DNA links the mounds to living Native nations, and also shows lineages with no living match found, which the authors connect to disease-driven loss after European arrival

LENS (WW9)"No living match found" in a sample of today's tribes is not proof of no living descendants; the families who were filed as "colored" were never in the comparison set

OPENneeds deep research. No study found that compares Hopewell or Mississippian mtDNA directly with Black Southern families who carry Native maternal lines (like Coosaw's A2). That is the test the Lens calls for

SOURCEOhio History Connection on Shook & Smith 2008.