Population studies on Southwestern Indian Tribes. IV. The Zuni

Abstract

AbstractThe Zuni Indians of west‐central New Mexico have been relatively isolated since their foundation by an amalgamation of individuals from different southwestern cultural areas during the Regressive Pueblo period (c.1200–1350 A.D.). Genetic analysis revealed a high frequency of blood type B in both young (0.06) and old (0.05) Zuni, but at 14 other blood group and serum protein loci, allelic frequencies including A (0.011) and Rh negative (0.001) were generally similar to those of other relatively unmixed southwestern Indian tribes. Consideration of Zuni history and demography since Spanish contact in 1540, together with genetic analyses, suggest that the high B frequency probably derives from intermixture with a small number of B, Rh positive non‐Indians in the early post contact period. Genetic differentiation among four southwestern tribes, Zuni, Pima, Papago and Maricopa, was summarized by kinship analysis. Approximately 70% of the inter‐tribal genetic variation could be explained by the geographic distances among these groups showing that isolation by distance has been the most important factor in determining the pattern of regional genetic differentiation.