Unexpected Differences in Distribution of Blood Groups among American Indians

Abstract

The distribution of the blood groups among the American Indians has been a matter of considerable interest to both anthropologists and serologists, because of the unusually high incidence of group O among them, as reported by several investigators. On the basis of these findings it has been suggested by Snyder and others that the human family was at one time a pure group O species and that the American Indian became separated from the rest of mankind before A and B agglutinogens developed in the cells. The writer had the opportunity of examining specimens of blood from the Blackfeet and Blood tribes of American Indians to determine whether the same high occurrence of group O exists among them. Brief Tribal History. In the early days the “Blackfeet”, which included the “Piegans” and “Bloods”'of Canada, ranged from the Rocky Mountains east to the Sioux territory, south into what is now Wyoming, and north into Canada. The agency records show admixtures with other tribes such as Canadian Cree, American Cree, Chippewa, Cherokee, Snake, Shoshone, Sioux, Gros Ventre, Flathead, Kootanai, and Alaskan, as well as others. In the early days captive women and children were adopted by the tribe and later members of other tribes came and settled with the Blackfeet. The first white men to come into contact with the Blackfeet were probably the first trappers and traders that came up the Missouri River. These Indians made Fort Benton and other forts on the Missouri their trading centers. In classifying them as to their degree of Indian blood, only where there is white or Negro admixture are they shown on the records as mixed.