• DNA Testing: In Our Blood It is connecting lost cousins and giving families surprising glimpses into their pasts. Now scientists are using it to answer the oldest question of all: where did we come from?
Not everybody supports the Genographic Project. Indigenous populations have had their share of colonialist pillaging and many, still distrustful of the dominant culture, are wary of handing over their blood and the information it contains. Debra Harry, director of the advocacy group Indigenous People's Council on Biocolonialism, has posted a petition on her Web site opposing the project, which she says has 1,000 signatures so far. But some members of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe in Seekonk, Mass., have already been tested. "We have our cultural story of creation, but there's another story that needs to get out, and it's right inside each and every one of us," says the tribe's chair, Michael Markley. Wells says he understands indigenous concerns, but he has found in his travels that once the details are explained, the excitement builds. "Everybody finds it fascinating that they're carrying this historical document inside their cells." In May, the project will announce plans to sponsor cultural and educational initiatives in participating indigenous communities.
The more we discover our differences, the more we find connections. Wayne Joseph grew up a black American in Louisiana and Los Angeles—even writing a My Turn for NEWSWEEK in 1994 about Black History Month. He heard about DNA testing several years ago and, seeking details about his mixed ancestry, sent away for a kit. "I figured I'd come back about 70 percent African and 30 percent something else," he says. When the results arrived in the mail "I was floored," he says. The testing company said he was 57 percent Indo-European, 39 percent Native American, 4 percent East Asian. No African blood at all. For almost a year, Joseph searched his soul, sifting in his mind the decisions he'd made based on his identity as a black man: his first marriage, his choice of high school, his interest in African-American literature. Before the test, "I was unequivocally black," he says. "Now I'm a metaphor for America." And not just for America, but for all of us.
With Karen Springen, Mary Carmichael and Karen MacGregor in Durban, South Africa
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