Previous scientific studies have shown that North American dog lines were replaced by European ones between 1492 and the present. To better understand the timing of this replacement, researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Iowa sequenced the mitochondrial DNA of archaeological dogs. Their findings suggest a complex social history of dogs during the early colonial period.
Europeans and Native Americans valued their dogs as companion animals, using them for similar work and as symbols of identity. Consequently, the dogs reflected the tension between European and native cultures – colonists described native dogs as mongrels to emphasize the perception that native people did not breed or own their dogs. Indigenous peoples identified European dogs as a direct threat to their existence and took measures to restrict the use of European dogs.
“Previous studies had suggested that there were many native dogs in the continental United States and that they had been exterminated,” says Ariane Thomas, a recent doctorate in anthropology from the University of Iowa. “We wanted to understand what that meant: when it happened, were they culled, was it competition with European dogs, or was it a disease?”
The researchers focused on the Jamestown Colony in Virginia because of the number of canine remains available at the site and evidence of native influence. They worked with Jamestown Rediscovery to identify and analyze 181 canine bones representing at least 16 individual dogs. Of these, the team selected 22 remains spanning multiple time points of the early Jamestown settlement, between 1607 and 1619. They extracted the DNA from the ancient DNA laboratory at the core facilities of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. The researchers then sequenced data from the Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center in Illinois to better understand the ancestry of these dogs.
“This project is a great example of the kind of team science we use at IGB, where people from different fields come together to answer questions using complementary skills,” says Alida de Flamingh, a postdoctoral researcher in the Malhi region. CIS/GSP/IGOH/GNDP) laboratory.
Based on body size estimates alone, the team found that most Jamestown dogs weighed between 22 and 39 pounds, similar to modern beagles or schnauzers. In addition, many of the dog bones showed signs of human-induced damage, including burns and cuts.
“The cut marks and other slaughter marks we found on them show that some of these dogs were eaten. It implies that when the settlers came, they did not have enough food and they had to rely on the native dogs of the area. Thomas said.
Additionally, the DNA sequences showed that at least six of the dogs showed signs of native North American ancestry. “Our results show that there were native dogs in the area and that they were not immediately exterminated when the Europeans arrived,” Thomas said.
Although the identification of dogs with native ancestry is not surprising, the results suggest that the settlers and native tribes may have traded dogs and likely had little concern about possible interbreeding. The researchers are interested in expanding to other locations and obtaining more high-quality DNA samples and canine body size reconstructions to shed light on whether these dogs had full indigenous ancestry or whether they were the product of mating with European dogs.
