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LOCALThursday 29 October 2015

Chatting with dr. Oswald Wever about our genetic structure

at the YMCA in San Nicolas

                               In 1830 the president of       the trail and continued liv-   maternal ova and not in
                               the United States of Amer-     ing in peace in their new      paternal sperm cells. Y-
                               ica, Andrew Jackson,           territory.                     chromosome in paternal
                               enacted ‘The Indian Re-                                       sperms measures genetic
                               moval Act’ which forced        Nowadays there are             input, only in men. Mito-
                               the Cherokee Indians to        Cherokees throughout the       chondria DNA studies on
                               leave their homeland           United States: from East-      the contrary measure ex-
                               and relocate into unchar-      ern Oklahoma to Western        clusively maternal genetic
                               tered territories in the West  North Carolina. However,       heritage both in women
                               coast of this continent.       little is known about a mi-    and men. This means that
                               13.000 Cherokees were          nority of black Indians who    the mother’s genes will
                               removed to Oklahoma            still share a common past      determine the ethnic geo-
                               in 1839. One thousand of       with Native Americans          graphic descendant of
                               them were African slaves       (Documentary: ‘Trail of        any population: Indian, Af-
                               who already had been           Tears’). They have mixed       rican, European or Asiatic.
                               set free. Ten thousand of      by marriage and they both
                               the deported Indians and       still share the Cherokee       During his presentation dr.
                               African slaves survived        tradition. Today genetic       Wever will focus on the so
                                                              studies were able to iden-     called haplogroups. He will
                                                              tify their ethnic geographic   explain why a person can
                                                              descendant through their       be part of just one hap-
                                                              maternal lineage.              logroup. This can never
                                                                                             change! Your nationality
                                                              Dr. Oswald Wever has           has nothing to do with your
                                                              dedicated eight years of       ethnic geographic struc-
                                                              mitochondrialDNA studies       ture. You can change your
                                                              in order to identify the ge-   passport but you will always
                                                              netic structure of the Aru-    be an Indian, an African, a
                                                              ban population. His main       Caucasion European or an
                                                              concern was that historians    Asiatic.
                                                              in the past have commit-
                                                              ted distortion of the facts    MitochondrialDNA tests
                                                              by declaring ‘that the In-     are being realized in labo-
                                                              dian genes had been ex-        ratories. Dr. Oswald Wever
                                                              tinguished in the Aruban       has performed his research
                                                              population’. Dr. Wever         in cooperation with two
                                                              considered it his mission to   prominent institutes ‘Univer-
                                                              correct this misinterpreta-    sidad de Puerto Rico’ and
                                                              tion most exactly as pos-      ‘Instituto Venezolano de In-
                                                              sible. The additional value    vestigaciones Scientificas’
                                                              of his research is the evi-    (Caracas, Venezuela).
                                                              dence based scientific fact
                                                              that our Aruban population     On sunday the first of no-
                                                              is trihybrid: Indian, African  vember Fundacion Her-
                                                              and Caucasian European.        encia Historico di Aruba in
                                                              However genetic science        cooperation with UNOCA
                                                              ascertains that no matter      is honouring you with an
                                                              the influence of migration     interesting presentation
                                                              in any part of the world the   about the structure of the
                                                              genetic descendant of the      Aruban population. Dr.
                                                              native will stay dominant.     Wever is looking forward
                                                              The result of his investiga-   to meet you and will be
                                                              tion indicated in 2011 that    pleased to listen to your
                                                              54 % of the Aruban popu-       comments and to answer
                                                              lation still carried Indian    your questions.
                                                              genes.                         The presentation will take
                                                                                             place at the YMCA in San
                                                              The quickly developing         Nicolas from 10:15 till 12
                                                              branch of DNA studies          noon and will be present-
                                                              gives us the opportunity to    ed in the English language.
                                                              search our roots. Biological   Free entrance. Enjoy a
                                                              science learns that during     snack and refreshment on
                                                              procreation characteris-       the house.
                                                              tics are being carried over    “Never believe what the
                                                              to the next generation by      mirror shows you. Look for
                                                              both mother and father.        your roots, to know your
                                                              DNA is present in all our      destiny”.
                                                              cells. MitochondriaDNA is      Fundacion Herencia His-
                                                              present only in mitochon-      torico di Aruba
                                                              dria and this substantial      Lucia Kelly – president
                                                              is being found only in the     587 4759.q
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