A Bit More Detail

Although most mtDNA lineages observed in contemporary Icelanders can be traced to neighboring populations in the British Isles and Scandinavia, one may have a more distant origin. This lineage belongs to haplogroup C1, one of a handful that was involved in the settlement of the Americas around 14,000 years ago. Contrary to an initial assumption that this lineage was a recent arrival, preliminary genealogical analyses revealed that the C1 lineage was present in the Icelandic mtDNA pool at least 300 years ago. This raised the intriguing possibility that the Icelandic C1 lineage could be traced to Viking voyages to the Americas that commenced in the 10th century. In an attempt to shed further light on the entry date of the C1 lineage into the Icelandic mtDNA pool and its geographical origin, we used the deCODE Genetics genealogical database to identify additional matrilineal ancestors that carry the C1 lineage and then sequenced the complete mtDNA genome of 11 contemporary C1 carriers from four different matrilines. Our results indicate a latest possible arrival date in Iceland of just prior to 1700 and a likely arrival date centuries earlier. Most surprisingly, we demonstrate that the Icelandic C1 lineage does not belong to any of the four known Native American (C1b, C1c, and C1d) or Asian (C1a) subclades of haplogroup C1. Rather, it is presently the only known member of a new subclade, C1e. While a Native American origin seems most likely for C1e, an Asian or European origin cannot be ruled out.

Because of Iceland’s Lutheran Christian heritage the maternal lineage here could be traced back to 1700. This does not mean that the first woman in the line that we know of was born like Athena from the head of her father; rather, the records were not kept well enough to continue unbroken back to the medieval era. We do know that the first permanent Norse settler in Iceland arrived in 874, and, that very few immigrants from Scandinavia added diversity to the gene pool after ~1000. Iceland is a small and poor island, so quickly reached its Malthusian maximum. How else to explain that Icelanders made a secondary migration to Greenland?

The most obvious explanation for the existence of the subclade of the C1 lineage is that it arrived recently. Without knowing anything else that is what you’d have assumed. But as noted above the individuals who carry it have been traced back to a common ancestor in the early 18th century; these are native Icelanders, at least if native means anything substantive. An second point which rejects recent injection of this lineage into the gene pool: the Icelanders are their own special branch of C1, C1e. The phylogenetic tree of C1 below illustrates the relationship of the branches to each other. Since the font is so small, I added in clarifying labels (from top to bottom it’s C1a to C1e, with further clades such as C1d1):

[. . .]

If the Greenland and ancient European hypotheses are rejected, what we have is a woman who entered the Icelandic society from an extinct lineage of Native Americans, probably from the northeast (or perhaps her Greenland Norse mother was of this line). What the Norse would have termed Markland. It is tempting to point to the Norse settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. Perhaps the Europeans had enslaved a native woman, and taken her back to their homeland when they decamped? But more likely to me is the probability that the Norse brought back more than lumber from Markland, since their voyages spanned centuries.

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• Spacing Toronto's Marcus Bowman reports on the geographic concentration of artists in the largest Canadian cities.


• Torontoist's Jamie Bradburn, in his regular Historicist feature, writes about the Hogg's Hollow industrial disaster that killed six workers, and how this created a movement for reform in worker safety laws.


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Nunavut's elected MLAs will review the territory's decentralization program, which promised to spread jobs and wealth outside the capital when the territorial government was formed 10 years ago.

The program has been a cornerstone of Nunavut's public life but has come under criticism from a recent report on the government's policies and operations.

Officials with Premier Eva Aariak's office did not give many details about the decentralization review, which is still under discussion.

However, the issue is expected to come up when the legislative assembly resumes sitting on Nov. 24.

Under decentralization, territorial government jobs and departments are distributed to communities outside the capital city. As a result, some departments are headquartered in small communities remote from Iqaluit.

The Nunavut Implementation Committee laid the groundwork for decentralization in 1995, four years before Nunavut became a separate territory.

"Pretty much every government in Canada and most of the world has a whole series of field offices that deliver service and programs to people, but the decentralization went way beyond that," said Graham White, a University of Toronto political scientist who has studied Nunavut's decentralization policy.

As of 2003, five years after Nunavut was created, 460 territorial government jobs were based in 10 communities.

Greenland's pro-independence leftist party Inuit Ataqatigiit, which won the Danish territory's legislative election on June 2, has agreed to form a coalition with two centrist parties, it said Sunday.

The three parties will hold a majority with 19 of 31 seats in the local parliament, the Landsting, IA leader Kuupik Kleist said in a statement.

IA, which ousted the social democratic Siumut party after 30 years in power, will hold 14 seats, the Democrats four seats and the Kattusseqatigiit Partiiat one seat.

Even though Siumut and IA had served in a coalition together as recently as 2007, Kleist had ruled out forming an alliance with Siumut after it became embroiled in a slew of scandals in recent months.

Final details still needed to be worked out on the government coalition and the cabinet portfolios were to be divided up Monday, Greenlandic radio KNR reported.

Canada's current motto is "From sea to sea," referring to how its land mass touches both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

But if northern members of Parliament and territorial leaders get their way, the motto would become "From sea to sea to sea," adding a reference to the Arctic Ocean.

"I really do think this is something Canadians can rally around," said Dennis Bevington, the newly elected NDP member of Parliament for the federal riding of Western Arctic.

He intends to introduce a private member's bill proposing the change.

The leaders of Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon are backing the change.

Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie said an expanded motto would be more inclusive.

"It is much more reflective of this federation, of this great country of ours, Canada, to ensure that all Canadians and the global community recognize that Canada is made up of a country from sea to sea to sea," said Fentie.

[. . .]

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper may be receptive to the change, given that he stressed Canada's claim over the Arctic during his first major news conference after being elected on Jan. 23.

Harper has promised to spend $5.3 billion over five years to defend northern waters against possible sovereignty claims by Americans, Russians and Danes.

"A Mari usque ad Mare" or "From sea to sea," has been Canada's official motto since 1921. It is taken from the Old Testament of the Bible, Psalm 72, Verse 8: "He shall have dominion from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth."

Martin Pratt, director of research at Durham’s International Boundaries Research Unit (IBRU), was prompted to try to define the Arctic rights boundaries for the first time after Russia’s controvertial seabed flag-planting stunt last year.

Russia was the first country to make an official play for the Arctic seabed when it lodged its claim to a huge tract that included the Lomonosov Ridge in 2001. The Russians were told by the United Nations that they needed more convincing data on the geology of the sea floor before the claim could be accepted.

In 2007 the Russian Government ordered one of its submarines — thought to have been carrying out detailed mapping of the seafloor — to plant a flag on the seabed to stake its claim to the area, in what was regarded by many observers as a provocative action.

Russia is likely to find some of its claims contested by the United States, Canada and, through its control of Greenland, Denmark. It is already in dispute with Norway over parts of the Barents Sea. Iceland is the sixth country within the Arctic circle.

Mr Pratt said that the carving up of the Arctic’s natural resources was likely to be less of a free-for-all than many people expected because sufficient international rules were already in place to help to determine who had a right to which area.

“It’s not going to be so much a dash as a fairly well-defined march,” he said. “There are clearly set out regulations by the United Nations as to what they are entitled to. It’s not quite the free-for-all that has been suggested.”