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Multiple studies have demonstrated that European colonization of the Americas led to the extinction of nearly all North American dog mitochondrial lineages and replacement with European ones sometime between 1492 and the present day. Historical records indicate that colonists imported dogs from Europe to North America, where they became objects of interest and exchange as early as the 17th century. However, it is not clear whether the earliest archaeological dogs recovered from colonial contexts were of European, Indigenous, or mixed descent. To clarify the ancestry of dogs from the Jamestown Colony, Virginia, scientists sequenced ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from six archaeological dogs from the period 1609-1617.
Hare Indian dog, lithograph by John Woodhouse Audubon.
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 Indigenous cultures — the settlers described Indigenous dogs as mongrels to emphasize the perception that Indigenous people did not breed or own their dogs.
Indigenous peoples identified European dogs as a direct threat to their existence and took measures to limit the use of European dogs.
“Previous studies had suggested that there were a lot of Indigenous dogs in the continental United States and that they were eradicated,” said University of Iowa anthropologist Ariane Thomas.
“We wanted to understand what that entailed: when it happened, were they culled, was it the competition with European dogs, or was it disease?”
Dr. Thomas and colleagues focused on the Jamestown colony in Virginia due to the number of dog remains available at the site and the evidence of Indigenous influence.
They were able to identify and analyze 181 bones that represented at least 16 individual dogs.
Of these, they selected 22 remains that spanned multiple time points of the early settlement at Jamestown, between 1607 and 1619.
They extracted and sequenced the ancient mtDNA to better understand the ancestry of these dogs.
Based on body size estimates alone, the researchers discovered that most of the Jamestown dogs weighed between 10 and 18 kg (22-39 lbs), comparable to modern-day beagles or schnauzers.
Furthermore, many of the dog bones showed traces of human-inflicted damage, including burning and cut marks.
“The cut marks and other butchery marks we found on them show that some of these dogs were eaten,” Dr. Thomas said.
“It implies that when the colonists came over, they didn’t have enough food and they had to rely on the Indigenous dogs in the area.”
“Additionally, the DNA sequences demonstrated that at least six of the dogs showed evidence of Indigenous North American ancestry.”
“Our results show that there were Indigenous dogs in the area and they weren’t immediately eradicated when the Europeans arrived.”
“Although the identification of dogs with Indigenous ancestry is not surprising, the results suggest that the colonists and Indigenous tribes may have traded dogs and likely had little concern with possible interbreeding.”
The findings were published in the journal American Antiquity.
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Ariane E. Thomas et al. The Dogs of Tsenacomoco: Ancient DNA Reveals the Presence of Local Dogs at Jamestown Colony in the Early Seventeenth Century. American Antiquity, published online May 22, 2024; doi: 10.1017/aaq.2024.25
