Introduction

1. Maternal Origins of Accompong Maroons Holden Lombard,1,2 Nicole Madrilejo2 and Dr. Jada Benn Torres2 Department of Physics1, Department of Anthropology2, University of Notre Dame H Introduction Materials and Methods Objectives In the ten years following Columbus’s arrival and annexation of Jamaica in 1494, Spanish colonists and their enslaved African laborers arrived with the hopes of exploiting the natural resources of the island (Knight, 1997). Concurrent with the Spanish colonization of Jamaica there was also the beginnings of Maroon communities within the hinterlands of Jamaica. The name “Maroons” was used to describe individuals who refused to live under the yoke of slavery and consequently ran away to the more inaccessible regions of the island to later form exclusive, semi-independent communities. Some historical narratives specify that the first Maroon communities consisted of escaped enslaved Africans and indigenous people who had also sought refuge from colonial abuses. Other historical accounts of Maroon origins only acknowledge the convergence of African peoples and suggest that the Indigenous population had already become extinct (Price and Price, 1979; Campbell, 1988; Bilby, 1996). Maroon communities developed in several areas across Jamaica. The Windward Maroon settlements are found on the eastern part of Jamaica near the Blue Mountains and the Leeward Maroon settlements are located in the western section of the island. The Leeward Maroons of Accompong town, in particular, waged a successful war against the British that ended with at treaty in 1739. In the present study, we characterize the genetic maternal lineages of Accompong Maroons to explore the ancestral origins of this community. The Accompong Maroons of western Jamaica have experienced a history marked with resistance, war, and geographic isolation. However, as a result of these historical events, there is some discrepancy regarding the ancestries of this community’s first members. According to Maroon oral history, they are the descendants of Jamaica’s indigenous population and escaped enslaved Africans. Other historians only acknowledge African ancestry as formative in this community. The objective of the present study is to use genetic data to explore the maternal origins of Accompong Maroons. Fifty-three individuals with established genealogical ties to To address the question of the maternal biogeographic origins of Accompong Maroons genetic samples were collected from Accompong residents with at least three grandparents from Accompong town. The project was initially reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Notre Dame and permission to conduct the study was obtained from the Accompong community. Each study participant provided written informed consent. Fifty-three individuals with established genealogical ties to the Accompong Maroon community volunteered DNA. Genetic samples were collected on buccal swabs and stored on FTA cards. DNA was extracted from 3mm FTA card punches using Omega BioTek’s Blood Direct PCR Kit according to manufacturer’s instructions. Each DNA sample was first screened at the 3592 HpaI restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), which is indicative of the most common mitochondrial haplogroup in Sub-Saharan Africa, macrohaplogroup L (Chen, et al.1995). If a sample did not belong to macrohaplogroup L, additional restriction sites were hierarchically tested to identify the haplogroup, including RFLPs of New World mitochondrial haplogroups (Martinez-Cruzado et al. 2005; Salas et al. 2002; Torroni et al. 1992; Richards et al. 2000). Jamaica Accompong Accompong FTA Cards were used as storage devices for sample DNA. When needed, DNA was extracted from punches from the cards and analyzed for mitochondrial haplogroup. Jamaica 8000 5000 3000 2000 1000 500 50 0 Results All samples were genotyped at the mitochondrial 3592 HpaI restriction site. The majority of the samples, 81%, had a 3594A genotype which created the HpaI restriction site indicating that they belonged to haplogroup L0/ L1/L2. The remaining 19% of the samples did not test positive for any New World haplogroup and instead likely belong to L3 or other non-African mitochondrial haplogroups (figure 1). meters Conclusion Though additional samples and testing are needed, based on this preliminary study of mitochondrial lineages, it appears that Indigenous Native American females did not either did not make a significant contribution to the contemporary Accompong community or that the resolution of mitochondrial DNA is not high enough to adequately detect possible ancestry. The results of this study provide a glimpse into the complex population history of the Accompong Maroons with a specific focus on the biogeographical ancestry of this community. Haplogroup Frequencies L3 or non-African L0/L1/L2 Figure 1. Bar plot of mtDNA haplogroup frequencies Acknowledgements References Cited This project was funded with support from the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program and the Balfour Hesburgh Scholars Program in conjunction with the Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement at the University of Notre Dame. Additional support was received from an Annual Pilot Grant for Social Science Research from the Institute of Scholarship and Learning, in the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame. Bilby K. 1996. Ethnogenesis in the Guianas and Jamaica: Two maroon cases. In: Hill J, editor. History, Power, and Identity Ethnogenesis in the America, 1492-1992. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. p 119. Campbell MC. 1988. 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