News Archaeology A Pueblo tribe recruited scientists to reclaim its ancient American history Picuris Pueblo oral histories talk of long-ago ties to Chaco Canyon. DNA now backs that up A member of New Mexico’s Picuris Pueblo Tribal Nation stands in front of a Round House used for rituals and meetings. A DNA study initiated and directed by Picuris officials now supports their oral histories describing more than 1,000-year-old ancestral ties to ancient Chaco Canyon society. Oliver Gerhard/imageBROKER.com/Alamy Stock Photo By Bruce Bower 1 hour ago Members of New Mexico’s Picuris Pueblo Tribal Nation have long told stories about having descended from ancient North American ancestors. Genetic evidence now backs up what Picuris people — but not archaeologists — knew all along and fleshes out lost pieces of the tribe’s past. The new results, published April 30 in Nature, came out of a collaborative study between Picuris Pueblo representatives and scientists. Traditional knowledge keepers at Picuris Pueblo­ describe ancestral and cultural connections to ancient pueblo sites in northwestern New Mexico. Oral histories emphasize ties to Chaco Canyon society, a regional network of over 200 Great House communities that flourished from about 850 to 1150. Chaco Canyon lies 275 kilometers west of Picuris Pueblo. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.