The HLA loci of the Hopi and Navajo

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present the genetic distribution at the HLA‐A,B,C, and DR loci in the Hopi and the Navajo. A sample of 100 outpatients from each tribe was selected at the Public Health Service Indian Hospital in Keam's Canyon, Arizona, and was typed for the antigens at the four loci. The distributions of the alleles and the haplotypes are similar in each tribe. A distance measure, f, confirms the genetic similarity of the two populations. It is concluded that the great cultural diversity of the Hopi and the Navajo is the result of a cultural evolution and diversification that has greatly outstripped the genetic evolution at the major histocompatibility loci over the past 20,000 years.