Press Release
For Immediate Release

Dated: September 19, 2007
Released by: Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism
Contact: Debra Harry (dharry@ipcb.org)
Tel: (775) 574-0248 or (775) 338-5983
Email: dharry@ipcb.org
Website: www.ipcb.org

Indigenous Peoples Organization Questions the Merit of Science Award

Nixon, NV: A leading Indigenous peoples rights organization is outraged to learn that a prestigious science award is going to Spencer Wells, lead geneticist of the Genographic Project (GP), a project that is the focus of international protest by Indigenous peoples. The GP is a joint project of the National Geographic Society and the IBM Corporation that seeks to collect 100,000 DNA samples from the world’s Indigenous peoples. On the evening of September 20, 2007 the Foundation For the Future will give the Kistler Prize to Wells in Bellevue, WA. The Kistler Prize Committee professes to recognize “original contributions to the understanding of the connection between the human genome and human society, especially those contributions stemming from research conducted with courage and conviction despite opposition from peers or the public.”

Indeed, Dr. Wells has faced stiff opposition, not only from peers and the general public, but also from the Indigenous peoples the GP intends to take blood from. Debra Harry, Executive Director of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism (IPCB), says, “It’s hard to imagine what kind of courage it must take to exploit the world’s most vulnerable peoples and take from them something as precious and sacred as their genetic heritage.”

On April 13, 2005, the day the GP was publicly announced, the IPCB initiated a global petition calling for an immediate halt to the GP and a moratorium on NGS and IBM products, citing numerous ethical and cultural concerns. In May of 2006, the IPCB and Cultural Survival participated with Indigenous leaders in a dialogue with the Genographic Project team in New York and presented a petition to lead researcher, Dr. Wells, bearing the names of more than 850 Indigenous nations, organizations, individuals, and supporters calling on the National Geographic Society to stop the GP.

Also in May 2006, these concerns were echoed by an international expert body, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), in its recommendation “that the Genographic Project be immediately suspended and report to the Indigenous peoples on the free, prior and informed consent of all the communities where activities are conducted or planned.” The UNPFII also requested “the World Health Organization and the Human Rights Commission investigates the objectives of the Genographic Project.” To date these UN recommendations have not been formally addressed by the GP.

And most recently, on September 18, 2007 the Affiliated Tribes of the Northwest Region (ATNI) have issued a resolution opposing the GP, “calling upon the National Geographic Society to cease the Genographic Project in its entirety in all regions.” The ATNI represents the Tribes in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Northern California.

Despite the widespread opposition posed by Indigenous peoples and others, the GP seems hardly fazed. Although Indigenous opposition to the GP has been characterized as “uninformed” and “anti-science,” the concerns raised by Indigenous peoples are based on sound ethical, legal and cultural arguments.

By bestowing the Kistler Prize on Spencer Wells the Foundation For the Future is rewarding unethical behavior and violations of human rights. For example, in the summer of 2006, the GP took samples from Alaska Natives without approval from the Alaska Area Institutional Review Board (IRB) responsible for ensuring oversight of human subject research involving Alaska Natives. As a result, the University of Pennsylvania IRB temporarily withheld approval and the protocol is undergoing further review. The Alaska Area IRB also demanded that all collected samples be immediately returned, and has undertaken its own critical review of the Genographic Project’s Research Protocol.

The Prize also appears to be self-serving because the GP receives support to carry out the goals of the failed Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP) of the 1990’s. The HGDP, a project initiated in 1991, which also sought to collect DNA samples from Indigenous peoples worldwide, was rife with intractable ethical issues that ultimately led to its demise in the mid-1990s. Although the GP has publicly tried to distance itself from the HGDP, both projects share similar goals and intellectual leadership. Indeed, Dr. Wells was a former student of the HGDP founder, Luigi Luca Cavelli-Sforza, and his mentor now serves on both the Advisory Board of the Genographic Project as well as the Advisory Panel that assists with selecting the Kistler Award recipient.

Indigenous peoples, as vulnerable populations, should be afforded every ethical protection possible in any proposed research that may affect their lives. Indigenous peoples exist under political, social, economic, and cultural duress, typically living in, or emerging from, colonial rule and oppression. The GP puts vulnerable populations at significant risk, while the research itself is of no benefit to those same populations. IPCB’s Legal Analyst, Le`a Kanehe explains that “the risks posed to Indigenous peoples by this project are numerous and include the loss of aboriginal status, loss of collective rights to land, psychological harm, undermining of social institutions, and inter and intra-tribal conflict.” “The outcomes of the GP generate no benefit to its research subjects, but instead, will only bring political, social, and cultural harm to Indigenous peoples,” notes IPCB Board Chairwoman Judy Gobert. “This is not the kind of science deserving of any award.”