Genetic evidence discovered by two anthropologists from Yale University and UC Davis could help settle a dispute over ancient bones from western Nevada. The June issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology publishes the ancient DNA findings of Frederika Kaestle, an assistant professor at Yale University, and David Glenn Smith, a UC Davis professor of anthropology. "We found the prehistoric population in Nevada looks like modern Native Americans from California's Central Valley," says Smith. But the prehistoric population does not genetically resemble the Utes, Paiutes and Shoshone tribes now living in the area. Kaestle and Smith's work is the first time DNA testing has been used to test a theory about Indian migration patterns in the area. Using archeological and linguistic evidence, some anthropologists have theorized since the late 1950s that a group of Native Americans known as the "Numics" expanded from Southern California into the Great Basin a thousand or more years ago when the arid desert was lusher with glacier-fed lakes. The identity of these pre-Numic inhabitants of the western Great Basin and the location of their modern descendants is unknown. Kaestle and Smith's finding adds weight to a determination last summer by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that "Spirit Cave Man," a mummy housed in the Nevada State Museum for nearly 60 years, is not culturally affiliated with present-day Native Americans. Present-day Indians in the area want to repatriate the remains.