Are Native American Histories Accurate?

You may not think, at first glance, that an article about the oral traditions of the Picuris Pueblo, a small tribal nation in New Mexico, would have anything to do with Answers in Genesis. But new genetic research into the Picuris Pueblo people confirms something very interesting—and ties in with new AiG research.

First, the story. The oral traditions of this tribal nation state that they descended from ancient North American ancestors, specifically those living in ancient pueblo sites in Northwestern New Mexico, known as the Chaco Canyon society (AD 850–1150). However, archaeologists dismissed these traditions, believing instead that the evidence showed these particular people arriving much later, after the Chaco Canyon society had already collapsed and everyone had left.

Well, a new genetic study, requested by Picuris officials, confirms what their stories claimed: “Ancient and modern Picuris show close genetic ties, including descent from a maternal Chaco Canyon line.”

It’s interesting to me that, in scientific and archaeological research, oral traditions are often ignored and treated as mere myth with no grounding in historical reality. This is true of creation, flood, dragon, and Babel legends too—cultures all around the world have very similar legends, and yet researchers refuse to “connect the dots” and realize that all of humanity does indeed share a common history beginning with creation, then the fall, a global flood, and the event at Babel (and that man and dinosaurs, or “dragons,” did live together!). The Bible preserves the perfect, infallible account, but these histories confirm what we’d expect if the Bible’s history is true (which it is).

Now, what does an obscure oral tradition from a small tribal nation in New Mexico have to do with Answers in Genesis? Well, just this month, one of our researchers, Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson (who has a PhD from Harvard University), released a new book, They Had Names: Tracing the History of the North American Indigenous People. This book is a layman’s version of the detailed research Dr. Jeanson has undertaken for the past few years, attempting to trace the pre-Contact (pre-Columbian) history of the Americas. And—just like the researchers looking at the Picuris Pueblo DNA found—Dr. Jeanson has found that many Indigenous histories match the genetic and linguistic evidence. He has confirmed so many of them now that he argues we should assume these histories are true, rather than automatically assuming they are false as so many researchers do.

But Dr. Jeanson’s research is quite different from the research of the scientists looking into Picuris DNA. You see, Dr. Jeanson is starting with the proper timescale for earth’s history—just thousands of years (the Bible’s history gives about 6,000 years from the beginning). Because he has the right starting point, he can uncover genetic mysteries other scientists will never see simply because they don’t start with the right foundation, the Word of God. His research is fascinating and continues to be confirmed by the evidence (I encourage you to learn more in Traced: Human DNA’s Big Surprise).

You know, this story also reminds me of the way the scientific community likewise ignores the historical accounts given in the Bible. Rather than trusting that the Bible is accurate in what it says, they ignore it (or, worse, scoff at it) and instead trust their own wisdom, assuming they can look at the present and figure out what must have happened in the past. But when they sideline the Bible, they aren’t sidelining an oral tradition, handed down generation after generation and carefully guarded. They are ignoring the eyewitness account of history from the perfect, infallible Creator!

When scientists (like Dr. Jeanson) treat the Bible as historical narrative, assuming it to be what it says it is—the very Word of God—and use it as their starting point and their framework for interpreting the evidence, the evidence confirms the Bible!

Yes, the history in God’s Word is true—100% true, because it came from the One who has always been there, knows everything, and has never made a mistake.

https://answersingenesis.org/genetics/2025/05/15/are-native-american-histories-accurate/