Native Hawaiians Descend From a Group of 'Ultravoyagers' Who Sailed About 4

Researchers studied DNA from more than 1,000 modern-day Polynesians and found that Native Hawaiians and Easter Islanders were most closely related. The findings help trace the epic settlement of the Polynesian islands while also revealing genetic vulnerabilities among their communities. Native Hawaiians Descend From a Group of ‘Ultravoyagers’ Who Sailed About 4,400 Miles From Easter Island, Genetic Study Suggests.

Native Hawaiians dancing at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. National Park Service Almost 1,000 years ago, a group of exceptionally skilled seafarers left Easter Island, also called Rapa Nui, one of the Polynesian islands in the Pacific Ocean. They spent weeks at sea before finally docking their double-hulled catamarans in what’s now Hawaii—around 4,400 miles from their homeland.

Researchers reported this surprising new insight into Hawaii’s first settlers on October 8 in the journal Science after analyzing genetic data from more than 1,000 modern-day Polynesians. What’s more, the “ultravoyaging” group’s far-flung journey is just part of a broader settlement process that populated Polynesia—but also brought genetic health hazards that affect people today. Polynesia is a large cultural and geographic region of the east-central Pacific Ocean that includes more than 1,000 islands.

The Hawaiian Islands are the only ones located in the Northern Hemisphere, while Easter Island is far off the coast of Chile. Both sit more than 1,800 miles from another inhabited Polynesian island, meaning they’re “the two most remote islands in Polynesia,” study co-author Keolu Fox, an anthropologist at the University of California, San Diego, tells Olin Lagon at Honolulu Civil Beat.