The Dorset was the last major "Paleo-Eskimo" culture in the Arctic before the migration east from present-day Alaska of the Thule, the ancestors of the modern Inuit.
[5] The archaeologist Max Friesen has argued for the ICC's terminology to be adopted, and to capitalize the "P" in Paleo, to adhere to archaeological conventions in naming major traditions.
[6][7] In 2016, Lisa Hodgetts and Arctic editor Patricia Wells wrote: "In the Canadian context, continued use of any term that incorporates 'Eskimo' is potentially harmful to the relationships between archaeologists and the Inuit and Inuvialuit communities who are our hosts and increasingly our research partners"; they suggested using more specific terms when possible (e.g., Dorset and Groswater); they also noted replacement for "Palaeoeskimo" was still an open question and discussed "Paleo-Inuit", "Arctic Small Tool Tradition", and "pre-Inuit", as well as Inuktitut loanwords like "Tuniit" and "Sivullirmiut" as possibilities.
The ASTt source has been argued to lie in the Syalakh-Bel’kachi-Ymyakhtakh culture sequence of East Siberia, dated to 6,500 – 2,800 calBP.
Based on the genome, scientists believe there was a distinct, separate migration of peoples from Siberia to North America some 5,500 years ago.
[12] The scientists reported that the man, dubbed "Inuk" (the Inuktitut word for "person"), had A+ blood type and genes suggesting he was adapted to cold weather, had brown eyes, brownish skin, and dark hair, and would have likely balded later in life.
According to these scholars, in general, the Paleo-Eskimos had large proportions of Beringian (which includes Chukotko-Kamchatkan and Eskimo-Aleut), Siberian, and Southeast Asian ancestry.
[15] A genetic study published in Science in August 2014 examined the remains of a large number of Paleo-Eskimos and Thule people.