There has been much discussion on the origin of the Dorset people and their demise. Using genetic, linguistic, archaeological, and ethnographic information, a scenario is presented suggesting that Proto-Dorset separated about 4500 B.P. from other speakers of the Arctic-Siberian Phylum to migrate to the eastern Canadian and Greenland Arctic. About 3500 B.P., they merged with other migrants to form the Pre-Dorset and, beginning around 2500 B.P., with some Proto-Algonquian people to form the Dorset. Further mixing took place with Proto-Siouan peoples about A.D. 700. Between about A.D. 1000 and 1400, population pressures from the Thule Eskimo, Algonquian, and Siouan groups forced the Dorset to migrate into isolated areas. Some, such as those who moved to eastern Greenland, the southern Hudson Bay region, and the Copper River Arctic, adopted Thule Eskimo culture and language. Others moved into the Aleutian Islands where they acquired Paleo-Aleut culture and genes but kept their own language to become the historic Aleut.
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