Recently in North America Category

To say that I was nervous as I placed the protective earmuffs over my head and adjusted the safety glasses on my nose would be an understatement. In truth, I was shaking like a leaf, and though I'm no expert, I'm pretty sure that that is not the best condition in which to fire a gun. I had fired a weapon once before, but despite the best intentions of my concerned husband, the experience was borderline traumatic for me. This was my second try at the shooting range, only this time with an entire camera crew (and eventually, all of America) as my audience. My hopes for this being a less traumatic experience were wavering.

I had come here as a result of an unsettling home break-in some months before, during which I realized how vulnerable I could be in a dangerous situation. There are few things more terrifying than thinking you could lose your life and be unable to protect either your children or yourself at the hands of a violent attacker. I had decided that it was time to stop being the victim, and to learn to protect myself with the best tool for the job, no matter how much I feared it: a gun. But my resolve didn't make the process any easier.

"There are few things more terrifying than thinking you could lose your life and be unable to protect either your children or yourself at the hands of a violent attacker."

As I stood in the narrow space of the stall with my patient instructor, Adam, a former bounty hunter, I'm sure that my expression behind the glasses must have given me away, because his verbal assurances were becoming more and more frequent. He went over the basics with me again while we waited for the go-ahead from the director. Finally, it was time.

Ron Pugh                                                                                                       Special Agent, US Forsest Service, California

I have been a special agent for the US Forest Service for nearly 30 years. I am about to finish my career by serving as the supervisor of law enforcement for the Forest Service in state of California. Throughout my career, I have pursued those who threaten our precious national forests through various criminal acts. These include timber thieves, serial arsonists, artifact looters, poachers, hazard waste dumpers, and more. I am very proud to know that I have arrested and convicted dozens of individuals in these activities.

What I have experienced in the past 10 years, however, is more alarming than any of these threats described above. Currently, we estimate there are at least 3,000 armed foreign nationals engaged in the commercial production of marijuana on national forest lands in California. I am not talking about a couple of hippies growing a little pot for their personal use and perhaps some of their friends. I am talking about widespread, commercial operations involving thousands of plants, on every national forest in California, and many others throughout the United States.

Almost all of these individuals are armed, and all of them are causing significant resource damage. They are armed to protect their crops, and they have demonstrated on many occasions they are willing to use those weapons against any threats to their investments that they perceive. The resource damage is rampant and when most "first timers" observe what occurs, they are outraged and disgusted. I am outraged and disgusted.

Korin Anderson

Associate Producer, NGT

Despite the Border Patrol’s amazing arsenal of technology the task to close down a desert is still daunting. Sometimes it feels as if we are getting a rare opportunity to just hang out with a bunch of guys with really cool toys. But these toys are serious equipment for a very serious job. Last night we stayed up with the night shift in the control room in Nogales, Arizona. The room is darkened and a handful of agents watch dozens of TV monitors filling an entire wall. Those screens are connected to hundreds of remote cameras that can turn to almost every inch of the Tucson sector – an area covering over 120 square miles south west of Tucson. All night long Agent Sean watched as GPS coordinates popped up on screen. Each coordinate referenced a “hit” from an underground radar sensor. These are buried in secret locations just north of the US/Mexico border. They are so sensitive that even a coyote walking past can send an alert. Whenever a group of migrants, or worse, drug smugglers passes too close, the Border Patrol knows almost instantly. The control room can track exactly where a group is crossing, but these locations may be deep into the wilderness – so they have a system of cameras that can be remotely controlled. When a sensor reports a hit, agents can turn the nearest camera to the spot to check exactly who might be crossing. Our film crew marveled at the precision of cutting-edge infra-red cameras that can detect a person’s body heat from eight miles away. I found myself holding my breath all night as we watched the computer terminals for another hit. We were able to watch an entire chase and capture play out in black and white from eight miles away. We laughed with the agents when a huge “hit” turned out to be a herd of cows.

Korin Anderson

Associate Producer, NGT

Wow, I know that Mexico is another country,–Mexicans eat different food, wear different clothes and speak a different language-- but I am still impressed with how a just crossing a tiny, man-made border line can change the world. Nogales, Mexico even smells different than Nogales, Arizona--I think it might be that they cook their foods in a different kind of oil than we do. And oh, how good that food tastes! I am delighting in the crazy little road-side taco stands, and the street vendors selling tasty treats through the car windows. I am again thankful that my mom insisted that I learn Spanish because it is infinitely more fun to be able to understand all (okay, some) of the street noise. We drove for about three hours this morning and arrived in a dusty little town. Franc introduced us to the local priest who takes care of the permanent population as well as the countless migrants who pass through Altar each month. The padre took us on a back door tour of the town introducing us to both the seedy side, and the parish grandmothers. We met the local prostitutes, the backpack sellers, volunteers who run the local shelter, a fantastic restaurant and a newlywed couple who had just opened a breakfast burrito shop. There was a strange feeling of hospitality and hostility throughout the town. Although we are here on a non-threatening mission of merely documenting what is going on, we are clearly and obviously outsiders. It is going to take some time to build trust. And many people in the town have good reason to be suspicious of nearly everyone. Wherever your sympathies lie, the migrants who attempt illegal entry are breaking U.S. laws. The penalties for being a pollero – a human smuggler – are even higher than those for merely crossing. But the crossing through the desert is extremely treacherous and there is much money to be made in smuggling. There is a sense of desperation surrounding the migrants in Altar. If you are willing to leave your home, your family, your traditions and head north to live in secret scraping together a new life in a foreign country that at least officially doesn’t want you to come, I’d imagine that the reasons have to be pretty compelling. Then you add to that a journey across some of the harshest, hottest and driest deserts – nobody is coming to Altar for a vacation. Surprisingly many were willing to openly share their stories with us anyway. We talked to, mostly, men who shared their hopes and plans. They told us they were caring for sick parents, hoping to their children school money, or looking for just a chance to earn an honest wage. Some of them seemed confused and slightly ashamed that their circumstances had driven them to seek a criminal solution. I got the sense that if there could have found a legal option, they would gladly have taken that option. All of them wanted to tell us that they were not coming to the U.S. to break laws or to hurt anyone, nor were they looking for a hand-out or to take advantage of the U.S. social services. While they are likely other people in town with less wholesome reasons for wanting to cross, every person we met told us that they only wanted work.

Korin Anderson

Associate Producer, NGT

There were some very sketchy happenings on the street today. We are getting the feeling that someone is watching us very carefully. While I was walking down the street with our assistant cameraman, a man approached us and said “I hear you are staying in the Altar Inn.” We were both a little baffled because we didn’t remember meeting this man before. David tried to divert him and claimed that we couldn’t really remember the name of our hotel…it was somewhere over there, on the edge of town. But the man assured us that he knew exactly where we were staying. He wasn’t threatening us but he was letting us know that our actions are not going unnoticed. Today we learned that most of the industry in Altar is controlled by one person who somehow is involved in virtually every step of the migrants’ journey. Almost everyone who is attempting to cross takes a van from Altar to the edge of the U.S., a town called Sasebe that is right at the border. This van must travel up a private toll road that is owned by this same person. We were eager to travel in a van so we could film the very start of the migrants’ journey. The priest had helped us to find a van driver who might be willing to let us take a trip with him. Unfortunately our plans fell through and we were unable to make van journey. It was disappointing to not be able to film that part of the trip. David and I did manage to take some excellent still photos of a van being loaded on a side street in Altar. We were outside watching our gear while the other crew filmed an interview inside (and of course we grabbed a little excellent Mexican ice cream from a darling street vendor)--as we were sitting there we watched as person after person climbed into a van with “Altar – Sasebe” painted on the window. It seemed pretty clear what they were up to. We had heard that they packed 20 – 30 people into a stripped down 15-passenger van, but I still couldn’t believe how many people fit inside and drove off into the dust. Despite the sense of lurking danger our trip to Altar was successful and informative, and gave us the opportunity to meet some truly lovely people. The priest invited us to film a service in the local church especially for migrants, blessing them as they head northward. The church was packed with hopeful people who had shared a few days of their lives with us.

Korin Anderson

Associate Producer, NGT

For the past week we have been filming with the US Border Patrol in Tucson, Arizona trying to learn about their assignment to secure the southern border. It has been exhausting and enlightening. We have been working long hours, but the Border Patrol works even longer hours. The heat has been hovering in the 90s with blazing sun – and it is ONLY SEPTEMBER. I am so glad we didn’t decide to visit in August. And we aren’t the only ones who suffer in the heat. Everyone who ventures outside is vulnerable. It isn’t the kind of place you want to visit without expert guides and , plenty of water – and in our case, I was very glad to have an air conditioned truck to escape the heat. But the people who work there, and the people who try to cross the Sonoran desert illegally don’t have that luxury All of the Border Patrol agents have been welcoming and eager to share the day to day details of their job. And every single day I am more impressed by their tenacity and professionalism. They also have a really great stash of tools to help them. We jumped into one of their fleet of green striped jeeps and headed out with our guide for the next few days: Agent Danny McClafferty. An agent who has an especially unique assignment, McClafferty is a member of BORSTAR – Border Patrol Search Trauma And Rescue. BORSTAR agents are responsible for patrolling the border as all agents are, but they are also specially trained in desert rescue. Most of them are licensed paramedics ready to treat and rescue anyone in danger in the desert. Soft-spoken Danny unlike my idea of the typical Border Agent as you could imagine. He is awesome and his compassion and commitment to his work are tangible. Danny’s family has been working for the Border Patrol for years and he learned tracking from his dad.

"The distances in the desert are unthinkable to anybody who lives within walking distance of at least 12 Starbucks." - Korin Anderson

After driving for about 50 miles – the distances in the desert are unthinkable to anybody who lives within walking distance of at least 12 Starbucks - we finally reached our destination. We headed off-road – okay, it was probably officially a road, but it didn’t qualify as “road” in my experience—“dirt path” would be a generous overstatement. As we drove along, Danny leaned out the window and watched the dust at the side of the road. He encouraged us to watch along with him and explained that we were looking for either footprints – or perhaps the signs that footprints had been disguised. He explained that the crossers know exactly how the Border Patrol tracks – by driving east and west and hoping to cross their paths northward. The easiest place to see footprints is wherever a group must cross a road. But avoiding detection at these spots appears to be a minor challenge for border crossers. They use a variety of techniques to confuse the agents tracking them. Sometimes they just walk backwards so they would appear to be walking south instead of north – but this doesn’t fool Danny. When you walk backwards your heel makes a deeper impression than when you walk forward. Other groups carry brooms, or twigs to sweep out their tracks. Once they caught a group with a battery powered leaf blower to BLOW out their tracks. These people seem determined to cross at all costs.

Max Salomon

Series Producer & Writer; Explorer, NGT

The field production for Border Wars posed a significant challenge for our production team. The stories in the field covered a huge expanse - the terrain of Arizona and New Mexico in which much of our story takes place is extremely vast and remote. Distances between locations often required hours of driving...along dirt roads not on the map…or miles on foot through the desert. Covering such a wide territory would have been impossible for a single crew in the time allotted. Producer Ray Telles asked if I might leave my Series Producer desk in D.C. behind and be willing to run a second unit for several days. Getting an excuse to get into the field is always a thrill. So I tossed my pen and notepad, Blackberry and laptop over my shoulder, grabbed a VariCam and headed out into the desert. I have to admit that what I experienced and saw from this privileged "front row seat" to the action fundamentally shifted my understanding of the immigration issue. Amidst the din of the immigration debate and the pundits’ rhetoric, the truth of what actually is going on our border with Mexico is easily lost in the public discourse. The US effort to secure the border has had unintended consequences. Since the 1990's we've been building a massive security fence... triple lines patrolled by SUV's, ATV's ... surveilled by watchtowers and cameras...illuminated by floodlights. The statistics show that where this massive barrier has gone up it's been extremely effective... in those areas (San Diego, El Paso, etc.) the number of crossings has dropped. But the number of migrants crossing into the US has continued to rise. The traffic has simply been funneled elsewhere. It has moved into areas that were once simply too dangerous and hard to cross...into the deserts and mountain wildernesses of a region dubbed “The Devil’s Highway”. The problem now is that thousands of migrants are entering a dangerous wilderness... one that they can't cross on their own... and it has often funneled them in to the hands of organized crime. What our nation's border patrol agents face now in securing the border is not simply unarmed migrants crossing on their own...they are battling a complex dangerous network of human traffickers.

Ramón Bonfil, Ph.D. Facing a great white shark in its natural environment is one of the most humbling and life-marking experiences one can ever have, as long as this is done under controlled and safe conditions. I know this from first-hand experience. In the last 5 years I have had the stunning honor of handling 17 live great white sharks with my own hands, all in the name of science. The most surprising fact people come to realize after seeing their first great white in the wild is that their typical behavior has nothing to do with the stereotype of ferocity and aggressiveness that has been force-fed to us through ‘killer shark’ movies and pseudo-documentaries. Great white sharks are surprisingly calm and cautious in their movements around cages with divers or with a boat floating at the surface. Only through skillful manipulation of bait can we provoke their aggressive behavior. After all, they are top predators and nobody likes to be teased when hungry. Why would anyone want to wrestle with live great whites for a living? The answer is surprisingly simple: because these vilified fish are under threat of extinction and we know very little about their biology and ecology. Despite their iconoclastic fame in pop culture, great white sharks are still largely a mystery to science. The research we and other scientists around the world are conducting on the movements and migrations of great white sharks by using cutting-edge satellite tags and other electronic instruments is allowing us to map, better than ever, the ways in which they utilize the ocean and how they move in this vast environment. Until very recently everyone thought that great whites were chiefly a coastal species that only seldom would venture into the high seas. But thanks to satellite tagging studies like the one we just started in Guadalupe Island, Mexico, we know now that great white sharks have a diversity of spatial behaviors that include fidelity to very specific coastal areas for months at a time in addition to regular coastal migrations covering thousands of miles. More surprisingly, we discovered that great white sharks migrate across entire oceans and back. On February 2003, one of the sharks we tagged in South Africa crossed the entire Indian Ocean to the coast of Western Australia, and then crossed right back to South Africa, covering more than 20,000 kilometers (12,000 miles) in less than 9 months!

Lisa Ling Meth really is the mother of all drugs. It's the cheapest, dirtiest and most powerful drug in existence today. It's also the fastest spreading. Meth doesn't kill its addicts immediately. The process is slow, during which it takes an extreme physical and psychological toll. Meth literally rots people's bodies—teeth, face and insides. Frankly, I was appalled by how ugly it made frequent users.

Photo by David Ross Smith

I explored the impact meth is having on societies in Portland, Omaha and Bangkok. The reasons people start using the drug differ from city to city. In Portland, I was shocked to learn that 80 percent of that city's prisons hold people on meth-related charges. Whether the charges are for drug dealing, identity theft or armed robbery, somehow they are connected to meth. Portland's hospitals are overwhelmed by patients admitted for meth abuse. I've always considered Portland to be one of the most beautiful cities in the U.S., but meth's impact on it has been tremendously ugly. But there is hope. Addicts can recover. I had the privilege of meeting a man in Portland who is six months into recovery. His name is Kobe. Kobe was very good looking, smart and athletic when he got addicted. But meth nearly destroyed his life. I was amazed after I heard his story that he was even alive. The most poignant part of his story was that his parents, who are loving and middle class, told me what a relief it was to learn that he had been arrested and jailed … because that meant they knew where he was and that he was alive.

Photo by David Ross Smith

I also met a young woman in jail named Julie. She was a prime example of how meth deteriorates a person, inside and out. She was incredibly paranoid, even though she has been clean since her incarceration. I saw pictures of Julie before she became addicted to meth—she had been so attractive. It was truly heartbreaking to see what the drug had done to her. Her face was riddled with pockmarks from sores that had gotten infected and her teeth were totally rotted from years of grating and negligence.

Stephen Secor - Associate Professor, University of Alabama Exploding python – Awakening gator A 13-foot Burmese python, bloated and dead, was found in the Everglades National Park on September 26, 2005. There was a large gash in its side and from it protruded a 6-foot alligator. Helicopter Pilot Mike Barron and Wildlife Biologist Skip Snow discovered the creature within a creature. Photographs of the discovery flooded my email. I’ve been studying the digestive physiology of snakes for 15 years now, but I’d never seen a case like this one. It looked like the python had eaten the alligator, but then why was the python dead and half of the alligator exposed? CSI: Everglades Mike, Skip, and I returned to the crime scene with National Geographic’s Explorer to find out what happened. At 200 feet and at 50 mph, I was getting a bird’s-eye view of the new residency of the Burmese python within the Everglades, a landscape of tall grass, small tree islands, and the occasional “gator hole.” We taped off the scene and brought out the photos Mike took the day of the initial discovery. With the laminated photos laid out on knee-deep water, Skip and I pieced together the possible series of events leading to the death of both animals. Myths busted There had been two theories – but both seemed unlikely. Gas (caused by the decomposing alligator) built up inside the python’s stomach causing the snake to combust. Or the python consumed the alligator while it was asleep, the alligator awoke inside the python’s stomach, and the alligator was clawing its way out of the python’s stomach when both expired. Having worked on hundreds of Burmese pythons of all different sizes, I could not imagine that enough gas would have been produced by the decomposing alligator to cause a rupture in the very thick skin of the python. I have seen pythons after consuming very large meals expand to four times their diameter without any damage to their skin. From the photograph of the dead python, it appeared that the python may have only doubled in width due to the alligator meal. Also, like humans, pythons can pass excess gas from their stomachs. As for the awaking alligator scenario, this would require that the alligator was not dead, but only unconscious when swallowed by the python. Pythons kill their prey by constriction and only eat once they have sensed that the prey is dead. On the chance that the alligator was not dead and regained consciousness inside the python’s stomach, it would have quickly succumbed to the lack of oxygen. In addition, with its hind limbs pinned tightly against its tail within the snake there would have been no room for the alligator to maneuver its feet and claw through the python. There are two types of animals in the world: snakes and snake food Can a Burmese python even constrict, swallow, and digest an alligator? While there are no published accounts of Burmese pythons in the wild eating crocodilians, we know that two other of the world’s giant snakes are able to so. There are accounts and photographs of anacondas in South America feeding upon caimans and a record of an African rock python constricting a Nile crocodile. Considering the list of formidable prey items that pythons are known to consume including leopards, wild pigs, impala, gazelles, porcupines, and pangolins, it is not unreasonable to suspect that they can also digest an alligator. With the photographic evidence from the Everglades that the Burmese python can kill and swallow an alligator, members of my research laboratory and I set to see how well a python could swallow an alligator and how long it would take the snake to digest the alligator. From our colony of Burmese python we enticed an 800 gram snake to swallow a 200 gram alligator, already dead. To our surprise, the python easily swallowed the alligator, taking only about 15 minutes to do so. Each day after the python had swallowed the alligator we transported the snake to a local veterinary clinic and X-rayed the snake’s midsection. The X-rays revealed clearly the daily disintegration of the alligator’s skeleton, first the skull, then the shoulder regions and forelimbs, followed by the pelvic region, hindlimbs, and tail, all completed within nine days. So, not only can a Burmese pythons swallow an alligator, it can also digest it. There goes the neighborhood: What are pythons doing in the Everglades? Why are there now Burmese pythons in the Everglades anyway and how will they impact the native animals? The first part of this question can be answered in two words, size and climate. Burmese pythons are one of the largest snakes in the world, able to exceed 20 feet in length. They were also the first python to become very popular in the pet trade due to their docile nature, ease of maintenance and breeding, and the development by snake hobbyists of several different color variants. Bred and sold by the thousands each year as hatchling for almost two decades, the young pythons with their voracious appetites simply grew too big for many homes. Manageable at first in a 20 gallon aquarium on a diet of mice, a 4-year old Burmese python (12 feet in length), requires a very large cage and has graduated to a diet of rabbits. Unfortunately as these snakes grew too big, they were taken out to the countryside and released to fend for themselves. As a result, medium and large pythons have been discovered wandering the suburbs, woodlands, and countryside across the United States. With much of North American having a colder or a drier climate compared to the subtropical native home of the Burmese python, many of the released snakes were unable to survive through the year.

Lawrence Cumbo - Producer, Director, Cinematographer Making films for National Geographic has brought me to refugee camps, prisons, and war zones, but nothing could have prepared me for what we witnessed in New Orleans a few months ago, in the city where I grew up. It was August 28, an early Sunday morning, when America woke up to a shocking surprise. Katrina, a moderate “category one” hurricane that recently skirted Florida, had blown up overnight into a massive hurricane. Now it was a "category five" and it was headed straight for New Orleans. After three sleepless days watching live news coverage, I was given the assignment to "go home" with a camera and to film. At this point, the situation in New Orleans had turned critical and desperate. People were dying, toxic water was still rising, and thousands were still stranded. Widespread violence had delayed rescuers, and there was no food, no water, no gas and no utilities. We rigged out a 4x4 SUV self-contained with everything we needed—gas, electric power, satellite communications. We also brought food, water and medical kits for ourselves, and ultimately for the survivors of Katrina. Finally, we drove from our headquarters in Washington D.C. to my parents' home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. At New Orleans, we arrived to see a dying city. Personally, this is a place where I’ve celebrated births, weddings and even funerals—and standing at dusk near Claiborne and Tulane Avenue—it all seemed unreal, so massive, it was overwhelming. Our first time in the water, we dodged natural gas fires bubbling from the putrefied liquid laden with oil, raw sewage, and corpses. Block after block, the water was up to the rooftops of homes and businesses, punctuated by a quiet, eerie sound of dogs barking and wailing from every direction, helicopters shuddering in the background. The great, colorful neighborhoods where people lived and worked were inundated with putrefied water. Our 4x4 hopped medians, traversed sidewalks, bobbed and wove as we made our way down St. Charles Street. Our first stop was at the New Orleans Coast Guard Air Station to meet with Commanding Officer Lt. Bruce Jones, who shuffled us into one of their iconic orange rescue choppers. They were so desperate to show us what they had been dealing with over the past few days. Everyone was tired, and the rescue swimmer covered in bandages looked like young soldiers just returning from battle. These men and women are responsible for saving over five thousand lives; they were the first heroes we met. As soon as our chopper crossed over the Mississippi River from the west bank I saw the scale of this disaster—New Orleans was completely covered with water. Not just low-lying neighborhoods and flooded drainage canals, the entire city was a lake—the city park, the fairgrounds, the giant shopping mall, cemeteries, universities, fire and police stations, even lakes were underwater. The islands of hope—parts of downtown and the French Quarter—seemed as if they sat on the banks of a polluted lake. Did we see any bodies? Yes, too many. Months later these scenes have re-emerged and haunted my dreams. The first man I saw was lying at the foot of the Art Museum at City Park, covered in part by an American flag. He was someone’s son, possibly someone’s father or brother—and why was he still lying in the hot summer sun? I said a prayer while filming in silence. Then our phone rang. It was a dear friend calling, saying she’d fled the night before Katrina and had no idea if anything she’d owned had been spared. This became the pattern for us; we would go regularly on reconnaissance missions for all the friends, family and strangers who asked. It was a way to balance the dreadful and hopeless situation we faced. We ended up delivering food, diesel, water, inhalers, pets, and checked on many homes and businesses. On about the third day, I was filming from the roof of our SUV as we slowly rolled through hell. I saw a man alone, digging in a vacant lot. We’d read about folks burying their dead family members so they could find them later. We turned around and cautiously approached. I asked him what he was doing. He gave me a foolish look and responded, "I’m burying my trash." I was stunned and asked, "Why are you still here? And why are you burying your trash? Look around you!" He was surrounded by overturned cars, dead dogs, floating garbage, and downed trees and branches. He responded in his thick New Orleans accent, "This is my city, baby, and this is my trash, you wouldn’t throw your trash in your front yard would you? This city is coming back and I’m helping keep in clean."

Correspondent Lisa Ling documented the experience of filming this special from El Salvador to Los Angeles. Below are accounts of some of her chilling experiences, including finding out that she and her crew had been targeted for kidnapping and touring MS-13 controlled territory in Los Angeles with an active MS-13 member. Lisa Ling Growing up in Los Angeles, it’s hard not to notice the graffiti that covers the sides of buildings, walls, fences and trucks in many parts of the city. It looks like meaningless scribble, but it’s used to mark territory. Though it is home to Hollywood and the entertainment industry, large swaths of the city are also claimed by violent street gangs. If you’re a gangster and walk into territory claimed by a rival gang, you could be shot to death without question. Although there are over 100 known gangs in L.A., my encounters with gangsters had been pretty limited. I thought I could identify them by their shaved heads, baggy pants and tattoos, but then “gangsta” style became cool and it became impossible to single out individuals as bonafide “bangers.” A gang called “White Fence” controlled the area where I was working in the ‘90s. I’d also known about the gangs plaguing the L.A. streets, particularly the big ones like the “Bloods,” “Crips” and “18th Street.” I recall hearing about a small Salvadoran gang with a really long name – Mara Salvatrucha – that was considered somewhat insignificant relative to the bigger more established gangs. For those reasons, law enforcement paid little attention to it and focused their efforts at suppressing other gangs. Big Mistake. In a very short period of time, Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, has arguably become the biggest and most dangerous gang in the world. In the 1980's a law was enacted that would deport non-U.S. citizens convicted of serious crimes back to their home countries after serving their sentences. This resulted in hundreds of thousands of criminal offenders, including thousands of gang members, being returned to countries that had never encountered gang problems – such has been the case with El Salvador. Rather than return to the U.S., many gang members stayed in their home countries and brought gangbanging culture with them. Law enforcement officials (who’ve served as journalistic sources for me in the past) have kept me up to date on the issues keeping them the busiest. Over the last couple of years, several of my gang detective colleagues urged me to take a deeper look into MS-13 because members were starting to show up in many different parts of the U.S. and other countries. They were also beginning to perpetrate heinous acts of violence in areas that had never experienced such things before. The gang started to grow so fast that a federal task force was created to deal specifically with MS – a big deal considering that it started as a small L.A. street gang. My first foray into the world of MS came through a 20-year-old active member whom I call "Jester" in the show. He was jumped in (members viciously pound and kick the individual for 13 seconds, for the purposes of initiation) when he was only eight years old. Just a year later, at age nine, Jester was sent to “attack the enemy” – to walk up to a group of six rival gangsters and open fire. He was so scared he closed his eyes. After the shots went off, he saw that one guy had fallen—whether he survived is unknown. Jester says it’s the only time he ever felt sad or scared. He’s shot nearly twenty others since then. According to Jester, it’s either “him or me.” If he doesn’t shoot the enemy, the enemy will shoot him. I found out that several weeks after my interview with him, he and his homie were arrested for murder. When I got the call from a law enforcement officer, I felt sick. I had gotten to know Jester and he took me into his world, and now he was locked up and facing murder charges. He and his friends told me many stories of having to “do what they had to do,” in order to protect themselves and their neighborhoods. At the time I couldn’t distinguish between big talk and their reality. I guess it was their reality. Gangs operate as businesses in the criminal world. What’s disturbing is how young the recruits are and how vulnerable they are to indoctrination. The young boys are made to prove themselves through violence, and the faster one becomes a killer, the faster he or she will move up the ranks. Gangs are families who raise their kids to kill. With a presence in 33 U.S. states and more than five other countries, right now the MS-13 family is the biggest of gang operations. Law enforcement is reigning in on their operations, but as soon as MS is weakened, there will be others anxious to fill the void.

Gareth Harvey Battle for the Title… In the brief but brilliant “Age of the Helicopter,” there have been many contenders for the title of “Super Copter.” The CH-47 Chinook, the UH-1 “Huey,” which transformed the very nature of warfare in Vietnam, and Eurocopter’s Ecureuil AS350, which has carried out some of the highest altitude rescues in history. But one of the newest copters that brings it all home is the EH101. Recently chosen to be the next “Marine One”—the Presidential Helicopter, the EH101, will be specially outfitted as the new Oval Office in the sky. It was a tight race with Sikorsky’s S-92, and the competition between the two copters isn’t over yet. Though the EH101 is the president’s vehicle of choice, both of these state-of-the-art flying machines are now vying for a multi-billion dollar contract to supply the U.S. Air Force with their new generation of search and rescue helicopters. Seeing From New Heights Helicopters are a monumental human achievement, a technological feat that’s become so common place we don’t blink an eye at them anymore. But National Geographic’s Explorer takes you for a ride on the EH101 to see why you might want to take a second look. In reality helicopters are among the most complex flying machines ever created. And for three weeks this past summer, we rode with the AgustaWestland EH101, and captured the most spectacular footage I’ve ever seen of helicopters in flight. On location with the British Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force, and the Italian Navy, we quickly discovered that the EH101 – and other cutting-edge helicopters like the Sikorsky S-92 and NH Industries’ NH90 – have taken the science of rotary flight to a whole new level. What Makes Them Fly? What’s keeping them in the air? Their main rotors, for one thing. The EH101, for example, is a fusion of high-tech composite materials – including carbon fibre – built around a core of honeycomb paper and foam. But it’s more durable and more battle-worthy than an all-metal blade – like those used on the famous Hueys in the Vietnam War. Put a bullet through a composite blade and the fibres around the bullet hole remain undamaged – whereas a metal blade fractures around the impact site. Rotors are essentially ‘spinning wings’ that provide a helicopter with lift – but they also have to propel the aircraft through the air. Main rotor blades twist, flap, and move independently of each other to achieve both lift and thrust simultaneously! By using composite materials, designers of the new-generation Super Copters have far more flexibility in the shaping of rotor blades, and thus far more ‘control’ over the air they move through. The EH101 has a special ‘winged tip’ on its main rotor, which according to its pilots gives it the airborne capability of a much smaller aircraft. Life-Saving Features: No More Brown-Outs And the Royal Air Force pilots operating the EH101 in Iraq discovered a life-saving feature of its main rotor blade which even its developers hadn’t counted on. They found a solution to a pilot’s worst nightmare when flying in the desert—“brown out”—which is a dense cloud of swirling sand and dust, virtually blinding pilots as they’re trying to land. To counteract this, the EH101’s ‘winged-tip’ rotor blades create what its pilots call the “donut effect” – a circular window of clear air inside the dust storm that allows them to see the ground as they come in to land. Engines with Ten Times the Power But perhaps the most remarkable component of the new Super Copter is its state-of-the-art engine. You’d think that ‘jet powered’ helicopters achieved their forward thrust through their jet-engines – but in reality all the power generated by the jets (they’re really ‘gas-turbine engines’) goes into driving the main and tail rotors though an incredibly complex gear-assembly. The latest breed of helicopter engine, while about the same size as the internal-combustion engine of the average family car, develops about ten times the power. The secret is a metal-alloy turbine whose blades exceed their melting point as they spin – forcing air through the chambers of the engine. Each blade is a single crystal of metal, drilled by laser beams, which allows them to be encased in a sheath of air as they whirl around – preventing them from melting. The power generated by this turbine (and transferred through the engine to the rotor blades) is an incredible two thousand horsepower. It’s the sort of power that allows today’s Super Copters to hover rock-steady in high winds – a critical advantage in search and rescue operations. It’s all a long way from the Chinese-rotored flying toys – or from Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘aerial screw’, which many credit as Man’s first inspiration for what would become the ‘helicopter.’ Inventing New Rotors As with fixed-wing flight, the development of helicopters went hand-in-hand with the invention of the internal-combustion engine – light enough and yet powerful enough to lift a heavier-than-air craft off the ground. But the complexities involved in successfully creating a rotary aircraft, as opposed to one with fixed wings, were immense. The primary problem that early helicopter designers – like Igor Sikorsky, the ‘father of the helicopter’ – had to solve was how to stop the airframe from spinning around the main rotor. One solution was the use of twin rotor blades – each spinning the opposite direction. The most famous twin-rotored helicopter is probably Boeing’s CH-47 Chinook – the massive aerial workhorse of armies and air forces around the world. The invention of the tail rotor not only solved the inherent problem of rotary-winged flight, but gave the helicopter its unique manoeuvrability in the air. What became the accepted model for all modern helicopters also quickly became an indispensable tool of war, rescue, and emergency services. Today’s breed of Super Copters are on their way to marking new benchmarks in the helicopter age. Already their superior engines and rotor systems are setting new records in range and reliability – leading to some remarkable rescues and mind-boggling military strategies. Witnessing the capabilities of this new generation of helicopters, and meeting the pilots and the engineers who are making it all possible, it was like flying higher (and steadier) than Cloud Nine. It was truly the ride of our lives!

Heidi Shin and Bill Kelso In 1607, 13 years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth rock, just over 100 English men and boys seeking gold, profit, opportunity and adventure in the New World landed on a small island in the James River and established Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in America, and what would eventually become the birthplace of the United States. What you usually hear about Jamestown are the stories of Pocahontas coming to the aid of John Smith and his starving men. What’s not so well known is that Jamestown is the birthplace of American democracy and free enterprise. Also what you don’t hear about is just what the relationship between the settlers and the Indians was really like. And rarely are questions asked about the effectiveness of John Smith’s leadership and the role of his followers—their endeavors and struggles, how they lived and died. That’s what archaeologists wanted to learn when launching the Jamestown Rediscovery Project, but they ended up unearthing much more than they had bargained for. In anticipation of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, historians and archaeologists from the APVA Preservation (Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities) set out to discover, excavate and analyze the remains of the 1607 James Fort and town site. The team had expected to make new discoveries, but they didn’t expect to be floored by what they learned. Historians long-believed James Fort had been washed away by the river. But just ten years ago, in 1996, archaeologists discovered the footprints to the triangular fort still existed. The fort’s outline, including the remains of portions of the palisade walls and two bulwarks, as well as several buildings, pits and wells were all still in place. It turned out only a single corner, not the entire fort, had been eroded by the river. Continued expedition unearthed nearly a million objects, including the skeletons of nearly 80 colonists, which tell us more about life at James Fort. These remains now constitute one of the largest collections of Early American Colonial artifacts in the world. As archaeologists dug away little did they know that the most exciting discovery was still yet to come. The discovery of a grave—which evidence strongly suggested contained the remains of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, the principal organizer and administrator of the early Jamestown effort. But how could this be proven for certain? Dr. Bill Kelso, APVA’s archaeological director, was determined to find out. And so the adventure begins… ********************************************************************************************************* The Search for Identification: Re-discovering Batholomew Gosnold Bill Kelso We’re standing inside All Saints Church in Shelley, England, watching as the unmarked ledger stone to the grave that we believe contains the remains of Bartholomew Gosnold’s sister is lifted quickly and effortlessly by a British archaeologist. He scrapes away the sandy dirt beneath the stone, and the outline of a grave shaft begins to appear. All around us, displays of roses, peonies, irises, sweet peas and other flowers from local gardens perfume the air. A few women from this tiny rural village of about 40 people have brought them to decorate the 13th-century church for their annual Flower Festival. Above us, unseen starlings squeak from the rafters, and every 15 minutes the Westminster Chimes plays on the bells in the tower. The setting is so peaceful and the excavation is progressing so rapidly that it seems surreal after the years of research and waiting for permission from the Church of England’s Diocese of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich to obtain a sample from her remains for DNA testing to confirm that the remains are those of her brother. Almost two and a half years ago, we discovered the grave of a man buried just outside the gates of the 1607 James Fort at Historic Jamestowne on Jamestown Island, Virginia. Based on a chain of physical and historical evidence, the remains appear to be those of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, a founding father of modern America. The most compelling piece of evidence that this was a high-ranking person was the discovery of a decorative captain’s leading staff that was ceremoniously placed along one edge of his coffin lid. We have never found any other ceremonial objects in Jamestown burials, so we know this was someone very special, and coffin burials were traditionally used for people of higher status. If it is Gosnold, then we’ve found the ‘lost-to-history’ burial of one of the most influential and moving spirits behind English-American colonization. Captain John Smith credits Gosnold as the prime mover of the colonization of Virginia. Gosnold planned the Jamestown Colony with Smith and others, and obtained an exclusive charter from King James for the Virginia Company to settle Virginia. As vice-admiral of the Jamestown expedition, Gosnold was captain of the Godspeed, one of three ships in the fleet. He also was one of the six members of the original governing council and helped design James Fort. To add hard science to identification evidence, we needed to obtain and compare DNA from his remains with mitochondrial DNA from a relative. Mitochondrial DNA can survive in bones, as it did in this case, but it is only passed along the maternal family line. So, we needed DNA from the Jamestown burial’s mother or his siblings, or nieces or nephews who were the children of his sisters, and so on. Catherine Correll-Walls, a Virginia-based researcher, and Joanna Martin, a historical researcher in Suffolk, England, attempted to identify a living descendent, but lost the trail after three generations beginning with Gosnold’s mother and ending with his nieces. But this research revealed the burial sites of two deceased relatives and possible candidates for DNA testing including Gosnold’s sister, Elizabeth Tilney, who requested in her will to be buried next to her husband at All Saints Church in Shelley. The exact location of her grave is not identified in the church, but luckily, Joanna discovered a record in the Higham St. Mary parish registers that she was buried in the Shelley chancel the day after she died. Elizabeth, who had been the lady of Shelley Manor, had moved to Higham when her family sold the estate after her husband died. He was buried in the church before they moved. Further study of historians’ notes about the memorials and grave stones in the church helped pinpoint where inside the church she was likely to have been buried.

Bill Kelso, Director of Archaeology at Historic Jamestowne, discusses progress of the grave excavation at Shelley church with Suffolk archaeologist Rodney Gardner.

We also learned about the possible location of the grave of Katherine Blackerby, Gosnold’s niece, who is believed to be buried in the Blackerby family vault at St. Peter and St. Mary Church in Stowmarket, England. Next we needed permission from the Church of England to obtain bone samples for DNA testing. I visited the church on a research trip to England and talked to Andrew Scott who was the warden of the church in Shelley to find out if it might be possible and to see what would be involved as far as uncovering the grave to obtain a bone sample for DNA testing. Andrew contacted some Church officials and asked the parishioners if they had any objections. Based on their positive response, we decided to formally request permission even though the Church of England had never approved a request like ours before. As the diocese moved through their extensive and thorough review process, no one thought we would ever get approval. The presumption is against the disturbance of remains – unless there is a really good case for it. There were literally hundreds of moments during the process when the parishioners or committees or officials could have said “no.” Even during the excavations, the project could have been stopped at any time, but once we began, it seemed that the parishioners and officials were as invested in the project and as excited about finding Elizabeth’s grave to possibly confirm the identity of Jamestown’s Gosnold as we were.

Rodney Gardner measures an excavation area around ledgerstone believed to mark Elizabeth Gosnold Tilney's grave.

We brought teeth and bone samples back to the States for testing and comparative analysis. Surprisingly and unfortunately, we learned that the DNA we had obtained was not that of Bartholomew Gosnold's sister, Elizabeth. As a result, we were not able to more conclusively confirm that we had discovered Gosnold's grave. The testing and microscopic analysis, including an osteon analysis of bone and dental samples, indicated that the woman in question was about age 50 when she died, whereas Elizabeth Tilney Gosnold was said to have died at age 74. Researchers believe this body is likely that of Anne Framlingham, born around 1544 and married to Philip Tilney of Shelley Hall as a teenager. We're unaware of any other relatives, buried or living, who could provide a DNA sample match. Nevertheless, because of historical, archaeological and forensic evidence, we're still confident that the grave we've come upon in Jamestown is that of Captain Gosnold's, the Lost Founding Father, and we'll continue to search for other archaeological and forensic evidence to confirm this important discovery. Regardless of the research results, the expedition has done wonders for bringing this colonial explorer the acclaim he deserved but was never given. Though not on the tip of grade-schoolers' tongues, Captain Gosnold's success in starting the Virginia settlement we can now arguably say is one of the most significant events in the subsequent history of the world. Unfortunately, having died so soon after his arrival at Jamestown Gosnold's memoirs have gone unwritten and his role in laying American democratic roots often go unrecognized. Nearly two hundred years later, perhaps the unearthing of his grave will also bring his stories back to life.

Isham Randolph The Other Pyramids Perhaps you remember seeing them as a photo insert in a history textbook, or in candy coated Technicolor in a shoebox of old postcards. The Pyramids of Teotihuacán. Familiar. Massive. Boring. Teotihuacán—the site of a civilization that appeared out of nowhere to build some of the largest pyramids in the world, only to vanish almost one thousand years later—strangely plays second fiddle to other Pre-Hispanic archaeological sites in the Americas. Following recent ground-breaking excavations that have nearly turned on its head what was known and what was hypothesized about the civilization of Teotihuacán, Explorer believes that Teotihuacán deserves a second look. One of Mexico’s First Archaeological Sites Teotihuacán, because of the size of its principal pyramids, its austere surroundings and its proximity to Mexico City, was one of Mexico's first great archaeological sites. While explorers in pith helmets were hacking through the jungles of the Yucatan peninsula, and dying of malaria along the way, looking for lost cities and their fabled bounty, Teotihuacán had already seen years of excavation, and tourists from around the world had come to see Mexico’s answer to Egypt. Yet, by the time the great Mayan sites had been found and roads with tourists had reached them, Teotihuacán had passed from being Mexico's crown jewel to an afterthought for a day trip from Mexico City. As the mysteries of the Maya were being discovered and Aztec glyphs decoded, shedding light on their respective histories, the civilization of Teotihuacán remained a mystery. Save for their monumental architecture and a few murals, little remained to provide scientists with the answers to who these people were, how they lived, why they built their buildings and, most importantly, what happened to them. Theories About Teotihuacán Since evidence was scarce, theories about Teotihuacán abound. No signs of a distinct culture remain. It’s as if Teotihuacán were populated by an extraterrestrial race who built the pyramids, stayed for a while, and vanished as abruptly as they had come. No monuments to rulers or burial chambers have ever been found. Teotihuacán, most historians thought, was a utopian civilization, governed at its most hierarchical by a governing council, at its least, by the citizens themselves. Seeing no evidence of human sacrifice, archaeologists believed Teotihuacán was a pacific civilization, holding no standing army or partaking in the bloody sacrificial rites indicative of its later Mesoamerican successors, the Aztecs. Excavating… 1,000 Years of Neglect Sheer size has made attempts to thoroughly excavate Teotihuacán a monumental headache. The site has an area of at least 8 square miles. In 100 years of excavation, only a small percentage of the city is accounted for. The rest lies under farmland and the five modern, growing towns that surround it. This could mean that more of the iconic multicolored murals of jaguar warriors and fertility rites found in excavated sites – and even missing clues to the civilization’s political and religious structure—could still exist under contemporary homes, under farmland, or under convenience stores or supermarkets (including the recently installed Walmart.) What has been discovered, however, must be hailed as a major success. This is land that has seen many owners since the time of the Teotihuacanos. After their disappearance, the cornerstones of a great civilization reverted to farmland once again. And farmland it remained for many centuries. It was only 70 years ago shortly after the Mexican Revolution, that rows of the crop so ingrained in the Mexican culture, maize, still pushed right up to the bases of the great pyramids themselves. One thousand years of neglect also meant one thousand years of looting, the Aztecs themselves being one of the oldest perpetrators. They not only adopted the gods and architecture of the Teotihuacanos but they also took idols and other artifacts from the site, carrying them to their own grand city, Tenochtitlan, for worship. Others also looted, leaving the city potentially barren of the clues necessary to understand Teotihuacán and its political system. Two prime areas for the burial chambers of the royal line, the governing elite or the priestly caste – the man-made tunnel dug directly eastward to the center of the Pyramid of the Sun and a tunnel system under the Pyramid of the Plumed—were breached and perhaps looted long before archaeologists had their chance. Searching for Missing Clues… And Some Surprise Discoveries A number of scientists of varying backgrounds and schools of thought have recently taken up projects that could find those missing clues. Physicist Dr. Arturo Menchaca and a team from the National Autonomous University of Mexico have placed a device that reads sub-atomic particles – muons – at the center of the tunnel underneath of the Pyramid of the Sun. Its purpose is to detect potential cavities in the pyramid, which might lead to the discovery of the elusive tomb of the divine king who inspired the building of the pyramid itself. Dr. Linda Manzanilla, an archaeologist at the National University, while keeping an eye on Menchaca’s progress, is currently excavating a site just to the north of the Pyramid of the Sun, where she believes the answers to Teotihuacán’s lack of monuments to their rulers might be found. She believes she is excavating a government palace, one that could show that Teotihuacán was not a monarchy but an oligarchy co-governed by four equals. An arrangement that cooled desires for power and presented a harmony that was reflected in the peaceful, utopian community that it governed. National Geographic supported scientist, Dr. Saburo Sugiyama, believes that his recent findings at the Pyramid of the Moon – human skeletons, the remains of such animals as eagles and jaguar, and stone idols—prove what he has felt all along, that Teotihuacán was no different from its Mesoamerican predecessors, contemporaries, or the civilizations it helped spawn: authoritarian, warring, with a religion built around human sacrifice. So what happened? Why the decline? Though its sudden disappearance is still mystery, why Teotihuacán declined is a little clearer. Teotihuacán had grown too large to support itself. The city bulged to perhaps 200,000 inhabitants in an area of eight square miles. The sewage and water systems, though technological marvels of their time, could not sustain those numbers, making it harder to find clean water and dispose of the waste, fomenting disease among the population. Nor could agricultural areas, dwindling as the city expanded, provide the necessary food to keep its inhabitants nourished. Urban sprawl, one sees, in the case of Teotihuacán, is not solely a modern phenomenon. Will history repeat itself? From the top of the Pyramid of the Moon, looking almost due south some 40 kms away, you can see the pollution from Mexico City welling up between the hills that separate the valley of Mexico from the valley of Teotihuacán. You can also see, spreading through the dips in the hills, the signs of urban sprawl: factories, housing developments, ribbons of highway, inching closer and closer to the great pyramids, gobbling up farmland along the way. Mexico City, like its Pre-Hispanic predecessor, grew because of its strategic location and its abundant resources. Like its predecessor, it became a locus of power and a magnet for commerce and people looking for a better life. And, like its predecessor, Mexico City’s size has outstripped its resources and feasibility, putting a strain on its government, its people and its environment. Mexico City has endured what appears to be both natural and man-made warnings that its reign is over: the terrible earthquake of 1985 that killed thousands, pollution levels in the 1990s that knocked birds out of the sky, crime rates that rank as some of the worst in the world, rains that have spilled raw sewage into the homes of hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants. The Teotihuacanos, perhaps realizing the inevitable collapse, sacrificed their monumental city to save themselves. What will the inhabitants and government of Mexico City decide to do? Will Mexico City’s rise and potential fall one day become the subject of an archaeological mystery as well?

Bijal Trivedi - National Geographic Channel

“There is a history book in your DNA [that reveals] how people are related to each other all over the planet and how we have moved around,” - Spencer Wells

Analyzing DNA from the cheek cells of a group of Mongolians enabled geneticist Spencer Wells, an Explorer-In-Residence at the National Geographic Society, to figure out whether they were indeed descendants of the notorious warrior who lived 800 years ago and thousands of miles away. Such exotic historical enigmas are daily fodder for Wells who is in the midst of the Genographic Project (GP)—a massive undertaking to sample human DNA from around the world to illuminate human genetic and migratory history. “There is a history book in your DNA [that reveals] how people are related to each other all over the planet and how we have moved around,” says Wells. The last 10,000 years are of particular interest to Wells who, since childhood, wanted to be an historian. “I was fascinated by Egypt and Greece and Rome and all of these great empires and I’m very interested in the impact of these empires on the patterns of genetic variation—for example, can we see traces of the Phoenicians in North Africa?” says Wells. His latest adventures have led him to discover that Thomas Jefferson’s ethnic background is not quite as one would expect. He has hunted down possible descendents of Solomon, the third king of Israel. And, he has entered a world where science and religion converge—the search for what he calls the “scientific Adam,” the man who gave rise to all men today and the “trunk” of the human family tree. Wells has used DNA to trace this common ancestor back to Africa and perhaps to the very plains where he may have hunted. He has even identified a living tribe with an ancient lineage that offers a window into the life of “scientific Adam”—and, the face of one of the tribe members served as a model to determine what he may have looked like.

Face of Adam image created by Animetrics.

Unlike medical geneticists who study genetic changes that cause morphological differences or diseases, population geneticists like Wells study genetic changes that don’t have any effect at all. These changes, called genetic markers, are created by random mutations in the DNA and are passed down through the generations. Each population accumulates its own distinctive set of markers. As these mutations are pretty rare, if two people share one of these markers that suggests they share an ancestor. By comparing DNA samples from many different populations, Wells hopes to reveal the shape of the human family tree, from twigs to trunk. Wells has traveled the world studying genetic patterns for about the past 15 years. He’s completed fieldwork in central Asia, India, and the Middle East collecting samples from about 10,000 people. Analysis of these samples revealed a broad-brush view of how man originated in Africa and moved around planet to Australia and Central Asia. “But,” says Wells, “10,000 samples isn’t enough to reveal details about how we are all related and moved around.” To figure out the details he proposed a project that required 100,000 samples—the Genographic Project. As part of the GP, 10 centers scattered around the globe will each take blood samples from 100-200 indigenous populations (50 to 100 individuals per population) over the next five years. Together the project should yield data on at least 100,000 individuals. Everyone knows a little about their parents, grandparents, and maybe even their great grandparents—but beyond that is a historical realm. “People always ask ‘it must be really tough to get samples from tribes in remote regions’ but that’s not true. When you explain to people that they are carrying this history book in there genome, in their blood, and that you can help them read it they are fascinated—most people want to participate.” “I’ve sampled in Lebanon and Christians and Muslims alike want to know if they are related to the Phoenicians—they are intrigued by the chance they could be a descendent of this great imperial power,” says Wells. Similarly on the island of Pate, off the coast of Kenya near the Somalia border, the people have an oral tradition that they are related to Chinese sailors who washed ashore on 400-foot ships and married local women. Wells discovered that the residents of Pate don’t have any Chinese Y chromosomes but they have Y-chromosomes from everywhere else—India, Pakistan, the Middle East, and Europe. However, the presence of 15th century Chinese pottery on the island suggests that there may be truth to the tales and more genetic sampling is needed. “Genographic is not really a genetics project. It is using genetics as a tool to study history and anthropology. I’m interested in the impact of the Inca empire on the genetic patterns in upper Amazonia, in Central Asia I want to look at the impact of Alexander the Great,” says Wells as he rattles of a hit list of historical mysteries that he hopes to solve. The GP has taken on a particular urgency because of massive migrations currently in progress. People are leaving their ancient homelands, moving to the cities, and becoming part of the melting pot. As people marry individuals from other cultures genetic patterns are quickly scrambled. If Wells can’t identify the location where a particular genetic pattern arose, it becomes tricky to identify how different ethnic groups are related to one another. “This makes the job of a population geneticist very difficult because though you carry your genes with you, you lose the context in which that genetic variation arose,” says Wells. A symptom of this mixing is the rapid decline in the number of spoken languages in the world. In the year 1500, linguists estimate 15,000 languages were spoken; today there are 6,000. By the end of the century about half to 90% of those are going to be extinct, says Wells. “We are going through a period of cultural mass extinction. We have a narrowing window of opportunity to collect genetic samples from indigenous populations where people have stayed put for a very long period of time.” Wells hopes that by studying the DNA from these groups he can locate where particular genetic changes occurred and when, which will reveal how our ancestors migrated around the planet. To date, Wells has visited about 50 countries to sample different genetic lineages. Of all the indigenous tribes he has met, the Hazabe of Tanzania have had the greatest impact on Wells. “I have hung out with other Bushmen and they are fascinating. But most of them don’t actually live the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. They can still mock it up for a film crew but none of them actually live in villages. The Hazabe live as hunter-gatherers. They are actually pulling up trees and carving bows and arrows and they make fire by rubbing sticks together, it is amazing and it really does give you an insight into the way people probably lived 50 or 60 thousand years ago.” You don’t need to be a member of an indigenous tribe to participate in the Genographic Project. Log onto National Geographic's Genographic Project to find out how you can contribute to the scientific endeavor of deciphering the human family tree and, learn about your ancestors.