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Nature 430, 500-502 (29 July 2004) | doi:10.1038/430500a; Published online 28 July 2004

When two tribes go to war

Rex Dalton1

  1. Rex Dalton is Nature's US West Coast correspondent.
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Medical geneticists and isolated Native American communities afflicted by inherited diseases should have much to gain from working together. But the relationship can go sour, as Rex Dalton finds out.

South of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, in a valley that roads still don't reach, the Havasupai tribe has for centuries lived a cloistered existence in the high desert. Isolation in a geological wonderland has allowed the tribe's 600-plus current members to protect their ancient culture.