Anthropologists have long theorized that Native Americans migrated to North and South America from Asia via a land bridge to Alaska thousands of years ago. Scientists soon may have proof of this theory when they are able to show that the Indians of the Amazon are closely related to the Inuit of Russia. This finding will come with the results of an international study known as the Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP), an international effort that has been documenting the genetic variation of the human species since 1993.

While a similar project—the Human Genome Project (HGP)— will form a composite of the human genome from Europeans and Americans of primarily European ancestry, the HGDP will concentrate on collecting DNA samples from populations who do not trace their heritage to Europe. The HGDP estimates that between five hundred and seven...