Project organizers plan to meet with indigenous people to explain the project. This process will help project organizers to identify key concerns of indigenous people, but will primarily be used to seek their cooperation in the project. The HGD Project states that the research will help reconstruct the history of the world's populations, address questions about the history of human evolution and migration patterns, and identify the origins of existing populations. While the HGD Project is looking for answers about human evolution, indigenous peoples already possess strong beliefs and knowledge regarding their creation and histories. The cosmologies of indigenous people are environmentally and culturally specific and are not congruent with popular Western theories, such as the Bering Strait migration theory or Darwin's theory of evolution.
Questions arise concerning the impact of the findings on indigenous communities.
The project will also gather information of potential or actual medical interest, possibly leading to medical applications. In terms of reciprocal benefits to donor groups, the HGD Project will offer token benefits such as providing medicines, or treating easily diagnosable medical problems. The proposition that medical applications will be developed to treat diseases is an overstated claim by the HGD Project, designed to seduce the participation of subjects based upon the false hope for medical miracles. The HGD Project is not mandated to develop medical applications of the data. The mandate of the project is simply to collect, database, and maintain the genetic samples and data.