Mitocondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotype diversity was determined for 46 Ngöbe Amerinds sampled widely across their geographic range in western Panama. The Ngöbe data were compared with mtDNA control region I sequences from two additional Amerind groups located at the northern and southern exremes of Amerind distribution, the Nuu-Chah-Nulth of the Pacific Northwest and the Chhilean Ma-puche and from one Na-Dene group, the Haida of the Pacific Northwest. The Ngöbe exhibit the lowest mtDNA control region sequence diversity yet reported for an Amerind group. Moreover, they carry only two of the four Amerind founding lineages first described by Wallace and coworkers. We posit that the Ngöbe passed through a population bottleneck caused by ethnogenesis from a small founding population and/or European conquest and colonization. Dating of the Ngöbe population expansion using the Harpending et al. Approach to the analysis of pairwise genetic differences indicateds a Ngöbe expansion at roughly 6800 years before present (range: 1850-14,000 years before present), a date more consistent with a bottleneck at Chibcha ethnogenesis than a conquest-based event.