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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2005-01 > 1106235732


From: Doug McDonald <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Value of the mtDNA Test - Native ancestry
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 09:42:13 -0600
References: <41EF2EEE.6080302@comcast.net>
In-Reply-To: <41EF2EEE.6080302@comcast.net>


Bonnie Schrack wrote:

> Dennis, there are deep questions regarding what makes someone a Native
> American. Here on the list, we discuss it solely in genetic terms, but
> from my reading off-list, I know that genetic tests are not considered
> definitive, either by Native people themselves or by anthropologists.

If you have a paper trail back to the late 18th century or earlier,
in eastern British America, the chance of finding somebody
with an A, B, C, or D mtDNA haplotype who was anything other than
a genuine American Indian is nil. X of course is a very different matter
indeed ... X would "prove" an Indian only if it went unambiguously
to one of the northeastern tribes with a high X content, otherwise
it could simply be a rare European immigrant. The probability
of finding A, B, C, or D from an Asian person in eastern
North America in 1780 is nil. That's not true, of course,
in 1880 California.

Doug

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