Native American DNA

Ancient to Contemporary and Tribal Maps and Communities

At RootsTech this week Roberta Estes spoke on Native American DNA Ancient and Contemporary Maps. It must be stressed that where records are not extant, the ancient DNA still exits. It tells us the story of our ancestors prior to the records.  But I digress.

At a3Genealogy we recently did a large Native American job. We were able to learn much through both the Y-DNA and the Mitrochodrial DNA haplogroups.  At least we learned of the migratory path as supported in academic and scientific papers.

 a3Genealogy Question Bag
        Am I Native American?
        What is the significance of the haplogroup?

Where to Begin
When the a3Genealogy Question Bag receives this line of questioning, we direct the family researcher to the FamilySearch wiki article, Finding Your US Indigenous Ancestor.  And then, we share with them articles, videos and presentations that may assist in their DNA discoveries.

Native American Y-DNA
Let’s start with your Y-DNA haplogroup. You recognize it was an O - the newest of the Y-DNA Native American haplogroup.  What’s interesting is that Native Americans are a subset of haplogroup C and Q, also, which also represent European heritage. But some charts are just befuddling. How can I be “Q Not Native?”  And why would my Y-DNA results have the option of “Possible Native on Autosomal.”

Might I warn you that DNA is not static. New discoveries are shaping haplogroups and out applications to recreating our ancestors’ migration patterns and makeup. 

According to FamilyTreeDNA, here are known Native American Y-DNA Haplogroups.
(Click links below to learn more of each.)

Haplogroup Q-M3 
Haplogroup Q-M346 
Haplogroup Q-P89.1 
Haplogroup Q-MEH2 
Haplogroup Q-NWT01 
Haplogroup Q-SA01 
Haplogroup C-P39 
Haplogroup C-M217 

Without disrupting belief systems, did you know the Q subclade’s earliest haplogroup is identified have existed about 12.5K years in Montana?  Hmmm. Now, we are only talking the Native American subclades here, not Scandanian Q.  The main message we get from some of these maps and haplogroups is that we must be cautious when working with haplogroups for Native Americans, as these same haplogroups may represent European That opens up so many more questions. 

Native mtDNA
Known Native American haplogroups are the following with mitochondrial (mtDNA): Haplogroups A, B, C, D and X. But like his Y-DNA “counterpart” not all subgroups in each main haplogroup are Native -American Indian” (FamilytreeDNA). For example: the pie chart below Pie chart hows the proportions of Indigenous American haplogroups & other contributions to the Mexican mtDNA pool. 

See text for details. Image: The Mitochondrial DNA Landscape of Modern Mexico.

Many find it also particularly interesting that an "F" mtDNA has not yet been uncovered;  but yet there F1a1 and F1a1a  haplogroups have been identified.  This new haplogroup is tagged as Native in Asia and Polynesia.

How to Use This Information
This blog post was inspired by Roberta Estes’s RootTech presentation of 3 Mar 2022 where she shared migratory ancient Native American migration related maps. For example,  Mitochondrial (mtDNA) Haplogroup B2 was found in Alaska.  but it migrated to Brazil and Peru. What’s of keen interest is the comparing of these ancient maps to contemporary maps in the New World. 

Here are the major points.  To sum it up how analyze your DNA ancestry comparing ancient haplogroup discoveries and maps to our contemporary DNA results and settlements on maps.

1. test, test, test, to include cousins on the line . If it’s Y-DNA you will want the Y-DNA Big 700 2) you identify your haplogroup of interest
2. reference the ancient and contemporary maps as offered
3. using Estes’ book look up the associated maps.
4. review the RootsTech presentation given by Roberta Estes,  Native American DNA - Ancient and Contemporary Maps as a reference to the associated Native American tribes, tribal association, and communities (both ancient and contemporary) for your Haplogroups of interest.

More Reading?
Here is an article, 16 Jan 2022, about Este’s newly published book: DNA for Native American Genealogy Book Published

At a3Genealogy, our In-Genes DNA Team try to stay abreast with the work of Jennifer Raff who studies ancient DNA. Read ‘Origin’ explores the controversial science of the first Americans, published in ScienceNews. 

As we say at a3Genealogy… “Dig Deep!”

 Be Historically Correct

Kathleen Brandt
a3genealogy.com
Accurate Accessible Answers
a3genealogy@gmail.com