DNA Testing

DNA Testing to Prove Indigenous Ancestry

There are three types of DNA testing that you can do to prove Indigenous Ancestry.  Two are very focused on specific family lines, and one is much more general.

• Mitochondrial for your direct maternal line.
• Y-line for your direct paternal line – if you are a male. Sorry ladies.
• Autosomal to test your ethnic mix and one direct marker test for Indigenous ancestors.

On a pedigree chart, these genealogical lines look like this:

You can see the path that the blue Y chromosome takes down the paternal line to the brother and the path the red mitochondrial DNA takes down the maternal line to both the brother and the sister.  Autosomal tests the DNA of all of the 16 ancestral lines shown here, but in a different sort of way.

Let’s look at each type of testing separately.

Y-Line DNA – For Paternal Line Testing for Males

The Y-line testing tests the Y chromosome which is passed intact from father to son with no DNA from the mother. This is the blue square on the pedigree chart. In this way, it remains the same in each generation, allowing us to compare it to others with a similar surname to see if we are from the same “Smith” family, for example, or to others with different surnames, in the case of adoption or Native heritage.  Indigenous American genetics isn’t terribly different than adoptees in this situation, because different English surnames were adopted by various family members, into the late 1800s and sometimes into the early 1900s, depending on the location.

Y-line DNA can tell you whether or not you descend from a common male genealogically when compared to another testing participant.  Small mutations do take place and accumulate over time, and we depend on those so that we don’t all “look alike” genetically.  It can also tell you by identifying your deep ancestral clan, called a haplogroup, whether or not you descend from early Indigenous Americans who were here before contact with Europeans.  For that matter, it can also tell you if you descend from those of African, European or Asian ancestry.

Because of the unique haplogroups for Indigenous Americans who preceded European contact, Y-line is the only way to positively confirm that a specific line is or is not of Indigenous American descent.  This obviously applies to all of the individuals in the pedigree chart who directly descend from the oldest known ancestor in this paternal line.

Y-line testing does not indicate anything about the contributions of the other ancestors in this family tree.  In other words, you could be 3/4th Indigenous, with only the direct paternal line being European, and this test would tell you nothing at all about those other three Native lines.

The person looking for Indigenous Heritage will be most interested in their haplogroup designation.

Mitochondrial DNA – For Direct Maternal Line Testing for Both Sexes

Mitochondrial DNA is inherited by all children from their mother only, with no admixture from the father. Women obtain their mitochondrial DNA from their mother, who got it from their mother, on up the line into infinity. This is the red circle on the right hand side of the pedigree chart. Like Y-line DNA, mitochondrial DNA is passed intact from one generation to the next, except for an occasional mutation that allows us to identify family members and family lines.

Unfortunately, it does not follow any surname. In fact the surname changes with every generation when women marry. This makes it more challenging to work with genealogically, but certainly not impossible. 

There are three levels of testing you can take for mitochondrial DNA:  mtDNA, the mtDNAPlus and the Full Sequence. The mtDNA test is a starter test that will provide you with a base haplogroup, but will leave people searching for Indigenous ancestry needing a more complete test for full haplogroup identification confirming Indigenous ancestry. I strongly recommend the full sequence test, but if the budget just won’t allow that, then the mtDNAPlus will do until you can afford to upgrade. 

MtDNA testing is not as popular as Y-line testing because it’s more difficult to use genealogically as last names change every generation.  When you look at your matches, you have no idea whatsoever if you might be related to these people in a genealogically relevant time frame by looking at their last names.  Those who have invested the effort to collaboratively work on their mtDNA matches, assuming a full sequence match and a shared geographical history as well, have been pleasantly surprised by what they’ve found.

A haplogroup assigning deep ancestry is provided through mitochondrial testing, so like the Y-line, depending on the haplogroup assigned, you will know if your ancestors were here before European contact.  Maternal haplogroups that indicate Indigenous heritage include ????.  Like Y-line DNA testing, none of these haplogroups are exclusive to Indigenous Americans, so a full sequence level test will be required to confirm a Indigenous American subgroup.

Testing the Y-line and mitochondrial DNA individually gives us a great deal of very specific information about 2 lines in your pedigree chart.  The best method of identifying Indigenous American ancestors is indeed to test as many lines on your DNA pedigree chart using this methodology as possible.

Terms and Definitions

Terms and Definitions

The following are the terms and definitions we use on this site. We've included them for clarity.

Aboriginal - Of or relating to the people and things that have been in a region from the earliest time.

Admix - To mingle with or add to something else.

American - An aboriginal or one of the copper colored natives found on the American continent by the Europeans; the original application of the name. Webster's 20th Century Dictionary of the English Language.

Ameridian - American Indian.

Anasazi - A prehistoric indigenous inhabitant of the canyons of northern Arizona and New Mexico and southwestern Colorado.

Blood-Line - A sequence of direct ancestors especially in a pedigree; also :  family,strain.

Blood-Type -Any of the four main types into which human blood is divided: A, B, AB, and O. Blood types are based on the presence or absence of certain substances, called antigens, on red blood cells. Also called blood group.

Indian - A member of any of the [aboriginal] peoples of the western hemisphere except often the Eskimos; especially :  an American Indian of North America and especially the United States.

Mitochondrial DNA - An extranuclear double-stranded DNA found exclusively in mitochondria that in most eukaryotes is a circular molecule and is maternally inherited —abbreviation mtDNA.

Native American -  Native American is now fully established in American English as an equivalent of Indian, being acceptable in all contemporary contexts and preferred inmany. It is especially appropriate as a term of respect used by outsiders, who may have concerns that Indian could cause offense by its association with longstanding cultural stereotypes. Native American is the clear choice in many formal contexts, not only because it indicates respect but, more pragmatically, because it avoids any ambiguity between indigenous American peoples and the inhabitants of India. But despite its wide acceptance,Native American has not displaced Indian to any significant degree outside of formal contexts, and it is now common to find the two terms used interchangeably in the same piece of writing.

Y-DNA - Y-DNA Haplogroups are the groupings of mankind based on analysis of the y-chromosome, which has been passed from father to son since the beginning of mankind.