DNA Tribes Info

[hamiller13]

Okay, so awhile ago I sent a DNA sample to DNA Tribes and had them do a Native American Panel. Does the information on one of these DNA Panels, as far as percentages of what tribes my DNA shows, count for anything other than my curiosity? I'm not even positive I'm reading it correctly. Can anyone help me with this? I have a .PDF file of the panel that I would be happy to post if it would help anyone enlighten me on the subject.

Thank you all in advance for any help you can give me. :-D

Holly

[muskrat_skull]

Okay, so awhile ago I sent a DNA sample to DNA Tribes and had them do a Native American Panel. Does the information on one of these DNA Panels, as far as percentages of what tribes my DNA shows, count for anything other than my curiosity? I'm not even positive I'm reading it correctly. Can anyone help me with this? I have a .PDF file of the panel that I would be happy to post if it would help anyone enlighten me on the subject.

Thank you all in advance for any help you can give me. :-D

Holly

they have an email address there and they do answer them using a real person. They would know. No, anything that comes up on there means nothing to anyone but you. I would not post that as it has personal information in it that should not be publicized.

If you must tell someone, you should just type up what you have questions about. The mutations they use to determine "Native American DNA" are not specific to Native American populations per say. All those reports tell you is how common YOUR dna is to specific groups of people that agreed to be part of their "pool". That does not mean they got 100% ndn people.

Also, most mutations they thought were unique are turning up in some other white populations, like the Scottish have a fairly high bit of what they call "Native American" admixture. Now they say that the home of "Native American" dna is in Russian/Siberia, so expect those populations to potentially match. In addition, that company is known to have some messed up reports that are just not right in some cases, due to their "proprietary algorithms" and probably changing data as more and more people are tested and added to the pools.

And if your dna hardly matched anything, if you have low matches in all categories, even your most substantial match, that does not mean the proportions of matches is right. It only means that your bloodline is not well represented in other groups. You could be 99% white European but if your bloodline is not represented in their pool, you're not going to match 99%. If you are 1% Arab, and your bloodline happens to be alive and well and thriving all over there, then you could match more there than in the European pool.

Its where the most of your bloodline is, to some degree.

And, dna is not passed evenly, which is why some people look more like one part of their family than another, and why siblings sometimes look different.

So yes I understand it. no i don't care, I don't care to see it. Its best you contact the company through email and they may even have a forum, if not, other companies do, and those people can tell you more.

[hamiller13]

So really my best bet is to just do the good old fashioned genealogy research instead then? I take it, that would give me more accurate information.

[muskrat_skull]

So really my best bet is to just do the good old fashioned genealogy research instead then? I take it, that would give me more accurate information.

Yes. It is usually more accurate and also more widely accepted. DNA, while interesting and I think is useful in understanding humans in a widesweeping and ancient way, is not accurate enough and constantly changing. They don't tell you that when you order it, that you have to keep having it updated. In ten years it will probably be entirely different. The have such small sample pools of people.

The paper trail is what matters. And you can meet relatives that way, too. and learn interesting things about your family, like their military service, stories, find pictures. DNA doesn't do that for you. If you or a family member has been adopted or there is some question there, if you are lucky enough to get a report that is accurate, then it could be helpful to you in that it may be the only info you are able to get. Adoption records would be better, but often are closed and sealed. Even then, it would only tell you about you, it wouldn't mean more than that.

[Josiah]

There are several threads regarding this issue especially regarding Mtdna which is only passed thru the female side of your Dna

Another thing that confuses some folks is these companies claim what you want to hear, that is for a Fee they will tell you if you have Native Blood
Not what tribe
Not how much
but if you have the "Markers"

But you can't take any of this information to a specific tribe and and say here it is I am ____________ enroll me!!

Waste of Money...

[hamiller13]

Well thank you both, Muskrat Skull & Josiah. My dad has researched a lot of our family on his side. I will take what he has and try to go more in depth with it by finding more of the supporting media to go with the names. I just renewed my Ancestry.com membership, so I guess I'd better get to it. Lol. Thank you again for your insight on the whole DNA thing. Very helpful & appreciated!

[wyo_rose]

I know that DNA tests don't count for anything, but I am interested in your results!! I loved it when George Lopez did the DNA screenings on some of his guests.

Interesting: Snooop Dog, or whatever he goes by now, was 25% Native American. Jennifer Alba looked kind of hurt to know that she was only 16% Native.

So if you wouldn't mind sharing, I'd love to see how it looks. I always wanted to do the MTDNA on the mother's side, to see if they could track my grandmother's greatgrandmother who was listed as Sioux/Blackfoot, to see if she was from the Blackfoot band of Sioux (from the Dakota region) or Blackfoot from Canada (most likely due to her home are), or Blackfeet, or another band of Sioux.

Interesting stuff!!

[muskrat_skull]

I know that DNA tests don't count for anything, but I am interested in your results!! I loved it when George Lopez did the DNA screenings on some of his guests.

Interesting: Snooop Dog, or whatever he goes by now, was 25% Native American. Jennifer Alba looked kind of hurt to know that she was only 16% Native.

So if you wouldn't mind sharing, I'd love to see how it looks. I always wanted to do the MTDNA on the mother's side, to see if they could track my grandmother's greatgrandmother who was listed as Sioux/Blackfoot, to see if she was from the Blackfoot band of Sioux (from the Dakota region) or Blackfoot from Canada (most likely due to her home are), or Blackfeet, or another band of Sioux.

Interesting stuff!!

The only problem is that its total fiction. There is no way that they can tell from a dna test if someone is 25% Native American! That was the whole point!

[WhoMe]

I always wanted to do the MTDNA on the mother's side, to see if they could track my grandmother's greatgrandmother who was listed as Sioux/Blackfoot, to see if she was from the Blackfoot band of Sioux (from the Dakota region) or Blackfoot from Canada (most likely due to her home are), or Blackfeet, or another band of Sioux.

Interesting stuff!!

Wyo,

According to the 2010 Census "Of the largest American Indian
tribal groupings, Blackfeet had the highest proportion of respondents who reported more than one tribal grouping and/or race."

There are more self identified Blackfoot/Blackfeet Americans on the East Coast than in Montana! Therefore Snoopdog may be a self indentified Blackfoot! Take that snizzle in yo' dizzle! *L

Hmmm?

[Zeke]

That's funny.

[muskrat_skull]

Wyo,

According to the 2010 Census "Of the largest American Indian
tribal groupings, Blackfeet had the highest proportion of respondents who reported more than one tribal grouping and/or race."

There are more self identified Blackfoot/Blackfeet Americans on the East Coast than in Montana! Therefore Snoopdog may be a self indentified Blackfoot! Take that snizzle in yo' dizzle! *L

Hmmm?

Since Blackfoot and Blackfeet are two, or three or maybe more different groups, this is confusing. Some people say they are not synonymous. some people say Black Feet and Black Foot are different, that is what I was taught. Then there were Eastern tribes called Blackfeet usually, tribes of first contact. I think that is what most eastern people are really talking about.

[wyo_rose]

IMHO: I do not believe there are any Blackfoot/Blackfeet in the South/East...just a "gently euphamism", so I guess that negates a lot of the US Census figures.

BTW: Snoop was surprised by the results.
AND: I do believe that most of the DNA results are valid, taken into consideration that a few other ethnic groups can have the same markers, but if you look at the geneaology, you can pretty quickly see that a person like Larry David actor/director/writer dude, is NOT Native American, even though he tested positive.

As in the cases above, it is perfectly logical that Snoop was 1/4 native, being as how I heard that blacks and natives hooked up, whether it be escaped black slaves joining Indian tribes, or Indians being slaves, or just getting together as how they do nowadays. And although Jennifer Alba's dad is Mexican-American, lots of Mexicans probably have a high percentage of Spanish blood (DNA).

I am all about inquiry, being inquisitive, finding things out, being a life-long learner. And I think it all has to be taken with a grain of salt, but is is VERY INTERESTING!!

[muskrat_skull]

IMHO: I do not believe there are any Blackfoot/Blackfeet in the South/East...just a "gently euphamism", so I guess that negates a lot of the US Census figures.

Most indians in the East were listed as black or mulatto, they weren't listed as Indian, because it was illegal to be an ndn off reservation, so they wouldn't have been listed as ndns.
So nothing would be "negated". Its not just a "gentle euphamism" for black people who were jokingly called blackfoot indians because of the shackles around their ankles.

Also, there are Eastern Souian people, despite attempts to declare them "extinct", who were called Blackfeet/blackfoot, and they are documented. They called themselves that and were documented as the Saponi, that have not only descendency but culture and language. Oral plains histories support their existence and speak of the original homelands being in the east, migrations west were later.

There were several eastern tribes that may have been referred to as blackfeet or blackfoot by non-ndns with no connection to the western tribes of the same name. Blackfeet came to label certain people, some because they burned their fields and walking through them blackened their shoes, some because they rubbed ashes into the seams, some because of either applying ashes to the soles or burning them. It became a catchall by whites for any eastern tribes since they knew no specific, they would guess or say blackfoot or blackfeet.

[wyo_rose]

Yep, just a catch all phrase.

I would like to see some real documention on eastern "Blackfoots".

[wyo_rose]

Wow, thanks for sharing your DNATRIBES profile with me privately, hamercer13. VERY interesting!! I don't know why others would not want to see it.

Now I wanna get a test done too!! It should be all over the place, cuz I'm sure of 9 tribes, but could be more.

Thanks again! Pretty cool stuff!