DNA tests show I have Mongolian ancestors somewhere a very long way back. Just like everybody in my part of the world. N has them, too. Just like everybody in the US has some Native American DNA in some tiny proportion.
Should I bill myself as an Asian American at work or would it be very insane and quite offensive?
I know the answer but I wonder if everybody else does.
Everyone in US doesn’t have Native American blood. Warren apparently has an actual ancestor a very few generations back — like my Latvian great-great-grandparents, who make me 1/8 Latvian in descent.
If you don’t know how to read a test well it can seem that you have “Native American” DNA and not see that it is from 20-30 thousand years ago. My father does, and thus is genetically related to various Native American groups, but is not genaologically related unless you go that far back. He is in a group that migrated out of Africa through the ME to the Caucausus or a bit East, then splitting, some walking East to America, others West to NE Europe. This puts him in the haplogroup most Native Americans are in. Most Europeans aren’t in it, but it’s still a very large group, and some are in it without being descended from Native Americans.
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Yes, she’s 1/1,024 Native American. That’s “blood” right there. :-)))))
And my Mongolian ancestry is from the Mongolian invasion, which is definitely not 20,000 years ago. 🙂
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“European-Americans had genomes that were on average 98.6 percent European, .19 percent African, and .18 Native American.” Black Americans were “73.2 percent African. European genes accounted for 24 percent of their DNA, while .8 percent came from Native Americans.”
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“Dr. Mountain and her colleagues estimated that 13.3 percent of European-Americans in South Carolina have genes that are at least 1 percent African in origin.”
They should claim they are African Americans and deserve affirmative action.
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Well, I think 1/512 if it’s 1 person 10 generations out.
The big thing going on right now about Native Americans, though, is the voter suppression due to the use of P.O. boxes rather than street addresses on the reservations.
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“big thing going on right now about Native Americans, though, is the voter suppression”
And disenrollment, don’t forget disenrollment. Many tribes have been kicking out members. The public claim is that a person’s ancestors were not on some tribal roll in the 19th century (or they shouldn’t have been) but the real motive seems to be greed – so that money from the federal government (and native businesses like casinos) has to be distributed among fewer people (the ones doing the disenrolling)
The Cherokee themselves have devoted large amounts of time and effort to kick the descendants of African American slaves from the tribe so it’s not like they’re angels of good or anything….
…I am so against the gambling industry. I would hope any well off mostly white types who are for some reason in a tribe, donate their gambling proceeds back
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Lots of Americans want some degree of native American ancestry but not that many have it. Part of it might be a way of atoning for the massive crimes committed against them or something else might be going on.
I haven’t done a DNA test, but I might well have a small amount. My father was not really dark skinned but he looked a lot like a paler version of portraits of a well known 19th century Indian figure including jet black hair (until it turned grey) and he was from an area that made it possible. He claimed grandmother (maybe halfbreed, mostly assimilated) and he knew some of the legends of the tribe though he was never a member and had no other contact with them that he ever mentioned.
I like the idea that I might have some Native American ancestry but it would never occur to me in a thousand years to publicly claim any kind of Native American identity or say that hiring me contributed to any kind of diversity because of that or that it meant much of anything (besides making me especially prone to diabetes and a host of other health problems).
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I have no idea who my ancestors were, and couldn’t care less — they’re all dead, anyway.
DNA tests cost money and aren’t that precise, and genealogy websites (which also cost money), merely chase a specific name. I can think of better ways to spend my loot.
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My husband works for a company that is creating software that analyzes DNA. He gets the tests for free.
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The Cherokee reaction is very predictable to anyone who follows Native American issues (as I sort of sometimes do….). At one point the Cherokee were very open to those with minimal genetic connection but those days are long over. It’s all can you trace your ancestry to someone on a tribal roll over a hundred years ago now.
Democrats…. so well meaning, so good at making enemies…. if they didn’t exist an absurdist writer might invent them…. (nb I have lots of progressive sympathies but democrats at present show not one slightest bit of ability to speak to them).
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And it isn’t just any minority group either. It’s a group that has had a lot taken away from them. By people who tend to look like Warren. I’d be very very careful before laying claim to the last thing they own from their history. It’s insensitive and won’t make her any new friends.
Not smart. Not smart at all.
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Not that it matters but her test results compare her to control group of european-americans both in the uk and in the US. If you want to know how much more Native DNA she has than an average white american, read her real test results, its like 10-12 times as much.
In the early 90s there was a big wave of Kumbaya-style multi-culturalism that now seems naive and a little patronizing but was well meaning at the time. Doesn’t seem unforgivable that someone who knew about a small but real amount native heritage might go overboard with identity at that time. A smoother politician could just Brazen this out.
PS Linsdey Graham has now vowed to take a DNA test with results released live on Fox trying to ‘beat’ Warren’s percentage. Can’t wait for that one given that you cant trust “official” paternity at all past 5 generations.
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In the end, she simply attracted even more attention to the fact that Trump is right, and she did use a Native American ancestor 10 generations ago to advance herself professionally. And that’s not only pathetic but also quite shitty.
What it is she thinks she gained at this point with attracting attention to the whole mess is a mystery.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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