I know someone who decided to do a DNA test. I had already done her family tree(the paper trail)for her and a distant ancestor on the tree is supposedly Native American.
The reason she wanted to do the DNA testing was to "find" her Native American ancestry. She wanted to find that ancestry so she could apply to a tribe and be among the folks who could reap some sort of benefit(casino monies, health benefits, etc.).
First off, there is no record of this NA ancestor recorded in any tribal roles that anyone can find. The fact that she "is" NA is only through family stories-both in this person's family and I have found it attached to other family trees that this ancestor is in.
This direct ancestor is a 3 x great grandparent of the person who wants to know and she was born circa. 1810. Having a lone NA ancestor stretching back 200 or so years ago means that chances of having any of their actual DNA recombining into what got handed down over 4 generations to her is a slim chance at best.
The only sure fire(easy)way to know you have NA ancestry is if it's your Y DNA line(your father's father's father's on back line)or your mitochondrial DNA line(your mother's mother's mother's on back line)puts you into a NA haplogroup. If you are lucky enough, being male and your Y haplogroup is Q or C with certain mutations or being a female and your mtDNA haplogroup is X2 then you have proof easily of NA ancestry even if your ethnicity breakdown doesn't show any % of NA ancestry.
Ok this is getting too complicated but you get my drift(I hope).
We can narrow down(if this ancestor was indeed Native)potential tribes she could have belonged to according to where this family in question was from. Ancestor in question was born in North Carolina so she could have been Chowanoke, Croatoan, Hatteras, Moratoc, Secotan, Weapemeoc, Machapungo, Pamlico, Coree, Neuse river, Tuscarora, Meherrin, Cherokee, Cape Fear, Lumbee, Catawba, Shakori, Sissipahaw, Sugeree, Waccamaw, Waxhaw, Woccon, Cheraw, Eno, Keyauwee, Occaneechi, Saponi, or Tutelo Indians. Some of these tribes are extinct and only 8 are recognized by the state of NC(and only Eastern Band of Cherokee in NC are recognized federally).
Not being found in a tribal role means there is no way to know which tribe she belonged to either so even if her DNA test came back and found any NA ancestry there is no way to know which NA tribe she should apply to.
The only way at that point to pinpoint the ancestors tribe would be if another person was a DNA match to my friend AND they had NA ancestry too(and the match was on that line of her family)AND documentation for that other person's NA ancestor was available. Add in the fact that very few people with Eastern NA ancestry have DNA tested and it becomes a real big crap shoot to find any information that would help my friend in her NA search.
"Belonging" to a NA tribe nowadays is more cultural and not just genetic, according to your DNA markers. This friend did NOT grow up in any NA culture or on a reservation(much like Elizabeth Warren did not)so really her applying to a tribe, if she could find which tribe, to reap some sort of monetary(or other)benefit is IMHO inappropriate.
Anyway this person took a DNA test for this reason without me knowing about it until after the fact.
So I am on the phone with this person, she is, for lack of a better term, "very white" and she opens her DNA result while on the phone with me, and there is no NA DNA(but then again, it's the Ancestry company test which isn't thought to be very accurate by professional genetic genealogists).
Crestfallen, she reads off her % of each ethnicity and at the bottom she comes to an ethnicity that is 2% Benin/Togo.
Yep, I don't think she believes it even now, months later. She went looking for her inner "Indian Princess" and found out she's a "Soul Sistah". ;-)
Just a warning that if you go digging into your DNA and/or Ancestry be careful what you wish for and be prepared for anything!
Sluggy
