DNA testing and research has provided some data about the extent of Native American ancestry among African Americans, which varies in the general population. Based on the work of
geneticists,
Harvard University historian
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. hosted a popular, and at times controversial,
PBS series,
African American Lives, in which geneticists said DNA evidence shows that Native American ancestry is far less common among African Americans than previously believed.
[71]
Their conclusions suggested that while almost all African Americans are racially mixed, and many have family stories of Native heritage, usually these stories turn out to be inaccurate,
[72][73][74] with
only five percent of African American people showing more than two percent Native American ancestry.
[72] Gates summarized these statistics as follows:
"If you have two percent Native American ancestry, you had one such ancestor on your family tree five to nine generations back (150 to 270 years ago)."
[72] Their findings also concluded that the most common "non-Black" mix among African Americans is English and
Scots-Irish.
[74] Some critics thought the PBS series did not sufficiently explain the limitations of DNA testing for assessment of heritage.
[75]
Another study, published in the
American Journal of Human Genetics, also indicated that, despite how common stories of Native American ancestry are within African-American families, relatively few who were tested actually turned out to have detectable Native American ancestry.
[76] A study reported in the
American Journal of Human Genetics stated, "We analyzed the European genetic contribution to 10 populations of African descent in the United States (Maywood, Illinois; Detroit; New York; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Baltimore; Charleston, South Carolina; New Orleans; and Houston) ... mtDNA haplogroups analysis shows no evidence of a significant maternal Amerindian contribution to any of the 10 populations."
[77] Despite this, some still insist that most African Americans have at least some Native American heritage.
[78] Henry Louis Gates, Jr. wrote in 2009,
en.wikipedia.org
I was perfectly clear in stating my concerns about DNA. The problem is the inconsistencies. Henry Louis Gates, Mr. African American DNA himself, can't even keep his story straight. One minute, only 5% of AAs have over 2%; the next, only 5% of AA's have over 12.5%. Which one is it? Was nobody in between? No 9%'ers?
Then, the vast difference between .8%- 2%- 12.5%? AI tells me that .8%= 5-7 gens ago. It also says that 2%= 5-6 gens ago. Which one is it?
There's an astounding lack of clarity but we're just expected to go along with it or
be ridiculed by the very social scientists studying the topic. It's ridiculous.
Further, the historical record is well-documented. They did not import African slaves at a 50-50 gender ratio. Native Americans (mostly women, presumably the men were killed fighting the wm) were, in fact, enslaved side by side with us and did, in fact, reproduce. So where did ALL those people go? They weren't all absorbed into free people of color. The black-ish looking ones were, in fact, readily enslaved in perpetuity. So where did the genome go???
These are the basic questions I've been left with in my quick perusal of the matter. Ftr, yes, my family also has a NA myth, my paternal grandfather's grandmother. How many generations is that? It falls right into that 5-7 generations area, don't it? So many questions were raised that, when I shared what I found with my mother, she decided to get her DNA done, a thing she has always refused.