My July 2024 DNA Map

DNA is cool, but as they say – strictly for entertainment

First of all, it is extremely important to state that DNA does NOT make you Native. Or any other culture for that matter. Especially small amounts. It may or may not be accurate for starters.

DNA is part science and part art. Results can and do change. DNA results are generally updated over time as the data sets grow and interpretations improve. As an example, in years past, my Ancestry.com DNA results showed that I had a small amount of Mexican Indigenous and Colombian Indigenous heritage. This was very interesting and a complete surprise to me, but alas in recent years refinement, those results were no longer there.

To be Native

To be Native, you must at minimum, have lineal descent from a Native Nation citizen. This means you must know your Native Nation. If you do not know your Native Nation and citizen relative, you cannot claim you are Native, Native-American, Indigenous, First Nations, etc. on the basis of DNA results or even worse family lore. You must know exactly who your direct-line relatives are, exactly which Native Nation they connect to, and exactly how they connect. I feel ya, sometimes this means some difficult, time and money consuming genealogy research, but this is not optional.

As far as Native Nation citizenship goes, individual Native Nations may also have other requirements besides descent that I won’t discuss in this post. No matter what, DNA or family lore is not enough to claim Native heritage. There must be a clear and unbroken record of birth certificates (and adoption records if applicable) to the last Native Nation citizen in your lineage.

Clans and family membership are usually matrilineal or passed from mother to child. There are exceptions to this but that is usually how it rolls. Citizenship though is usually derived from either parent, but Native Nations have a wide variety of requirements, so do your research.

In my opinion the terminology would be as the following example. I am a Mvskoke citizen, so I would generally say I am a Mvskoke citizen or Mvskoke. A relative of mine with lineal descent that is not a citizen, would generally say they are a Mvskoke descendant or of Mvskoke descent. In my opinion, either of us could say we are Native or Indigenous. All this of course applies to North America.

DNA is great for finding relatives, or factually determining who your biological parents are though. It does not make someone Native.

My Native heritage is mixed obviously

Keep telling yourself, there is no such thing as a part-Native person. The only valid percentages for either are 0% or 100%. People are not fractional, they are whole. Racial/ethnic percentages also known as blood quantum are not real. Blood quantum is a white invention meant to bolster white supremacy.

Like blood quantum, DNA should not be used to attack Native heritage and bolster white supremacy.

Anyhoo, that’s it for now.

Thanks!
-Yehuda