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If you think haplogroup testing for Native American DNA is in sad shape, you should look at autosomal testing. It has been practically nonexistent. Even the major 2007 study by Wang et al. has glaring gaps and methodological quandaries(1).
DNA Consultants' newest autosomal product is the Native American DNA Fingerprint Plus based on 21 published studies of Native American
population groups as well as informal customer data. Results for many
individuals were validated with older haplotyping methodology.
There were data for 3,583 Native Americans available in development of the product. These test results came from articles published between 1997 and 2009. They included individuals identifying with tribes or nations as follows:
ApacheThe following geographical areas were represented:
Athabaskan
Huichol
Inupiat
Kichwa
Lumbee
Navajo
Salishan
Yupik
Alaska
Arizona
Brazil
British Columbia
Colombia
Ecuador
Florida
Guatemala
Mexico
Michigan
Minnesota
North Carolina
Oklahoma
Ontario
Saskatchewan
Nothing labeled as Cherokee -- the largest Native group in the U.S., with more than 400,000 representatives -- has ever been tested. Anecdotally, people of Cherokee descent often receive matches to North Carolina or Michigan Native Americans. The reason for the latter matchup is obscure. North Carolina as the Cherokee's original homeland makes a lot more sense.
- Wang, S. et al. (2007). “Genetic Variation and Population Structure in Native Americans.” PLoS Genetics 3/11 (with good bibliog.): http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.0030185.
Comments
According to a Michigan Tuscarora genealogist I spoke with, many of the Native communities in Michigan with any significant blood quanta turned out to have taken in a large number of Cherokees. The belief is that these Cherokees went north during and after
the Great Depression to seek work in Michigan's industries, and married into local native communities. Michigan was also one end of the annual trade route of the Tihanama nation, a route that crossed the Cherokee country east of Nashville. It's save to assume
hospitality was extended in the South, and that some Cherokees returned north. This is one of many questions of Cherokee history that deserves more study. Brian Wilkes, Marion, KY