A common misunderstanding for those who use a DNA test to search for ancestors and find an American Indian marker is that the test can’t determine a specific tribe. “When someone takes a DNA test and they find a marker that indicates possible American Indian ancestry, the one thing you must keep in mind is that no DNA test – however sophisticated it may be or what degree of data they may have – can tell you the tribe,” David Cornsilk said.
Cornsilk worked for 12 years with tribal enrollment at Cherokee Nation and has over 30 years of experience in genealogy research with his own company, Cherokee Genealogical Services.
The records of the Cherokee people extend back to the mid-1700s, said Cornsilk. The reason DNA evidence of Native American heritage is lacking is most tribes have not encouraged their members to take ethnicity DNA tests, Cornsilk said. “The reason is, we don’t know if our information will be protected. Our privacy might be compromised. “We don’t know how that information will be used. We have a mistrust of those kinds of entities because they are corporations and most of them – like 23andMe and Ancestry.com – are for entertainment purposes only.”
They are not legitimate laboratories, Cornsilk said.
“Not all families do, but the mixed-blood families tend to have more records and better documentation further back, but once you hit [the year] 1800, it levels out and nearly all tribal members have virtually the same evidence of their heritage,” Cornsilk said.
A common statement from folks who believe their families have Native blood, but can’t find proof of it, is their ancestors didn’t want to be listed on the Dawes or other rolls because they didn’t want the government to know about them.
“There was no choice [but to be on the rolls],” Cornsilk said. “For the sake of argument, let’s say that’s true. Where are their brothers and sisters, cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles?”
You can read more in an article by Lee Guthrie published in the tahlequahdailypress web site at: http://bit.ly/4bttRtn.