DNA, American Indians & Mormons

[DougForbes]

Despite denials by the press, the genetic link between Jews and American Indians has been established fact since 1999 [1]. The Q-P36 lineage group is found in 31% of US American Indians [2], 5% of Ashkenazi Jews [3], 5% of Iraqi Jews [4], and a significant number of Iranian Jews [5]. Q-P36 is thought to be 20,000 years old and to have originated in Central Eurasia [6]. It’s spread to the Middle East was inevitable and probably occurred several thousand of years ago. The fact of Jewish Q-P36 is open to various interpretations, and is a fairly common topic of discussion among well-informed Jews. A Jewish perspective of Jewish Q is provided by Ellen Levy-Coffman’s paper, A MOSAIC OF PEOPLE: THE JEWISH STORY AND A REASSESSMENT OF THE DNA EVIDENCE.

[1] Hammer et al, 1999, Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes.
[2] Hammer et al, 2005, Population structure of Y chromosome SNP haplogroups in the United States and forensic implications for constructing Y chromosome STR databases.
[3] Behar et al, 2004, Contrasting patterns of Y chromosome variation in Ashkenazi Jewish and host non-Jewish European populations.
[4] Shen et al, 2004, Reconstruction of Patrilineages and Matrilineages of Samaritans and other Israeli populations from Y-Chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Variation.
[5] Hammer et al, 1999, 1999, Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes.
[6] R. Spencer Wells, 2001, The Eurasian Heartland: A continental perspective on Y-chromosome diversity.

 

[Ahimsa]

How common is Q-P36 in other populations, like Chinese, or Turkish, or Lithuanian?

 

[DougForbes]

EUROPE
Q-P36 is rare in Europe.
The highest percentage in found in Norway where it is about 4%. About 8% of men named Forbes (my last name) have Q-P36 lineage.

MIDDLE EAST
Q-P36 is also fairly rare in the Middle East
but is found in the Iranian cities of Shiraz and Asfahan at concentrations around 6%-8%.

EAST ASIA
Q-P36 is also rare in East Asia.

CENTRAL EURASIA (TURKISTAN)
The main concentration of Q-P36 is in Central Eurasia among the Turkic speaking peoples. Two small groups in Western Siberia are majority Q. These are the Selkups (~66%) pop=~15,000 and the Kets (~90%) pop=1500. Both the Selkups and Kets have ancestral origins in Central Eurasia or Turkistan. The Kets have been described as belonging to the Mongoloid race while the Selkups are put in the “Uralic” race. I believe Uralic peoples share characteristics with Caucasians and Mongoloids.

Q-P36 is the main branch of the Q lineage group. Q is closely related to R (~80% of Europeans belong to R lineage group) Both R and Q are branches of the P lineage. The P lineage is defined by the M45 mutation (a.k.a. P27). Most Europeans and most Native Americans share the M45 mutation. M45 is not shared by the main East Asian lineage groups.

Thus although the maternal lineages of Native Americans belong to lineages recognized as East Asian (A, B, C & D). The male lineages are not East Asian, but have a Central Eurasian origin. Some “East Asian” maternal lineages are found in Turkistan. In Turkmenistan which lies just north of Iran, about 22.5% of the people have D maternal lineage and 7.5% have B maternal lineage. About 10% of the men Y chromosomes belonging to the Q lineage group.

 

[DougForbes]

Just to clarify my last statement. According to the 2005 Hammer study cited in my first post, about 9% of US American Indian males belong to the C-P39 lineage group. This is the only unambiguously East Asian male lineage found in Native Americans. In Hammer’s study, all subjects are self identifying. This makes it a bit different than most studies. In most research, subjects with known European ancestry are screened out.

 

[Ahimsa]

So you’re saying all this proves Native Americans are Jewish?