Native American Nations Around the World (Finale)

The Inuit People have been discovered in northeast Siberia/Russia, across the top of North America, and into Greenland. Evidence of this people has also been found in Iceland. Along the other portion of the Artic Circle, the Sami and other peoples are related to the Inuit, evidenced in DNA tracking. Wherever human life began, part of it went north and around the pole. This has not been easy, given the harsher climates and their impact on resources for these peoples. They would seem to me, above all else, to be survivors.

In 1996 I found the evidence that certain Iroquois Confederation nations, namely Mohawk and others, shared the identical word for "cousin" with the Zulu Nation in the Congo. I was intriqued and interested, because sharing the word for cousin meant that the two nations were probably related genetically, bewcuase language and genetics are largely related.

However, there was no detailed genetic research about this link available to the gneral public through my university at that time..The Internet infrastructure had not yet been installed at my university, but was installed, up and working before the end of 1996, though not widespread and useer friendly. Meanwhile, at the learning center at which I worked, our Internet station ran so slowly that any search required 30 minutes in order to provide up a results page, if at all. This was frustrating and not very useful.

By 1999, genetic research begun with studies back in 1992 showed Y chromosome links (via the male heritage line; Y is male and X is female) between and among the nations I've presented in the previous Hubs of this Series on Native American Nations..

This Hub will present additional details from genetic research about these links, along with a list of characteristics that are markers for Native American heritage. By "Native American" I mean any of the related indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere and around the Arctic Circle:

• Alaskan Natives
• First Nations, including Arctic Circle Peoples
• Native Americans
• Indigenous Peoples of Mexico, Central America, and South America
• Pacific and Other Islanders on both sides of the Western Hemisphere (these are not all linked with Siberians)

DNA testing along father's ancestry and mother's ancestry lines is more available in the 21st century and becoming more friently accessed. Some tests are expensive, while others are becoming less so. The testing is useful to indidivuals that cannot trace the documentation of their Native Ameircan Heritage, becuase they can use the positive results in claiming related minority college scholarships.

In order to help you decide whether to undergo DNA testing or not, here is a list of characteristics reportedly associated with Native Americans/First Nations that are not widely known:

1) Wider feet than the general population. This mean that you cannot wear an "A" , "AA" or "AAA" width, which are all narrow. In some large department stores, the concept of "width" has disappeared from the manufacture and distriubution of shoes, so they are all just a little too narrow (They are also too wide for people with narrower feet.) There may be a difference, also, in the structure of the arch of the foot from other peoples. NIKE produces wider shoes for the Native American foot.

2) Lack of hair on the abdomen - not even a light fuzz, usually.

3) High cheekbone that, if you wear glasses, the lenses are consistently smeared at the bottom or below the center of the lenses.

4) Tooth structure, There are two characteristics to look for. The first is a type of "shoveling" (amost like a scoop or the flatter side of a spade) on the inside of the top 4 front and bottom 4 front teeth, with an extra ridge before you get to the root. Sometimes this involves additional frontward teeth. The second feature is the lack of a fifth cusp on certain molars - European descendants most often have that extra cusp (like a point) to make a total of 5.The exceptian in a single eastern European culture.

5) Are you a descendant of Europeans or African Americans that may have intermarried with Native Americans? Although some of these indidivuals do not look like Nartive Americans, they may possess the indigenous DNA as part of the larger intermixed group of Metis or Metiza or similar designation. It is particaulrly interesting that is appears as though many Mohawk people, historic and current, look more like Europeans than other Native Nations,