From: "Donald Panther-Yates" <dpanther@gasou.edu> To: <AMERIND-US-SE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2002 11:07 AM Subject: [AMERIND-US-SE] Native American DNA test > Hi, > > As a Native American, I have been reading the latest spate of messages > on DNA tests on the GENEALOGY-DNA-L with great interest. I am currently > constructing a DNA study with Dr. Elizabeth Hirschman (author of > Melungeons: The Last Lost Tribe in America) to determine the extent of > intermarriage between southeastern tribes and Sephardic Jews (often > called Black Dutch or Melungeon). Your messages make it clear that it > will be a difficult subject to study. > > We have already found that at least one surname tests out as Native > American by the Y-chromosome test (Sizemore). Not a single test subject > taking the mitochondrial DNA or maternal test in Family Tree DNA's > database has tested positive...yet. The only American Indian haplotypes > they have in the database are Sizemores and "real" > jungle-reservation-Eskimo-type Indians from Michael Hammer and other > researchers' anthropological field work. > > The theory I would like to prove or disprove is that Cherokee, > Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and other southeastern tribes gave chiefs' > daughters as wives to Sephardic Jewish traders, and their children, the > first mixed-breeds, largely accounted for tribal leadership and > survival. Oral tradition and genealogy supports this thesis in the case > of such families as the Colberts (Chickasaw), Coopers (Choctaw-Cherokee) > and McDonalds (Cherokee and Creek), among others. I am thus most > interested in human subjects who have a tradition of chiefs' lineage > combined with Judaism. The test will be free. > > I would like to hear the list's ideas for constructing a genetics > research protocol to test this theory. Feel free to copy and paste and > distribute this request. > > Thank you very much. > > Donald Panther-Yates > Assistant Professor of Public Relations > Georgia Southern University > P.O. Box 8091 > Statesboro, GA 30460 > tel. 912-681-5801 > e-mail dpanther@gasou.edu > Web site Panther's Lodge http://www2.gasou.edu/facstaff/dpanther/