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By depending solely only on what little DNA evidence could be
gleaned from the remains of America's prehistoric residents, early
theories over the past century had all Native American DNA falling
within four haplogroups A, B, C, and D. Three of the four
haplogroups, A, C. and D are found primarily in Asia. The B
haplogroup is found chiefly in southeast Asia, China, Japan,
Melanesia, and Polynesia. Thus, it was determined that groups A, C,
and D must have entered America from Siberia across the Bering
Straits during the Ice Age when an ice bridge successfully connected
North America and Asia. The people carrying the B haplogroup are
thought to have arrived by boat from the South Pacific or Japan.
With no new evidence to suggest otherwise, the theory that America
was peopled primarily from migrating tribes from Asia was
perpetuated throughout the generations until just recently when a
rare genetic DNA link called haplogroup X, which is found primarily
in Europe, was discovered among the North American tribes. While
Native American haplogroup X is somewhat distinct from the X marker
in Europe, it has proven to be distantly related, thereby setting it
apart as a founding marker for certain Native Americans during the
very early beginnings of its expansion and spread from the Near
East. [1]
As more study was done, it was discovered that the X haplogroup
mutated as people began to migrate out from the Near East. A
sub-group referred to as X1 was found primarily among those who
moved into North and East Africa, while those who remained in Near
East, where it ultimately weakened and disappeared through genetic
drift and during the Jewish Diaspora were assigned the X2 marker.
Yet, interestingly, even after the scattering of so many Jews to the
four corners of the world, the Druze living in Israel and Lebanon, a
monotheistic people who remained a separate and distinct population
and rarely married outside their clan, retained 26% of the original
X2 in their populations. While haplogroup X is found in low
frequencies throughout much of the world today, 26% of a population
carrying a haplogroup is rather high considering the admixture of
other tribes into any given race over the years. Thus, Dan Mishmar,
a genetics researcher at Ben-Gurion University, believed the Druze
populations provided a rare "glimpse into the past genetic landscape
of the Near East at a time when the X haplogroup was more
prevalent."[2]
After the collapse of Israel's northern and southern kingdoms, the
original X founding marker ultimately spread westward across Europe
where it can still be found in some places in rather high
frequencies. Crossing over to America, the X haplogroup shows up in
frequencies as high as 10-40% in several modern Algonquin tribes,
particularly the Ojibway. It is as high as 15% among the Iroquois
and Sioux. The Nuu-Chah-Nulth in the northwest carry the marker at a
frequency of 11-13%, the Navajo in northeastern Arizona,
southeastern Utah and northwestern New Mexico at 7%, while the
Yakima of Washington carry it at frequencies of 5%. Interestingly,
the remains of Washington's "Kennewick Man" exhibits evidence of the
X mtDNA haplogroup.
Once researchers discovered that the X haplogroup diminished in
frequency the further west it moved from the founding tribes in the
northeast, new theories began to arise for the first time which had
some of the tribes arriving in America via an Atlantic crossing
rather than a Pacific. Yet, when a study published in the American
Journal of Human Genetics in 2001 noted that haplogroup X had been
discovered among a small group of people living in the Gobi Desert
in southern Siberia, researchers began to wonder if they had been
premature in giving scientific credence to a possible European
source for the haplogroup X found in certain Native American
populations. Continuing research finally resolved the matter in 2003
when it was discovered that the X haplogroup found in Siberia was an
admixture from relatively recent gene flow from Europe or West
Asia.[3] But of added importance, researchers were more convinced
than ever that the Near East was the geographical place of origin
for the haplogroup X [4], a place which incorporates the Palestinian
territories, Mesopotamia, the Caucasus, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan,
Cyprus, and Israel—right where the Book of Mormon places the
colonies of Lehi and Mulek before their migration to the promised
land.
Other interesting facts were also discovered. For instance, after
analyzing dating material they discovered that two separate
diffusions of the X haplogroup entered North America, one during
pre-glacial times, and one after.[5] While the time-line currently
in vogue among geologists is hopelessly at odds with the Biblical
time-line, we can reconcile one diffusion of people carrying the X
marker into America with the Jaredites who arrived from the regions
north of Babylon, and the other with the Nephites who arrived from
Jerusalem.
Although several tribes across the country are known to carry the X
haplogroup, it is found more frequently in the regions around the
Great Lakes than elsewhere in North America. This area is dominated
by the Algonquin speaking people, and the Iroquois tribes who
extended from western end of the Great Lakes to Maine. Yet,
interestingly, by studying the position of the X haplogroup found
among Native Americans on the genetic tree, it was discovered that
an early split took place at the very beginning of the expansion and
spread from the Near East. It seems that one complete Native
American X sequence was found among the southwestern Navajo, and the
other among the tribes in Ontario who developed into the Ojibway,
the two believed to have diverged, or gone their separate ways from
a common point of origin after their common ancestor was already
settled in America. [6] Thus, along with the four major DNA markers,
A, B, C, and D, the X haplogroup is now considered a fifth founding mtDNA for Native Americans.
Defining the Possible Founding Carriers of America's X Haplogroup
The wide distribution of the X haplogroup around the Great Lakes
eastward to Maine, and from Canada and Washington State, to Arizona
and the central Plains, suggests a wide initial dispersion of the
founding tribes, with its origins thought by many to be linked to
the Iroquois. Not only has the genetic X marker been found among the
modern descendants of the Iroquois, but also in their ancient
burials which were found throughout New York. As to their ties to
the Book or Mormon, in 1987, Fiedel argued that the Point Peninsula
people of prehistoric New York (currently thought to be the
progenitors of the Iroquois) were those who spread the Algonquin
speaking people into the northern Great Lakes region from their
point of origin in southern Ontario—right where thousand of Point
Peninsula/Nephites migrated after moving northward from western New
York in the century before Christ, a fact fully established by both
the archaeological record and the scriptures. After spending many
years among the Ojibway in the land northward, and noting the many
Hebrew traditions among them, William Warren was led to believe they
were either descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, or at the very
least had had a close communion with them.[7] After their own
research of the matter, a number of early historians came to the
same conclusions, for the evidence was simply too compelling. Today,
DNA evidence supports their claims.
The major language families around the Great Lakes include the
Iroquois in the east, the Siouan in the west, and the Algonquin
throughout the entire region. The movement of the Algonquin tribes
into Sioux territory explains the small levels of haplogroup X in
Sioux populations, for it is believed a large amount of gene flow
occurred between the two people, as it did between the Sioux and
Iroquois. Genes were carried further south when some of the founding
tribes in southwestern New York made their way along the Allegheny
River into Ohio where they became known as the Cherokee, an offshoot
branch of the Iroquois. Their ties to the Ohio Hopewell civilization
of 100 B.C.-350 A.D., was discovered during a treatment of the
Distribution of mitochondrial DNA lineages among Native American
tribes of Northeastern North America in 2001 by Malhji, Ripan,
Shultz, and Smith, who concluded that the ancestors of the Cherokee
were the builders of the Hopewell earth-mounds scattered throughout
the Ohio Valley some 2000 years ago.[8] While a modern Cherokee
carries a mixed genetic history today, the rare, pure-blooded
Cherokee carries basically the X or C haplogroup through the
mother's line. The X can be tied to the Near Eastern populations,
while researchers suggest they picked up the C haplogroup from the
more archaic populations already living in the area when they
arrived.
Other genetic markers were likely acquired from some of the
newcomers they merged with, such as the Yuchi, who were likely the
carriers of the R1b haplogroup found among the Cherokee. The
frequency of R1b is noted most heavily in the Celtic tribes of
Europe who descended from Japheth's two sons, Gomer and Magog. The
R1b is thought to have originated in the Eurasian Steppes and is
associated with the Kurgen mound culture and Proto-Indo-European
expansion during the Bronze Age. The ever expanding and westward
migrating children of Japheth into Europe from the Caucuses and
Scythia may also explain how the Jewish populations in Europe and
America's Cherokee populations came to have the defining Q (Y
chromosome), which is currently believed to be one of their minor
founding markers.
Other DNA markers linking the Eastern Tribes to the Hebrews
Genetic ties were noted between the Jewish populations and the
Cherokee when the DNA haplogroup of a Cherokee living in Virginia
revealed the word Ashkenazi. Noting its importance, other Cherokee
DNA files began to be pulled, only to discover they were all
Ashkenazi Jews, with a few revealed to be Levites.[9] The Ashkenazi
Jews in Europe were so named because the main centers of Jewish
learning were located in Germany, and the Medieval Hebrew name for
Germany was Ashkenazi. Even so, a 2005 study by Nebel based on Y
chromosome polymorphic markers, showed that Ashkenazi Jews are more
closely related to other Jewish and Middle Eastern groups than to
their host populations in Europe. Although the historical record is
limited, there is a consensus of cultural, linguistic, and genetic
evidence that the Ashkenazi Jewish population originated in the
Middle East and that the Ashkenazi Jews from Europe, the Sephardic
Jews from Africa, the Cohanim, a Levite priestly class through
Aaron, and the Israelites shared the same genetic signature
originating in the Middle East 2000 years before the Jewish
Diaspora. [10]
The R1a (Y chromosome), which is spread through the father's line,
is found in high levels Ashkenazi Jews. Behar initially believed it
was restricted chiefly to the Levites among them, but further study
suggests it extended well beyond the Levites to a small percent of
Israelites of the non-Jewish populations as well.[11] We might
remember that Lehi and Ishmael's family were among those of Joseph's
line who chose to live among those of Judah and Benjamin and some of
the tribe of Levi in the southern kingdom of Judah rather than with
the apostates in Israel's northern kingdom. Such a move explains 2
Nephi 30:4, which states that the seed of Nephi and those that
followed him into the land of promise are "descendants of the Jews."
Not surprisingly, James Adair, who came to live in America before
the colonies were formed and spent 33 years among the Indians
documenting their customs, civil policies, history, language,
religion, priests, military customs, agricultures, marriage rites
and funeral ceremonies and their temperaments and manners found them
all to have close affinities with the customs and traits of the
Hebrews. The cultural evidence of a Hebrew presence in America is so
overwhelming that notwithstanding many of the western tribes have
roots with ties to Asia, it can no longer be doubted that many
Native Americans have ties which link them to the Near East as
well—just as the Book of Mormon claims.
There are many things to consider in laying out the regions of the
promised land the Lord planted the ancient Nephites and Jaredites,
not the least of which are the numerous geographical descriptions
found interspersed throughout the Book of Mormon which describe the
limited territory they came to occupy. The words of the early
brethren on the subject are also of importance, as are
archaeological finds. Yet, while each of these subjects are still a
matter of debate among various theorists, it can hardly be doubted
that the genetic, linguistic and cultural traits found among the
North American tribes are fully consistent with the arrival and
colonization of off-shoot Hebrews into a land favored above all
others, the promised land of America, the land of the free. (©
Copyright, Phyllis Olive, 2009)
References:
1- Origin and Diffusion of mtDNA Haplogrup X, Reidla, Kivisild,
Metsplau, Kaldman, and others.
2- Written up in the May 7th issue of the journal PLoSONE.
Researchers from the Rambam Health
Care campus, Haifa, Israel,
Washington University in St. Louis Missouri, the University of
Arizona in
Tucson, Arizona. The Weizmann Institute of Science in
Rehovot Israel also contributed to this study.
3- Origin and diffusion of mtDNA hapogroup X, 2003.
(www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artrid=1180497.)
4- Origin and diffusion of mtDNA hapogroup X", 2003.
(www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artrid=1180497.
5- Origin and diffusion of mtDNA hapogroup X, 2003. P. 2.
(www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artrid=1180497.)
6- The American Journal of Human Genetics, Origin and Diffusion of mtDNA Haplogroup X.
7- William Warren, History of the Ojibway People, p. 71.
8- Distribution of mitochondrial DNA lineages among Native American
tribes of Northeastern North
America- Human Biology, Feb. 2001 by, Ripan S. Malhi, Beth A. Schultz, David G. Smith.
9- CherokeeofLawrenceCountryTn.org.
10- Ellen Levy-Coffman, A Mosaic of People: The Jewish Story and a
Reassessment of the DNA Evidence, p. 7.
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