Native American genes found in white British women

May 5, 2007 00:21 GMT  ·  By

Few months ago, British geneticists discovered Black African genes amongst White British people. And it was not about recent immigrants from Africa or Caribbean but ancestors older than 300 years. But Blacks were first recorded in Britain in the Roman troops defending Hadrian's Wall.

Now DNA testing has discovered British descendants of Native Americans arrived in the UK centuries ago as slaves, translators or tribal representatives. The analysis revealed two white British women DNA markings typical to American Indians. This was unusual as the British had no idea about their Native American ancestry. Native Americans were brought to the UK beginning with the early 1500s, first as curiosities. Others made the journey in delegations during the 18th Century to ask the British help over trade or protection from other tribes. Some of them could have remained and married in local communities of Britain.

The two women, Doreen Isherwood, 64, from Putney, and Anne Hall, 53, of Huddersfield, discovered their Amerindian ancestry when they paid for commercial DNA ancestry tests. Isherwood found her American antecedent could have entered Britain in the 18th or 17th centuries, as her maternal ancestors back to 1798 presented no sign of Indian ancestry.

The tests analyzed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is transmitted only from mother to daughter more or less unchanged; even if tiny mutations do accumulate over successive generations. This type of tests is based on the classification of the mtDNAs into broad types (haplogroups), correlated to some extent to race or geographical type of the race. Isherwood and Hall have haplogroups typical to the indigenous people of the Americas. "Most of the people we test belong to one of the European maternal clans," said Bryan Sykes, a professor of human genetics at the University of Oxford and whose company Oxford Ancestors carried out the tests.

"There are matches between [Doreen and Anne] and particular Native American tribes, but that doesn't necessarily mean those are the tribes their ancestors came from." "A number were brought over through the 1500s, mainly as curiosities," said Alden Vaughan, a professor emeritus at Columbia University, in New York, about Amerindians reaching British soil. Others learned English in Britain to be used as translators in colonies. "Sir Walter Raleigh brought back several individuals from the Jamestown area and from the Orinoco valley. Pocahontas went to England in 1616 and died there the next year." "She was accompanied by several of her tribal associates. Some of them stayed in England for several years. I don't know of any marriages or even relationships between those women and Englishmen, but it is certainly possible."

"Later in the 17th Century, Native American slaves were brought over. I don't know much about them, because all the evidence I have are ads in London newspapers for runaway bond-servants, described as being Indians." explained Vaughan.

Photo Gallery (2 Images)

Q'Orianka Waira Qoiana Kilcher as Pocahontas in "The New World"
Doreen Isherwood (left) with daughter Rebecca and granddaughter Anais
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