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April 21, 2005

'Biocolonialism'

Eric at Classical Values runs down the latest handwringing about scientists gathering and analyzing genetic information in the quest to understand humankind's very migratory past. It was his update on the faux Indian Churchill that caught my attention. Seems the hate-filled crackpots at Aztlan.net are claiming they have a confidential DNA report that proves Churchill is Creek and Cherokee.

I read the Aztlan hatesite article and it really makes no sense.

The laboratory that performed the tests on Professor Churchill's genetic material specializes on American Indian "Gene Genealogy" and has one of the most extensive Native American mtDNA and y-chromosome databases. The human race consists of approximately 30 major maternal lineages (haplogroups) and Native Americans belong to one of five major maternal lineages (haplogroups). Also, the human population consists of approximately 18 major paternal lineages (haplogroups) and Native Americans belong to one of two major paternal lineages (haplogroups).

The genetic test results of Professor Ward Churchill show that he is a descendant of Creeks through his father and of Cherokees through his mother. A copy of the test results was forwarded to La Voz de Aztlan under conditions of confidentiality. Because of credible death threats to an east coast college where Professor Churchill was scheduled to speak, it was requested that the name of the genetic laboratory not be released.

From general groupings Churcill is specifically Creek and Cherokee?

Yeah, right ... no wonder the report and lab are "unknown" due to "security concerns"?

Even this site (which is in the business of charging people to "trace" their ancestory via DNA testing) says

By comparing your results to our databases - the largest of its kind in the world - we could tell you if those clues indicate Native American ancestry.

Indicative of NA ancestry doesn't quite translate into Creek/Cheroke/Blackfoot/Navajo/et al.

Then there are these warnings from the Council for Responsible Genetics:

Some of the haplotypes attributed to Native Americans are also found in people from other parts of the world. A, B, C, and D are found in North Asia, and X is found in southern Europe and Turkey. In fact, haplotype B, also called the “Asian 9 base pair deletion,” is found in some Japanese and almost all Samoans. Can a person who has haplotype B in her mtDNA claim to be Native American based on that information if almost all Samoans also have haplotype B? These tests cannot even establish with certainty that someone’s mother’s mother’s mother was Native American; they can at best establish a certain probability that this was the case. ...

Another issue is the widespread belief that genetics can help determine specific tribal affinities of either living or ancient people. This is quite simply false. Neighboring tribes have long-standing, complex relationships involving intermarriage, raiding, adoption, splitting, and joining. These social-historical forces insure that there cannot be any clear-cut genetic variants differentiating all the members of one tribe from those of nearby tribes. At most, slight differences in the proportions of certain genetic variations are identifiable in each group, but those do not permit specific individuals to be assigned to particular groups.

Churchill is as American Indian as Prince Charles.

Posted by Darleen at April 21, 2005 01:05 PM

Comments

I saw him on Bill Maher - he is one strange dude.

Posted by: Mieke at April 21, 2005 01:35 PM

In The Jesuits in North America (first published around 1865) the author notes the Iroquios practice of adopting captives to replace loses. The author expresses indignation and outrage at the 'race mixing' going on here and bemoans the assault on 'tribal purity'.

Posted by: Alan Kellogg at April 22, 2005 09:54 PM

- Watching the antics of the devine lunitic called "a churchill", one is moved to question his membership in the human race whatsoever. But actually, when you strip away all the media hype and predicatable conservative foaming at the mouth at the mere mention of his name, you find just another small time snakeoil salesman, who seems to be a good deal more streetwise than he is intellectual, in any true meaning of the word. He see's the young liberals as easily lead, and in that sense he is light years ahead of his moonbat flock.

Posted by: Big Bang Hunter at April 24, 2005 11:21 PM

Considering the source was Azltlan.net, I doubt there was any testing at all. Your revelations about Prince Charles' lineage ought to be of great interest to them!

Posted by: Eric Scheie at April 26, 2005 04:08 AM