What Does Elizabeth Warren's DNA Test Prove?

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What Does Elizabeth Warren's DNA Test Prove? Oct 17, 2018 18:15:52 GMT

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Post by Admin on Oct 17, 2018 18:15:52 GMT

From: Prof. Carlos D. Bustamante, Ph.D.
Date: October 10, 2018

Executive Summary. We find strong evidence that a DNA sample of primarily European descent also
contains Native American ancestry from an ancestor in the sample’s pedigree 6-10 generations ago. We
find little or no evidence of African ancestry in this sample.
Request.

To analyze genetic data from an individual of European descent and determine if there is reliable
evidence of Native American and/or African ancestry. The identity of the sample donor, Elizabeth
Warren, was not known to the analyst during the time the work was performed.

Background.
The individual’s DNA was previously sent to a DNA testing laboratory for genotyping, with a DNA
microarray. The resulting DNA genotypes were sent to Dr. Bustamante for analysis. An expert in genetic
ancestry analysis carried out the computational work described below under Dr. Bustamante’s
supervision.
Methodology.

Analysis was performed to scan the human genome to identify individual chromosomal segments with
European, African, East Asian, and Native American ancestry, using the RFMix computer program, which
was developed by us (Maples et al., 2013) and is one of the leading methods for ancestry analysis. The
ancestry analysis used reference samples from various regional populations used in human genetics (see
below). Because available samples do not provide complete coverage of all Native American groups,
some segments with Native American ancestry may be missed. In addition, it is not possible to reliably
associate smaller segments having Native American ancestry with any specific tribe or group.

Samples.
The individual’s sample contained information on 764,958 sites of genetic variation across the human
chromosomes, of which 660,173 overlapped with sites in the reference set used for ancestry analysis.
Our population reference set consisted of 148 individuals (a continental reference panel of 37
individuals from across Europe, 37 from Nigeria with Sub-Saharan African ancestry, 37 from across the
Americas with Native American ancestry, and 37 individuals from China). To determine whether the
Native American ancestry results in the sample were unusually high relative to other individuals of
European ancestry, analysis was also performed on 185 individuals from two reference sets from the
1000 Genomes Project— Americans of predominantly European ancestry from Utah (n = 99 individuals)
and British individuals of European ancestry from Great Britain (n = 86 individuals)

Results. The results were as follows:
(1) The great majority of the individual’s identifiable ancestry is European: 95% of high confidence
segments (defined as those segments with at least 99% posterior probability of assignment) were
identified by RFMix as being of European origin. This is likely an underestimate as many of the segments
not classified as high-confidence are also likely to be European in origin. The analysis also identified 5
genetic segments as Native American in origin at high confidence, defined at the 99% posterior
probability value. We performed several additional analyses to confirm the presence of Native American
ancestry and to estimate the position of the ancestor in the individual’s pedigree.

Elizabeth Warren is not a natural blonde, so was her mother, who looks like Ina Mapes’s raven-haired father with one-quarter tribal blood.

(2) The largest segment identified as having Native American ancestry is on chromosome 10. This
segment is 13.4 centiMorgans in genetic length, and spans approximately 4,700,000 DNA bases. Based
on a principal components analysis (Novembre et al., 2008), this segment is clearly distinct from
segments of European ancestry (nominal p-value 7.4 x 10-7, corrected p-value of 2.6 x 10-4) and is
strongly associated with Native American ancestry.

(3) The total length of the 5 genetic segments identified as having Native American ancestry is 25.6
centiMorgans, and they span approximately 12,300,000 DNA bases. The average segment length is 5.8
centiMorgans. The total and average segment size suggest (via the method of moments) an unadmixed
Native American ancestor in the pedigree at approximately 8 generations before the sample, although
the actual number could be somewhat lower or higher (Gravel, 2012 and Huff et al., 2011).

(4) The sample was compared to the results of the 185 reference individuals with European ancestry,
from Great Britain and Utah.
• The segment on chromosome 10 observed in the individual is larger than any of the segments
identified as having Native American ancestry in any of the 185 reference individuals.
• The total length of Native American segments observed in the individual is greater than the
average value for the reference individuals — by 12.4-fold (corresponding to 12.7 standard deviations)
for the individuals from Great Britain and 10.5-fold (corresponding to 4.9 standard deviations) for the
individuals from Utah.

(5) The sample also contained smaller segments that could not be reliably assigned to any specific
ancestry group (at 99% posterior probability). The total length of these unassigned segments was 366
centiMorgans, and they span 267,650,000 DNA bases.

Conclusion. While the vast majority of the individual’s ancestry is European, the results strongly support
the existence of an unadmixed Native American ancestor in the individual’s pedigree, likely in the range
of 6-10 generations ago.

Last Edit: Jan 13, 2019 23:36:32 GMT by Admin

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What Does Elizabeth Warren's DNA Test Prove? Oct 22, 2018 18:14:24 GMT

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Post by Admin on Oct 22, 2018 18:14:24 GMT

As a child growing up in rural Arizona, Ina Mapes remembers her mother as a highly discreet woman who rarely expressed her personal feelings except when it came to one particularly incendiary topic: Did Mapes’s father, a raven-haired lawyer, have Native American roots, or did he not? Mapes’s grandmother maintained that he had one-quarter tribal blood. But her mother wanted to hear nothing of it.

“My mother did not approve of Indians, and she insisted that my father was not an Indian,” said Mapes, 77, of Catalina, Ariz. “In those days, it was not a plus to be an Indian, not at all. She said that Granny, my father’s mother, was just making it up and she did not believe it.”

Rev. Joseph H. Reed , great great grandfather of Ms. Warren

Mapes, a mother of four who volunteers in a clothing bank, is a second cousin to US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren. The two women, who have never met, share more DNA than most second cousins: Not only were their grandmothers sisters, their grandfathers were brothers. Those brothers — a team of carpenters named Harry and Everett Reed who plied their trade in the Indian Territory that would become the state of Oklahoma — are believed by some family members to have roots in the Delaware tribe. Mapes, who said she was unaware of her cousin’s candidacy until contacted by a reporter, said she does not doubt her heritage.

“I think you are what you are,” said Mapes. “And part of us is Indian.”

Warren’s extended family has mixed opinions on the Native American question. The stories shared by Mapes, as well as Warren’s brothers and a number of her cousins, echo Warren’s assertion. But other cousins, some of whom also do not know Warren, say they know nothing of Native American blood in the family. According to one family biography, on file at the California State University at Fullerton, one of Warren’s relatives once shot at an Indian.

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What Does Elizabeth Warren's DNA Test Prove? Oct 23, 2018 18:08:23 GMT

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Post by Admin on Oct 23, 2018 18:08:23 GMT

Sen. Elizabeth Warren just refuses to stop digging. On Sunday, she actually tried to claim she took that DNA test to resolve her Native American ancestry because she wanted to rebuild Americans’ “trust in government.” Right.

“Confidence in government is at an all-time low,” she noted. “And I believe that one way that we try to rebuild confidence is through transparency.”

That is: “I took a DNA test because I am an open book. And it’s all out there. It’s on the Internet. Anybody can take a look. Because, at the end of the day, this isn’t about me. This is about what’s happening to working families.”

In fact, the whole thing isn’t “out there”: What she released is the report from her chosen expert, who concluded that the senator likely had a Native American ancestor six to 10 generations back. Cherokee Nation leader Chuck Hoskin Jr. hit her effort as “inappropriate and wrong.”

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What Does Elizabeth Warren's DNA Test Prove? Oct 25, 2018 18:13:35 GMT

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Post by Admin on Oct 25, 2018 18:13:35 GMT

When Sen. Elizabeth Warren released DNA test results asserting her Native American ancestry this week, she was blasted by tribes including the Cherokee Nation, whose leader called genetic tests "useless" for determining tribal citizenship.

Whether the Massachusetts Democrat realized it or not, she had stumbled into a long-running debate about Native American identity. Her announcement of evidence for her ancestry claims, and the swift backlash from some tribal leaders, shined a national spotlight on the question of who can claim citizenship in an indigenous tribe. It's an issue with a fraught and complex history, and one on which citizens of America's over 560 federally recognized tribal nations do not speak with a single voice.

Jamie Azure, a tribal leader in North Dakota, was glad to see Warren, who faces re-election next month, embrace her heritage. He believes Native Americans need to be more accepting of those who want to get in touch with a piece of their ancestry, no matter how small, rather than enforcing stringent standards on who belongs. "It made me feel proud to see her talking about it," Azure said. "She's proud to have it in her blood."

Last Edit: Oct 25, 2018 18:14:26 GMT by Admin

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What Does Elizabeth Warren's DNA Test Prove? Oct 29, 2018 18:21:20 GMT

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Post by Admin on Oct 29, 2018 18:21:20 GMT

Harry Reed was part Indian, say descendants.

Months after the political flare-up, Warren and some of her family members remain unwilling to provide details on the subject. In a lengthy interview, Warren referred to stories about her roots that she says were frequently told at family gatherings in her native Oklahoma, but declined to share virtually any of them. “I knew it was part of our family,” Warren said. “It was part of what we talked about. . . . It was just part of who we were.”

Warren’s family, including cousin Mapes, have no documentation of Native American affiliation, nor is there evidence that they are listed on any official tribal roll. While Senator Scott Brown, Warren’s opponent, has used this to question her truthfulness, many who assert such heritage are unable to document it, according to several scholars. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, many Native Americans did not join tribal rolls for a host of complex reasons, including residency requirements, fear of discrimination, and opposition to land allotment policies.

In the absence of documentation, the family’s link to any Native American tribe is a matter of narrative inheritance or folklore, as Warren puts it. Even if Warren has some degree of Native American blood, it is unclear if it would meet conventional standards of what constitutes a minority.

David Herring of Norman, Okla., one of Warren’s three brothers, said in an interview that even when he was a child his relatives were reluctant to talk about the family’s Native American heritage because “it was not popular in my family.” Only when he begged his grandparents, said Herring, did they finally explain to him: “Your grandfather is part Delaware, a little bitty bit, way back, and your grandmother is part Cherokee. It was not the most popular thing to do in Oklahoma. [Indians] were degraded, looked down on.”

Warren’s brothers, Don, John, and David Herring, also issued a joint statement supporting their sister. “The people attacking Betsy and our family don’t know much about either. We grew up listening to our mother and grandmother and other relatives talk about our family’s Cherokee and Delaware heritage. They’ve passed away now, but they’d be angry if they were around today listening to all this.”

Last Edit: Jan 13, 2019 23:37:13 GMT by Admin