Democratic Primaries
In reply to the discussion: To all those who still want to pound on Warren for her family history that turned out to be legend-- [View all]Major Nikon
(36,818 posts)There's a lot more to being a Native American than just finding a drop or even a significant percentage of DNA ancestry.
For one thing, the accuracy of these sort of tests aren't as definitive as many believe.
For another, the idea of trying to link DNA to Native American identity is just a bad idea all around. Some people who have very strong identities to being Native American may have low to zero "Native American DNA" due to marital or other non-genetic reasons like adoption. While someone who has high "Native American DNA" may have zero identity to any tribe simply because their parents or other ancestors were removed from any tribal affiliations.
I get that people want to do these kind of tests and discover themselves somehow, but in a way I think it reinforces the idea that we are what our genes say we are and I don't really see the logic in that. At the very least there's a lot more to it, especially when it comes to being Native American.
Personally I say that anyone who wants to identify even in a small way as a Native American is a big change from when I was a child and it was something many were ashamed of being even within my own family.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided