Do you have Native American ancestry and Rh negative blood?

My answer to the question: “Does my Rh negative blood come from my Native American ancestors?”

As many times before, I tend to create update posts whenever new information comes to light. The old version can be seen on the right-hand side.

Here is Part 2:

Many of you have indicated having at least some Native American ancestry and wonder whether or not your Rh negative blood originates in that part of your heritage.

The answer:

Are Cherokees high in rh negative blood?

Not likely.

As far as I have seen, all Native American groups from North America show almost no Rh- frequencies. Some of those considered Native American may in fact be mixed. In the beginning of Europeans coming to what is now the United States, many Scottish and Irish settlers mixed with Native Americans. When looking for solid Native American tribes, I am looking also at those from Central and South America where all were shown to have 0 Rh negatives among them.

Looking at Asian ancestry, that makes sense.

There have been plenty of speculations floating around, but I have examined studies of Blackfoot, Cherokee and other tribes and the results are all the same.

A 1962 study regarding Cherokee reads:

“The Rh types are set forth in table 5. As all blood samples were positive with anti-Rho (D), gene frequencies could be obtained by counting. The most common phenotypes are Rh1Rhl (DCe/DCe) and Rh1Rh2 (DCe/DcE), and the R1 (DCe) allele is more frequent in both full-blooded and mixed Indians than all other Rh alleles combined. In the absence of both Rho (Dccee) and rh (dccee) phenotypes, it is impossible to differentiate between R0 and r alleles. Of 250, 74.4% were in group 0, 16.0% A, 7.2% B, and 2.4% AB. Among 110 considered full-blooded, 93.6% were group 0.”

How about Alaska Natives?

Distribution of Blood Groups Among the Eskimos, Indians, and Whites of Western Alaska

While many of the Native American tribes, especially in Central and South America test 100% blood type O, the Blackfoot have blood type A frequencies so high, one most consider the possibility that at one point their population was 100% blood type A.

It was not too long ago that I have learned that today’s Inuits are descendants of a tribe 1,000 years ago migrating from Asia towards the Americas and not so much the Paleo-Eskimos coming over around 5,000 years ago. That would explain the blood type B presence amongst them while B being absent from all other Native American tribes.

Blood type frequencies make sense when looking at migrations and timelines and while some of you might be surprised by the origin of your blood types, it all makes sense looking at the autosomal DNA and dominances when wondering why your blood type may have originated 1,000s of miles from where you know your ancestry to be from.

A 1953 study reads:

“The Eskimos were 99.96% Rh positive. Only one out of 2,522 Eskimos was Rh negative, and though records indicate that this individual was a full-blooded Eskimo, there remains the possibility of admixture with White. In contrast to the Eskimos, the Whites were only 83.51% Rh positive; of the 156 EskimoWhite who were tested, 98.08% were Rh positive.”

If you are from the United States or Canada, the chance of having at least some Native American ancestry is quite high.

As you can see, the studies I mentioned are quite old, but the more time goes by, the less we will find Native Americans qualifying as such rather than being mixed.

Genetically, Native Americans are most closely related to East Asians and Ancient North Eurasian. Native American genomes contain genetic signals from Western Eurasia due in part to their descent from a common Siberian population during the Upper Paleolithic period.

The title of the video on the right hand side is “Were Native Americans rh negative?”. I am using past tense, because my interest lies in the original population.

Were Native Americans rh negative?

Again:

Not likely.

How much of your own family’s ancestry are you aware of and do you know the blood types of your parents and grandparents?