Turtle Island DNA

Turtle Island DNA

Gertrude Coste
Elizabeth Fougere

All people of Turtle Island ancestry are descendants of a small DNA pool that discovered and settled the Americas. This gene pool is unique to the Americas and no founder gene pool for Turtle Island DNA haplogroups are found in any other populations from outside of the Americas in the world today.

Turtle Island MTDNA

The MTDNA (Female) DNA haplogroups found only in the Americas are: A, B, C, D and X.  Haplogroup A is the largest MTDNA haplogroup of the Americas. Haplogroup A2 is the most common among the Inuit and the Na-Dene. Haplogroup B is the second largest MTDNA haplogroup, haplogroup C is the third largest to the Americas, followed by Haplogroup D at less than seven percent of the MTDNA haplogroups of the Americas. Haplogroup X is the smallest of the haplogroups of the Americas with X2a found in high numbers amongst the Tribes on the East Coast of Canada. Subclades X2a and X2g are found in North America but are not found in South America. 

Turtle Island YDNA

The YDNA (Male) haplogroups found only in the Americas are Q and C. Populations carrying Q-M3 are widespread throughout the Americas. several subclades of Q-M3 have a high prevalence of SNP M19 which defines subclade Q-M19 detected in over 50 percent of Ticuna men and Subclades Q-M19 and Q-M199 appear to be unique to South American populations and suggests that the establishment of tribes began soon after migration into the Americas.  Q-P89.1 is present in populations in the Canadian Northwest.   C2b1a1a P39 is found in the Na-Dené, Algonquian and Sioux.