Alabama – Native American | Native American | American Indian
For nearly 200 years, Native Americans hid out or kept low profiles in the mountainous backwoods and creek bottoms of Alabama, as they did in Georgia, Tennessee and other southeastern states. As much as possible, they assimilated into the white populace and claimed to be Black Dutch or some other type of European to explain their appearance and customs.
Created by the Legislative Act in 1984, the Alabama Indian Affairs Commission (AIAC) represents more than 38,000 American Indian families who are residents; even more Alabama Native Americans live outside the state, and some residents belong to other tribes or to none at all. Historically, the state was home to numerous tribes in the Creek Confederacy, including the Euchee, as well as many forgotten tribes, such as the Mobile, Yazoo and Tihanama.
As of May 2023, there were nine officially recognized Indian tribes with headquarters in the state of Alabama: Cherokee Tribe of Northeast Alabama, Cher-O-Creek Intratribal Indians, Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama, Machis Lower Creek Indian Tribe of Alabama, Mowa Band of Choctaw Indians, Piqua Shawnee Tribe, Poarch Band of Creek Indians (federally recognized), Southeastern Mvskoke Nation and United Cherokee Ani Yun Wiya.
In 2022, DNA Consultants inaugurated an independent DNA project to establish a benchmark of Alabama tribes’ biological history and diversity designed to supplement similar forensic samples of neighboring states, including Florida and North Carolina.
The project was called Alabama Tribes Reference Population STR Profile DNA Project. Participation in it was open to anyone enrolled in an Alabama tribe or claiming Native American ancestry in Alabama. It was managed by Susan Levin and concluded in June 2024.
Like other projects in the news, the purpose of the testing was to preserve a snapshot of the genetic composition of Alabama Native Americans at a time when admixture, secularization, intermarriage and other factors endanger the coherence and continuity of all ethnic groups. More widely, the purpose was to underpin educational and cultural awareness goals.
The Alabama project followed the protocol and standards of similar STR frequency studies, such as those reported in Kelly Carrothers et al, “Native American Population Data Based on the Globalfiler Autosomal STR Loci,” Forensic Science International: Genetics 24 (Sept. 2016) e12-e13, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.fsigen.2016.06.014.
Other similar reference populations in the company’s database are: Admixed Cherokee (n=62, n=92), Lumbee (n=251), Northeastern Mexico Mestizos (n=143), Southern Mexico Mestizos (n=251), Guatemalan Mestizos (n=200), Melungeon (n=40), Puerto Ricans (n=205), Euchee (n=6), Canada/U.S.Eastern Metis (n=24) and U.S./Mexico Texas Cherokee (n=54). The database also has Alabama White (n=75).
See also
Shawnee Reference Populations Introduced (news item, Aug. 6, 2022)
Alabama Native Americans Can Securely Test DNA (news item, May 6, 2023)
Alabama Indian Affairs Commission (AIAC)
Basic American Indian Test (participants’ DNA test)
Populations in DNA Consultants Database (list with links)
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