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“We do not say genomic results suggesting Native American percentages are wrong,” said Donald N. Yates, principal investigator. “But they are problematic and very politicized.” He argues they should be combined with other methods, including detailed genealogy records research and new scientific findings that take a fresh look at ethnicities and population change over time.

“Clients come to us all the time and say, ‘23&me or Ancestry or one of the other companies didn’t find my Native American,’” said Yates. “I have to tell them the company didn’t find their Native American because they don’t have the data: you can’t check a book out of the library if the library doesn’t have that book.” (more)

Genealogy services at three professional levels can be added to your DNA testing results. (more)

DNA Consultants maintains all forensic population samples that have ever been published on American Indians, and undertook three of its own, whereas companies like 23&me and Family Tree DNA have very limited data, none, as it turns out from Cherokee studies. Eastern and southeastern Indians are typically underestimated, if not completely absent, in genetic surveys. Most descendants of Cherokee and other Eastern American Indian heritage draw blanks in ancestry testing. Often only Short Tandem Repeat testing, the backbone of DNA Consultants’ approach, reveals fine-grain American Indian connections.   (more)

Panther's Lodge is producing an audiobook version of its title Cherokee DNA Studies: Real People Who Proved the Geneticists Wrong, by Donald N. Yates and Teresa A. Yates, principal officers of DNA Consultants. The title, which was the first in the series DNA Consultants Series on Consumer Genetics, appeared in print and on Kindle in December 2014. The audiobook version is an abridgment narrated by veteran broadcasting teacher Pete Ferrand and should be available on Audible by the holiday season.
Cherokee DNA Studies told the stories of more than a hundred participants in the company's first two phases of a research study finding unusual East Mediterranean mitochondrial types among the "standard" American Indian founding lineages in Cherokee descendants. Its DNA findings pointing to Egypt, the Levant and North Africa were heralded as "revolutionary" by Stephen C. Jett in a chapter of his book Atlantic Ocean Crossings: Reconsidering the Case for Contacts with the Pre-Columbian Americas (University of Alabama Press, 2017).
Phase III of the same study was closed in June and those results will be published in a follow-up volume title More Real People Who Proved the Geneticists Wrong.
Donald Yates, who also publishes as Donald N. Panther-Yates, has written or co-written some twenty-three books and has sixteen works on Audible. His latest two audiobooks were The Cherokee Origin Narrative, narrated by Jake Phillips, and On the Trail of Europa: Travels through Italy, Croatia, Greece and Turkey, read by Jim D. Johnston, both released this fall.

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Insufficient data on Native Americans has long hampered both geneticists and genealogists. Finally, a major study has addressed this failing with 29 separate American Indian tribes and an overall North American sample containing a total of 533 individuals and representing a diverse gene pool of about 1,000 alleles (variants). DNA Consultants added the new data to its forensic matching database on July 27, 2018, more than doubling its Native American populations. (more)

Robert Eugene Gound II upon graduation from the U.S. Army Ranger Sniper School, circa 1985. He is the brother of Dorene Soiret, Participant No. 52 in DNA Consultants’ Cherokee DNA Studies, Phase III, and bears the same copy of “anomalous Cherokee” mitochondrial DNA they received from their mother, Alice Gound. Photo used by permission of Robert Eugene Gound II. (more)

New book tells lost history of Jewish merchants and soldiers called Rhadanites among the Mexican Indians developing turquoise mining in Arizona and New Mexico. Excavators in 1925 display a Roman sword with a sea-monster on it and fan-shaped military standard, two of over thirty ceremonial objects cast in lead and engraved with the lost-wax process in the years around 850. The Hohokam Pioneer Period artifacts had been considered hoaxes until Donald Yates' study of their script-forms. (more)

Buyer Ranking is a magazine that tests and then reviews different products and deals. Its objective is to help consumers get superior products and services at the best prices. “We test products, examine research studies, and consult with doctors and scientists in order to provide these services…” They have tested the DNA Fingerprint Plus and included it in their top ranking for DNA ancestry tests.

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For the second time, Rare Genes from History DNA Test has been ranked in the 2017 wiki of the best ancestry DNA tests. This ranking consists of a video guide and an overall look at ancestry DNA test options available in the United States. (more)

The idea behind DNA Consultants’ ancestry product is simple. Test your DNA profile—the same markers used on TV detective shows—and see if the numbers match known populations as collected by forensic scientists. The key is a standard table of 30 variables or “alleles” called short tandem repeats (STRs) gathered from across your chromosomes. (more)