Native American Haplogroup X2a – Solutrean, Hebrew or Beringian?

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I was very pleased to see the article, “Does Mitochondrial Haplogroup X Indicate Ancient Trans-Atlantic Migration to the Americas? A Critical Re-Evaluation” by Jennifer Raff and Deborah Bolnick.

This is one of those topics that gets brought up over and over again and is often presented in the form of an urban legend with some level of bias based up on the agenda, exuberance or opinion of the person who is presenting the evidence. In other words, it makes for good click-bait.

Personally, I don’t have a horse in this race. I care about the truth, whatever it is, being discovered and unraveled.  I think the authors of this paper have done a good job of presenting the evidence in both directions then drawing conclusions based on scientific data as we know it.  There has been new evidence emerge in the recent past and there is likely to be more in the future which, depending on the evidence, could cause a re-evaluation of this topic.

Why has haplogroup X2 been so contentious and controversial when the other Native American haplogroups have not?

There are two primary reasons:

  1. There is no clear-cut genetic path across Beringia to the New World for X2a, meaning that X2a is not found in Siberia in the areas bordering Beringia. The ancestral form of the other Native American haplogroups are found there, indicating a clear migration path. Having said that, haplogroup X2a and subgroups is very clearly the rarest of the Native American mitochondrial DNA haplogroups and it’s certainly feasible that not enough testing has been performed on living or ancestral people to discover X2 or X2a directly ancestral individuals. It is also possible that line has died out, but hopefully we will still find examples in skeletal remains as more are DNA typed.
  2. Many of the early carriers of haplogroup X2a were found in eastern maritime Canada, a prime theoretical landing location for Solutreans.  This certainly fanned the Solutrean flame.  However, more recent discoveries of haplogroup X2a and subgroups have been more widely geographically dispersed.  Neither is there a path or ancestral form of X2a found in Europe or the Middle East.

Looking at the X2a subgroups (X2a, X2a1, X2a1a, X2a1b, X2a1c, plus three forms of X2a2) in the haplogroup X project at Family Tree DNA, the American Indian project, GenBank and various academic papers, we find the following locations identified for X2a and subgroups, moving west to east:

  • Saskatchewan
  • Pasadena, California
  • Chihuahua, Mexico
  • Edmonton, Alberta
  • Selkirk, Manitoba
  • Manitoba (2)
  • La Pointe, Wisconsin
  • Ontario
  • Ontario border with Michgan (Manitoulin Island)
  • St. Ignace, Michigan (near border with Ontario)
  • Manawan, Quebec
  • Newfoundland and Labrador
  • Newfoundland (Island) 2
  • Cape Breton, Canada
  • Nova Scotia, Canada

Although not in the haplogroup X project, X2a2 has also been found among the Navajo and Jemez in the American Southwest and in Kennewick Man found in Kennewick, Washington. Other tribal affiliations include the Chippewa, Ojibwa and Sioux.  Given the Newfoundland and Canadian seaboard locations, the Algonquian speaking Micmac and Beothuk populations would clearly be involved as well.

X2a map

Note on the X2a map above reflecting the oldest known ancestral locations, that no locations appear outside of North America.

Haplogroup X2a is believed to have developed in Beringia during the period of isolation of approximately 8,000 years experienced by the people who were to become the “First Nations” and “Native Americans” in North America. This is the reason, not just for X2a, but for other haplogroups as well, that some subgroups exist only in Native people in the New World and not in Asia from whence they came.  Those haplogroup identifying mutations occurred during their long stay in Beringia.

We know from archaeological excavations along with genetic analysis in some cases that the Native people by roughly 14,000 years ago had emerged from Beringia, trekked southward and were in Monte Verde in Chile. The Native population seems to have diverged into two groups, one in South America who likely arrived via a western coastal route, and one who migrated more eastwardly, the ancestors of Anzick Child who lived about 12,500 years ago in Montana and whose DNA has been tested.

Kennewick Man who carries the oldest form of haplogroup X2a yet found in the Americas was dated to be about 9,000 years old and was found in Washington State, so clearly X2a was present in the Native population 9,000 years ago and on the western side of the continent.

You will note that in the list of X2a results given above, none of the locations are any further south than Chichuhua, Mexico.  Based on the locations of these most distant ancestors, a primary west to east migration path just north of the present day border between the US and Canada is suggested, along with a secondary path southward along the Pacific coast or western corridor.

Here are the salient points listed by Raff and Bolnick in support of haplogroup X2a and subgroups originating in Asia, along with the other Native American haplogroups, and arriving together in the same settlement wave:

  1. Haplogroup X2a is present in the Americas in pre-European contact skeletal remains confirming is it not a result of post-contact admixture.
  2. While the Altai, considered to be the original Asian homeland of today’s Native American people, do carry haplogroup X2, the linking mutations between X2 and X2a have not been found in that or any other population group today. Haplogroup X itself originated in the Middle East before X2 evolved, but that is not indicative of Hebrew or European ancestry.
  3. X2a is not found in the Middle East, and therefore could not have been part of a theoretical Hebrew migration from the Middle East 2500 years ago. Haplogroup X2a was found in Kennewick man who lived 9000 years ago, in Washington State, so X2a in the Americas predates the proposed Hebrew migration by some 6,500 years.
  4. The oldest and deepest rooted X2a result, relative to the haplotree, is Kennewick man whose remains were found in the western US. If X2a was the result of a Solutrean migration during the Pleistocene 23,500 to 18,000 years ago with a landing base in Newfoundland or someplace on the east coast, the oldest and deepest lineages should be found in the eastern population, not on the west coast.
  5. Based on coalescence dates and demographic history, X2a is likely to have originated in the same population as the other American founder haplogroups.
  6. Kennewick Man was explicitly tested for his affinity with European and Polynesian populations and that hypothesis was rejected.
  7. Studies have indicated that a population found in central Asia contributed strongly to both the Native American population and the European population by moving from central Asia into both Europe and Siberia, but that does not equate to Europeans being ancestral to Native Americans. Instead, a common ancestral population often referred to as the “ghost population” was part of the founding group of both Europeans and Native Americans as described here and here. This means that later European populations, such as Germanic people who do show small amounts of “Native American” admixture are probably more closely related to Native Americans than earlier populations from before the central Asian people arrived and settled en masse in Europe.
  8. No Solutrean skeletal remains have been recovered in Europe in order to facilitate a direct comparison. However, if Solutrean people did arrive in the New World on the east coast, one would not expect to find a European/Solutrean signature equally distributed among all native people, but instead distributed in a gradient pattern with the highest levels closest to where the Solutrean people lived, meaning their landing point.  In other words, it would radiate outward like ripples from a rock thrown into water.  However, the genetic signature of West Eurasian ancestry in Native American people is found equally in all Native American genomes tested to date, and as such, predates the evolution of regional genetic structure within North and South America as reflected in migration patterns.

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50 thoughts on “Native American Haplogroup X2a – Solutrean, Hebrew or Beringian?”

      • I am Northern European according to my autosomal tests at 23andme and also familytreedna. I have no sub groups. I am just x2b. My mothers family was Norwegian, Swede and Dane. My father was Scotch, Irish, German and English. My family is very small and it’s impossible for me to get my male line tested as my dad was killed during WWII and there were no brothers and his sisters had no male children. I was an only child. I do need to take the maternal line test. I did the short one with familytreedna but didn’t learn anything new.

        Thank you for your prompt reply.
        Nancy

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    • My maternal haplogroup is also X2a2 but my maternal line is Winnipeg, Manitoba and northern Saskatchewan ( Swampy Cree tribe)

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  3. Good article Roberta. I was particularly interested because my wife has native American heritage. She is from Chile. Recently she tested her mtDNA and it came back C1b. When she got the results we looked and she had zero matches. I called FTDNA thinking that there was a mistake but they said that her haplogroup was very rare and there simply have been no others with that DNA tested. FTDNA said that this haplogroup was from the original populations that came across the Bering Straits before the ice age. We thought that was extremely interesting.

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  4. Thanks for this very thorough report. I had not heard of the X2, X2a haplogroup but it’s a fascinating story. C1b2 here, according to 23andme. I am planning to have my ancestry profile done through NatGeo’s Geno project. Wouldn’t it be a kick if it had significantly different findings. Ha!
    Thanks again.

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  6. Didn’t the Solutreans propagate the Melungeons? Or was that Bigfoot? 🙂 Thanks for shining some light on some well-traveled pseudoscience.

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  7. Pretty sure no one has all the answers. There’s no stopwatch signaling a finish line. Stop clenching and keep looking.

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  8. Pingback: Native American Mitochondrial Haplogroups | DNAeXplained – Genetic Genealogy

    • You can tell your full mitochondrial sequence at Family Tree DNA and join the haplogroup where you can work with others who share this haplogroup. The link is on the sidebar of the blog, and you will need the full sequence test. Very exciting. Where is your matrilineal ancestor from? Also, you can join the American Indian project as well, and we would certainly welcome you.

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      • Thank you for the info!!! My ancestors are from Selkirk/Winnipeg Manitoba.. I’m adopted but know biological mom.

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  10. My tests came back as x2a with no subgroups. I’m at a loss to understand exactly what that means, other than an old family story of native ancestry was true. I can’t find any trace of that branch of the family tree past my great grandmother, born in Canada, abt 1864.

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  11. Don, where did you do your test? With a HRV1 & 2 test at FTDNA I was X2a; with the Full Genome Sequence test at Ftdna my mtdna was determined to be X2a2. Doing research of my maternal line indicated the earlier ancestor I could find was in Nova Scotia, Canada. Do you have a more specific location in Canada?

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    • FTDNA, mtFull Sequence. No records have shown up on my ggm in Canada, only link to her being from there is in us census and other legal papers listing it as her place of birth. Same records state her parents were from Ireland and England.

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      • Do you have surname for your ggm? Is your ggm in your direct maternal line? If she is and she is X2a it would be strange that her mother would be from Ireland or England. Unless at that time Newfoundland may have been a British colony as it was until 1949.
        I match up with women whose ancestors are from Nova Scotia. Surnames – Pero/Pierro (changed to Alexandre after move to Newfoundland), Boucher, Bouchard, Tobin, Jesseaume, Denny.
        Like I mentioned before I was X2a but in further testing I had another mutation that put me into another subgroup. X2a is common among the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. It was also the mtdna haplotype of the now extinct Beothuk tribe’s chief Nonosabsut and also the Kennewick man’s maternal line.

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        • I am from the Pierrot Alexandre line. They changed their name. I am doing searches as to why the name change. My family spoke French too but their best to hide. I am Mi’kmaq and French ancestry. I did not get tested yet. Not sure of what company to do the testing.

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          • Teri, I would suggest taking a test with FTDNA. I tested with FTDNA and 23andMe. I like the database of people who tested at FTDNA and have had many mtdna matches with those who match my maternal line.
            My primary research is of my maternal line because I believe my ggrandmother was either fostered or adopted. Her haplogroup is not the same as the maternal line she is said to be a part of – they are A2f1. Family lore says her husband and his father were animal trappers for fur in the interior of Newfoundland and suggest she may have been part of an indiginous family who they encountered. No proof though.
            I’m very interested, if you test with FTDNA, how you will show as a match to me.

          • Teri Hall One of my maternal line matches has the Pero/Pierro/ line in her ancestry so this is interesting. Another X2a2 match has ancestor Cecelia Alexander/Alexandre in her maternal line. When I first started investigating how my ggrandmother was X2a2 and her female siblings tested with a result of A2f1 I had a number of women test their mtDNA to try and narrow down who matched my ggrandmother’s maternal line. Haven’t determined who she really is but with more new results coming in it becomes more promising I may find out who she is. I also have a two step match to a person whose ancestor a Joe who is of the Mi’kmaq. In a previous post I mentioned the now culturally extinct Beothuk in Newfoundland had a chief Nonosobasut whose mtdna was X2a2 but further testing shows him as X2a1. If you can could you let me know what your maternal line ancestors are? Thanks, Kathleen

        • Interesting. My mother’s haplogroup is X2a2 and she was born on Cape Breton Island. I too am related to the Bouchers, the Bouchards and also Tobins (my great-grandmother on my mother’s side was a Tobin). The Bouchers and Bouchards are all distant cousins.

          The Boutiliers, who landed in Nova Scotia from France in 1735 are fourth cousins.

          So perhaps you and I are distantly related.

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  12. Oh wow Roberta I must say I am a little surprised you mentioned Solutreans. Not many people know of them and many who do try to deny them. I would have to disagree with no Solutrean skeleton being found however. Look up the Blonde haired blue eye mummies of America. The problem is Native American tribes refuse to let them get DNA testing. But good article.

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  14. I have had genetic testing done and am trying to find out more about my maternal line. My maternal haplogroup is X2a. Please reach out if you are able to share more at this point.

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  15. My maternal haplogroup is X2a2 and I am from the west coast of Newfoundland.
    I am trying to trace my maternal line but records on the Island of Newfoundland were not very well kept unfortunately. Names in my line are Hynes (nee Chaisson), Cormier and Carter but it ends there. Our family has always claimed that there is native blood in my maternal line but we can not find any documentation. I am relatively new to the search so any advice on where to turn next would be greatly appreciated.

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      • I tested with 23andme and my haplofroup was identified as x2a2. To becone a member of this group it states that I must purchase another test kit. Is this the correct information? If so, what company would you recommend that I test with at this point?
        Sincere thanks,
        Deborah LeDrew

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        • The projects are at Family Tree DNA which is the only company that does full mitochondrial testing. Purchase your kit through them, then join the project. Only people who test at Family Tree DNA can join the projects. The link is on the sidebar of the blog.

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    • Deborah, my maternal line haplogroup is also X2a2. I tested with 23and me and FTDNA. I have Hynes in my maternal – Flora Anne Bourdelou who married William Hynes and had Anne Ellen Hynes my grandmother who lived at West Bay Centre, NL.

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      • My Mother is Anne (Hynes) Leamon.
        My grandparents were Martin Hynes and Frances Chaisson. My great grandparents were Captain Richard (Dickey) Hynes and Marguerite Philomena Hynes.
        I’m new to genealogy so I don’t know how to confirm the rest but this is what I believe to be correct from my recent internet searches …..
        Marguerite’s parents were Isadore Cormier and Harriet Mary Ross. Isadore’s parents were Guillaume Cormier and Marie Modeste Chaisson. Harriet Mary Ross’s parents were William Ross and Ester Mowatt.
        I have been unable to find who Richard Hynes’ parents were so I’m hoping to find something as I learn where to dig deeper.
        Could someone please advise me as to which FTDNA tests I should take? I have only tested with 23andme which is how I found out about my x2a2 haplogroup. Should I do the full sequence maternal test as well as the family finder? Also, what is the most user friendly site to build my family tree? As you can tell I’m very new to genealogy so any advice or links to tutorials would be greatly appreciated!

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        • I use Rootsmagic software on my computer to maintain all of my genealogy information. I do back it up, just in case. I suggest that you take both the full sequence mtDNA test at Family Tree DNA, along with the Family Finder test. The link is on the sidebar of this blog. I also suggest that you test at Ancestry. If you read my end of year posting, there are several useful educational resources in there, as well as in the Help tab on the blog. Best of luck to you.

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          • Thank you!! I’ll be sure to check out all the things you listed and hope to test with the other companies soon.
            Debbie

  16. my daughter(not blood) is Swepmec(an interior salish tribe) from around kamloops. no real hapala info. but Wegene says maternal hap group is X2a2

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  17. Any info on X2e would be greatly appreciated or how to research this. Any Native American people with that haplogroup? I was under the impression that my great grandfather could be full-blood Cherokee. The name Bragg is part of my father’s side also that came to America in the early 17th century from England.

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  18. Hello, I am enjoying the fascinating blog. I have been doing genealogy for about 15 years but have just done the FamiyTree DNA Family Finder and Full mt-DNA test. In part, I did the mt-DNA as my maternal line goes back to a woman, ca 1810, “thought” to be Native American. In all my research at NARA and otherwise, I have not been able to prove or disprove that, but it was widely reported though lines of several of her children. My test indicated X2i. I would like to try to join some research groups.

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      • I am finally able to have the free time to again focus on this, and I appreciate your helpful blog. I have just this morning joined the American Indian project and am literally in the process of learning more about and understanding the aspects of the project. Thank you for your blog!

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  19. I have a strange situation. My dad tested at FTDNA and received a <1% South
    American result. He is of Eastern European origin. I had my cousin test (we share the same grandmother) because her mother and my father were siblings. I was surprised to find that it came back X2b. Now I understand that is not NA, nor am I trying to prove NA (though my Dad received 2.65 on a Gedmatch calculator for Ancient Meso-American and I had half of his result though I submitted the tests to Gedmatch from two different companies). Could this X reflect a very ancient group that shared the same founding haplogroup prior to separation. That sounds like a real long shot and yet why South American of all things?

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    • Yes, that’s a real long shot. We do sometimes see people from Eastern Europe with Slavic heritage that shows a bit of Native – likely residual from common Asian ancestry. Or it could just be noise.

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  20. Hi! I am X2a1 and my maternal line is from Cuba. We can go back to my GGgrandmother as born in Cuba, so clearly one of my descendants came down the east coast with a group or a Spanish or French trader. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to get the documentation to see when exactly she came to Cuba. I wish I could find this info out, its amazing!!!

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  21. Hi I’m maternal haplo group X2a and from NW Washington State. My family has lived in this area for many generations. Known native family but would like to know which great grandmother it came from. I had 2 native grandmothers, both from this area/right on border of British Columbia. Thanks for any information. Much appreciated.

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