We are family

This result highlights one of the few disappointments in the book, though Gates is not responsible for it. The only one of his 12 subjects to refuse DNA testing was author Louise Erdrich, whose paternal ancestry is German and maternal ancestry is Ojibwe. Erdrich “declined, after conferring with her family and with other members of her tribe.” Native Americans have been reluctant to participate in genetic testing; many find that results indicating an Asian ancestor (who migrated across the Bering Land Bridge in prehistoric times) conflict with their tribal origin stories. Neither Gates nor Erdrich offer any explanation for her decision, but the absence of Erdrich’s DNA results is a reminder that each one of us holds a unique piece of the human genetic puzzle. The more information we compile about our shared genetic history, the closer we’ll get to understanding our earliest human origins.