Native American DNA/Tall Tale or True?

 Many Americans claim Native American ancestry who aren't tribal members. Stories are often passed down in families about Native American ancestors. In some cases the stories are true. Many Americans have turned to DNA to verify these stories. Few people who have tested actually find any traces of Native American DNA in their results. 

When these testers are so confident they have Native American ancestry why isn't it showing up in their results? Here are a few possibilities:

1. The Native American ancestor is too many generations removed from the test taker. It's always best to have someone test who is closer generation wise because we lose portions of our distant ancestors DNA with every generation. 
2. We share a very small trace amount that the companies aren't picking up. If you test with multiple companies there is a chance one will detect this small percentage, which could be less than 1%.
3. Your Native American ancestor was mixed and not 100% Native American leading you to inherit only a trace amount. 

My impression, after many years of genealogy research, is Americans, those living in today's United States, didn't marry Native Americans very often. This is because the European population of Colonial America was large, with a larger population of women than in Central America, South America, and Canada. Most DNA testers in the United States do not have substantial amounts of Native American DNA, most actually don't have any Native American results. 

Fewer women came to the new world from Spain and Portugal. This led to more mixing between Iberian males and  Native Americans. 

There likely would have been more mixing between the  British colonists and Native Americans in the early 17th century, when the population was small, when there were fewer European women in the colonies.

If a person has family from Oklahoma, where eastern tribes were resettled, the chances of having Native American ancestry would be greater.  

The DNA companies get many questions and angry comments from people who are certain they have Native American ancestry which didn't show up in their DNA results. When they tell people it's possible the ancestor lived too far back for this to show up they are being truthful. Another explanation thrown out is the companies don't have good reference populations for Eastern North American Native Americans. This is because the tribal leadership is often against DNA testing. Is this true? Is that why this DNA admixture isn't showing up?

Let's look at my French Canadian DNA matches. Many of these matches still live in Canada and are French speaking even today. If it isn't possible to identify Eastern North American Native in the DNA samples then this admixture wouldn't show up in those living in Eastern Canada either. There was migration and mixing between the Canadian tribes and those south of them. 

Here we see one of my French Canadian matches has 0.80% Native American DNA. Because this is less than 1% I wouldn't look at this as strong proof of Native American ancestry. He does, however, have a Native American mtDNA haplogroup, A2i, proving his direct maternal line is in fact Native American. So the trace amount of Native American DNA is in fact correct. (The haplogroup A2i is found in the following groups:"USA (Hispanic, etc.), Canada (Ojibwa, Prince Edward Island, Pabos in Quebec)".  According to the Wikipedia article "Haplogroup A (mtDNA)" )

Looking at more French Canadian matches I find many with traces of Native American DNA. Here is another case. This match currently lives in Canada and has over 1% Native American DNA. He doesn't however have Native American ancestry in his direct male of female lines, because he has European haplogroups, unlike the previous example. 

Yes, in most cases North Eastern Native American DNA can be detected if present. 

The colonial population of Quebec was very small. They had difficulty attracting French women to settle in Quebec. Also many of the Quebecois were fur traders who would have had close contact with Native Americans. There is definitely more detectable Native American in the French Canadian population than those who settled the United States. 

Basically if your ancestors were from south of the United States border it's nearly certain you have Native American ancestry. If you have French Canadian ancestry you might find traces of Native American admixture. If you have American, United States, ancestry your chances of having Native American ancestry are much lower, unless you are a tribal member. 

 If you're positive the stories in your family are true and would like to prove that with DNA, but you don't have any trace in your results, I would suggest testing at more of the major testing companies or testing more relatives. Check the Y and mtDNA haplogroups of your matches at 23andMe and Family Tree DNA. It's possible, if your ancestors were among the earliest arriving in Virginia, for instance. that you might indeed have Native American ancestry. However, that far back any trace of these ancestors' DNA is probably no longer discernible. If your Native American ancestor was said to have been born in the 19th or 20th centuries you should find traces of their DNA in your results. In a case of a supposed closer ancestor not showing up then the story you were told is just another tall tale.