23, Me, and the Lumbee

February 3, 2020 Aline gave me a 23&Me test kit for Christmas and here are the results: 95.2% European (mostly Scotland and Ireland); 3.8% Sub-Saharan (West and West Central) Africa; 2% Broadly East Asian and Native American; .1% Broadly Western Asian & North African; .7% Unassigned.  

To place this in perspective, on average we share 50% DNA with full siblings, 12.5% with 1^st cousins; 3.13% with 2nd cousins; and .78% with 3rd cousins.  The report is telling me that although I’m biologically mostly Scottish and Irish, I carry as much DNA from West and Central Africa as a 2^nd cousin, and as much Native American DNA as a 3rd cousin.  However, the contributions from close relatives differs from historical contributions.  As I understand it, the DNA from a sibling or cousin is closely aligned in DNA strings, whereas that contributed in the past is more scattered.  And, the degree of scattering allows algorithms to estimate how many generations ago, estimated at 30 yrs/gen, the DNA entered the line of descent.  Thus, the African genes entered my genome between 150-240+ years ago, and the Spanish and Portuguese DNA entered with the earliest African DNA.  To me, this is very interesting historically, for the pattern of historical DNA entering my genome closely matches what we know of the demography of early European exploitation of Africa by the Spanish and Portuguese as well as the pattern of forced migration of captured and enslaved Africans into the Carolina Lowcountry.   

My connection to this pattern is likely through the Lumbee Indian community of Pembroke and Robeson County, NC.  My mother was born to the Pembroke community in 1909, and a year or so later her family moved near Laurinburg, NC where they lived as white. My family and I lived as white, nevertheless my mother recognized and loved her Pembroke family. 

Today, many members of the Lumbee tribe are in the midst of an identity crisis because their DNA tests, like mine, show significant African ancestry, and not as much Native American as anticipated.   For me, such results are positive and exciting.  They show the Robeson County community as a center of resistance to the forced labor camps (plantations) of Lowcounty South and North Carolina.  This community was likely built around the nucleus of displaced and decimated Native Americans who welcomed those people who could escape, one way or another, the inhumanity of chattel slavery.  It is a community with a heroic past.  

As for me, I accept people for who they say they are. And, when I’m asked to identify my “race,” I give no reply or simply say “other.”  I’m happy to be related to all of humanity.   

In the future, I will be exploring more of this particular history, and I will be posting it on my website, lelandferguson.com  .