Can Sami ancestry be proven by genetic testing?
On One Hand: Who Are the Sami?The Sami are an ethnic minority of Northern Europe. They are natives of Norway, Sweden and Finland. Some Sami also are from Russia’s Kola Peninsula. Altogether, the Sami make up one of the biggest groups of indigenous people in all of Europe. Some still live their traditional lifestyles, but recently, the Sami have been assimilating themselves into modern society.On the Other: Sami Ancestry Can Be Proven By Genetic TestingAccording to the European Journal of Human Genetics, “Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is frequently used for population studies. Also, recent database resources enable comparisons of the pattern of genetic variation in the entire mtDNA genome in large population samples. Two mtDNA haplogroups account for the majority of mtDNA diversity in Norwegian, Finnish and northern Swedish Sami. The ‘Sami-specific’ subclade has been denoted U5b1b1.14.” In other words, the Sami are genetically specific and can be genetically distinguished from other similar