Does the Q lineage family provide a link between ancient Israelites and Native Americans?
No. The Q (Y-chromosome) haplotype is prominent among the Kets (93.7 percent) and Selkups (66.4 percent ) of Siberia and among Native Americans (over 80 percent). Lineage Q also appears in European Jews (5 percent), but is rare in the Middle East. Scientists suspect its presence among European (Ashkenazi) Jewry is by way of the Khazar people who converted to Judaism in the eighth century. The Khazars inhabited what is now the Ukraine but later migrated into Eastern Europe and mixed with the Diaspora there. It is likely that the Q lineage arose in central Asia thousands of years before the Jews came into existence and it moved into Europe from Asia. The Native American Q lineage is a unique form known as Q3, a lineage which is absent in European and Jewish populations. Y lineages most closely related to Q3 occur in Siberia among populations also sharing related mitochondrial DNA with Native Americans. The occurrence of this distinctive version of the Q haplotype confirms once again the
