maternal testing for native american.

[watchman1974]

I have a question.Family tradition says we have indian in us. All branches of my line that I have made contact with support this orally. I have no paper trail. The story has two formats, One is that my great great g-ma was hanging clothes on the line in 1880's Iowa and was raped by an indian. the other is that she was having an affair with him. the daughter produced from this story is my great grandmother on my fathers side. I have pictures and she definatley looks indian. she has a daughter who is still alive at 92. If I have this daughter tested will native american show up if it was passed from her grandfather through her mother? will the 12 marker test show this?

[marilyn]

I'm sorry for the delay in responding to your question. 
Both the yDNA test and the mtDNA test will tell you your haplogroup.  The haplogroup will give you an idea of the migrations of your ancestral family from earliest times and can confirm Native American ancestry.

In order to test for Native American ancestry, you will need to have just the right connection between the ancestor you believe was Native American and the person being tested.

For a female Native American ancestor, you will use the mtDNA test.  You will need to locate a person whose mother's mother's ... mother is the targeted Native American.  If there is any male in the direct line between the person being tested and this ancestor, you will be testing some other ancestor's mtDNA and will not get what you seek.  mtDNA is passed from a mother to her children.  Men carry their mother's mtDNA, but cannot pass it on.   In order to test your great grandmother's mtDNA to see if it indicates native american ancestry, you would need to find an individual who is descended, through females, from her.  Did she have daughters?  Did they have daughters?  Did the daughters have daughters?  If you can find an individual who descends through this maternal line from your great grandmother, you will be able to test that person for mtDNA. 

Here is a link to Family Tree's page on Native American Ancestry: http://www.familytreedna.com/cj.asp?ftdna_ref=118&html=ngene.html