Female line information: mitogroup X

All members of mitogroup X can trace their mitochondrial DNA to one woman who is thought to have lived about 30 thousand years ago, probably somewhere in western Asia. Today, members of mitogroup X are found in Europe, the Near East, Central Asia, North Africa and North America. About 4 percent of Europeans and 2 percent of the peoples of Near East and North Africa are members of mitogroup X.

Mitogroup X is one of five found in the native peoples of the Americas. Unlike the four other Native American mitogroups (A, B, C, and D), X is hardly found among people from East Asia. This has given rise to speculation that mitogroup X was brought to the Americas by an eastward migration, by boat, of a European population about 20,000 years ago.

Although less than 3 percent of contemporary Native Americans belong to mitogroup X, it is common among some peoples of Northeastern North America. For example, 25 percent of the Ojibwa people belong to mitogroup X. It is also present in lesser percentages in North America among the Sioux (15%), the Nuu-Chah-Nulth (11%-13%), the Navajo (7%) and the Yakima (5%). In South America it is found in 12 percent of the Yanomami people.