• Native Americans

    Are Mexicans Native American? The Real Answer Is More Interesting Than Yes or No

    TL;DR: Yes, statistically. As a population, the average mestizo Mexican is roughly 60% Native American by ancestry, sometimes more, with the rest mostly European and a smaller amount of African. Traced through the maternal line alone, that Indigenous figure climbs past 85%. So genetically, the typical Mexican is more Native American than anything else. Whether that makes someone “Native American” in the legal or self-identified sense is a separate question, and that is where it gets interesting. Short version: most Mexicans carry substantial Native American ancestry, often a majority of it, but “Native American” means different things depending on whether…