Native American DNA in the UK

The BBC has a story on native Britons with Native American mtDNA.

DNA testing has uncovered British descendents of Native Americans brought to the UK centuries ago as slaves, translators or tribal representatives.

Genetic analysis turned up two white British women with a DNA signature characteristic of American Indians.

An Oxford scientist said it was extremely unusual to find these DNA lineages in Britons with no previous knowledge of Native American ancestry.

Indigenous Americans were brought over to the UK as early as the 1500s.

Also of interest the previous post on Sub-Saharan African Y chromosome haplogroup A in white British surname. Such unusual results are likely to turn up in any population, no matter how homogeneous, provided that a large enough number of individuals are sampled.