The email contains the results of a DNA test for which Reynolds-Boyce paid, and which declares her a Beothuk. 
 
 “It’s a bad feeling when people say you are extinct, that you don’t exist, that you don’t count. This is political genocide,” Reynolds-Boyce, a retired teacher from the United States, told The Telegram in a phone interview from North Carolina. 
 
 The Beothuk are the aboriginal people of Newfoundland, who numbered less than 1,000 at the time of European contact, according to Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador. After being increasingly isolated and denied access to resources by European settlers through the 17th and 18th centuries, the Beothuk were reduced to a small population along the Exploits River. The last known member of the Beothuk, Shanawdithit, died in St. John’s in 1829. 
 
 Reynolds-Boyce said she grew up being told by family members she was part aboriginal. She said her family tree evidence proves she is Beothuk. 
 
 She said her family left Newfoundland for Nova Scotia and Maine, but later returned, hiding the fact they were Beothuk. She said she owns land in both the United States and Newfoundland. 
 
 “I publicly represented Beothuk First Nation before I had the DNA test, but I thought it was time to prove that we are not extinct, but endangered, so I finally took the test and the results came out on October 16, 2016,” said Reynolds-Boyce. 
 
 She said her brother and her mother also took the test, and her family voted her chief of what she calls the Beothuk First Nation. 
 
 Viaguard/Accu-Metrics is the Toronto-based business Reynolds-Boyce paid to test her DNA. Apart from DNA testing for ancestry, the company provides paternity testing, drug testing via hair, dog breed testing, immigration services, criminal pardon consultations and dermatology products, according to its website. 
 
 The site explains that the First Nations testing is based on linking customers’ DNA with DNA from a proven member of a specific First Nation. The test determines if a customer’s DNA contains the same haplotypes — groups of genes inherited from a single parent — as members of First Nations communities. The company has a list of hundreds of specific nations and tribes from Canada and the U.S. it says it can pinpoint via the test. 
 
 While there are a number of companies that offer DNA testing for heritage, Accu-Metrics is seemingly the only one claiming to be able to determine Beothuk ancestry, as well as ancestry of other extinct aboriginal groups. 
 
 • • • 
 
 Kyle Tsui, laboratory manager at Accu-Metrics, told The Telegram the company tests customers’ DNA against information in a 2007 paper published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology that provided certain mitochondrial DNA from the remains of two Beothuk people, Desmaduit and Nonosabasut. The genetics show matches with present-day Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq, and certain Cherokee, Chippawa and Kiowa people of the United States, according to the study. 
 
 “First we looked for First Nations DNA, the presence of those haplo groups, and then in this circumstance they have to match what’s known in scientific literature, the pattern of haplo groups that was found,” Tsui explained of the DNA test. “That’s why it was reported as First Nations ancestry, and then Beothuk.” 
 
 Tsui acknowledged he is aware of a 2011 paper that argued the DNA data from the Beothuk remains does not support a close genetic relationship between Beothuk and Mi’kmaq communities, but said Accu-Metrics stands by Reynolds-Boyce’s results. 
 
 “That’s what our technicians found when they did the comparison when they matched it up,” he said. “When we get a profile, what we do is match it to our database and that’s what we report. It’s an automatic reporting system. 
 
 “Most people obviously don’t come out as Beothuk. It’s a rare scenario. I believe it’s only the first time we’ve seen that, I think. For most people, the typical tribes are the Mi’kmaq and so forth. In this case, it was the Beothuk.” 
 
 When asked for his opinion on Reynolds-Boyce’s establishment of the Beothuk First Nation based on her Accu-Metrics test results, Tsui said, “We only do the testing, that’s all we do, whatever’s provided. The test that we do is not a legal test, it’s just for informational purposes, just like many of these genetic tests that are on the market. You can’t use it as any evidence whatsoever, it’s just for informational purposes. You can’t take it to court and so forth.” 
 
 The main page of Accu-Metrics’ website says, “All tests can be done for legal purposes.” 
 
 • • • 
 
 Steve Carr, a biology professor at Memorial University who specializes in genetics and evolution — and who co-wrote the 2011 paper on Beothuk DNA — said the genetic identification of any living human as having Beothuk ancestry at this point in time is impossible, since their entire genetic signature is unknown. 
 
 “There is no large-scale Beothuk DNA reference material,” Carr explained. “There are very short fragments of the (mitochondrial DNA) HVR-1, and (Accu-Metrics’) so-called database and automatic reporting system wouldn’t pull HVR-1 sequence of a complete genome test. The 2007 Beothuk DNA sequences are not in the standard databases because they’re so fragmentary.” 
 
 Accu-Metrics’ DNA test results confirming Reynolds-Boyce’s Beothuk ancestry amount to “magical meretricious thinking,” Carr said. 
 
 Will we ever be able to link living people to Beothuk ancestors, in that case? Carr is hopeful. 
 
 “DNA has been recovered from many ancient sources, including dozens of Neanderthals, million-year-old folks in the Denisova cave, the assassinated Romanov Tsar and his family,” he says. “It depends on the quality of preservation and the absence of contamination. Water is DNA’s enemy. It’s very hard to separate fragmentary ancient DNA from teeth, especially when they’ve been thoroughly handled by modern humans who leave flakes of skin and drops of sweat. 
 
 Carr notes there are professional scientific groups using increasingly precise genetic research techniques for research on Maritime Archaic peoples. Carr and his team at MUN plan to continue their work on genetic variation in Mi’kmaq nations, in co-operation with Miawpukek First Nation Chief Misel Joe and his council. 
 
 • • • 
 
 Reynolds-Boyce says she has sent copies of her DNA results to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett, whom she says responded and told her it will be forwarded to the Indian Registrar for review. 
 
 Bennett’s office told The Telegram it would look into the matter, but had not yet responded as of deadline. 
 
 Reynolds-Boyce said she’s concerned about the “robbing, stealing and digging up” of the Beothuk people, and is hoping to have Beothuk remains and artifacts repatriated from museums around the world to Newfoundland. 
 
 She has set up a Facebook group called Beothuk Tribe of Newfoundland and North America Reservation Nation, which features an option for the public to donate money. She said she didn’t set the site up for donations; the button was a feature offered by Facebook. 
 
 “But our Indian tribal entity can receive donations, yes,” she told The Telegram. “The council makes those decisions of how money is used. So far, no one seems to care, though, so everything we do is out of our own personal incomes.” 
 
 Reynolds-Boyce elaborated: “Let me make it perfectly clear. Beothuk First Nation is in progress to get federal recognition and no one gives us a dime for what we do.” 
 
 tbradbury@thetelegram.com 
 
 Twitter: @tara_bradbury ||||| A North Carolina woman says DNA testing has revealed that she is Beothuk, a descendant of an Indigenous people from Newfoundland whose last known member died in 1829. 
 
 Geneticists say the woman's claim is impossible to verify, and the company that has been providing the DNA testing for Beothuk DNA decided to suspend it after receiving queries from CBC News. 
 
 This portrait of Demasduit (also known as Mary March) is one of the few known images of a Beothuk. (Library and Archives Canada) 
 
 Carol Reynolds Boyce, 55, from Wilmington, N.C., said the Toronto-based company Accu-Metrics tested her, her mother and her brother, and responded that all three have Beothuk DNA, giving her the confirmation she always felt about her heritage. 
 
 "When I was a little girl, my mother, she's holding me on her lap and she's saying, 'You got Indian in you,'" Reynolds Boyce told CBC News. 
 
 Reynolds Boyce said her mother is from the central Newfoundland town of Gander, where she met and married her father, a U.S. serviceman, while he was stationed there. They later moved to the U.S. 
 
 Last year, she decided she would get her DNA tested to prove what she always knew. 
 
 "You just know," she told CBC Radio's On The Go. 
 
 Not enough Beothuk DNA available: scientist 
 
 ​But Steven Carr, a Memorial University geneticist in St. John's who has studied the Beothuk, said Reynolds Boyce's claim is impossible to verify. 
 
 Geneticist Steven Carr bluntly rejects the claim that anyone can be identified as having Beothuk DNA. (CBC) 
 
 "We do not have enough of a database to identify somebody as being Beothuk," said Carr. "So if somebody is told [that] by a company, I think we call that being lied to." 
 
 The remains of two of the last Beothuk — Nonosabasut and his wife, Demasduit — are now at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, after their removal from a gravesite in Newfoundland in 1828. 
 
 Carr said he and his colleagues have done some analysis of DNA obtained from the skulls of Nonosabasut and Demasduit, the only Beothuk DNA he is aware of existing anywhere in the world. 
 
 But he said there was not enough DNA to provide a comparative sample. 
 
 "To say to someone, 'Yes, you're a Beothuk' — that just can't be done," said Carr. 
 
 'A very small fragment' 
 
 Ana Duggan, a geneticist at McMaster University's Ancient DNA Centre in Hamilton, concurs. 
 
 While DNA tests may be able to determine the existence of some Indigenous ancestry, Duggan said, the mitochondrial DNA from the samples in Scotland is too small to make a definite comparison. 
 
 McMaster University geneticist Ana Duggan says sufficient Beothuk DNA does not exist to make an identification. (McMaster University) 
 
 "It is a very small fragment, and because we've observed them in two Beothuk samples doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't found in other Native American groups across the continent," she said. 
 
 "I think to try to assign something so specific on the basis of that would be misleading." 
 
 Harvey Tenenbaum, director of operations at Accu-Metrics, felt otherwise, at least initially. 
 
 "The name of the gene and its location is in the database," said Tenenbaum from his office in downtown Toronto. 
 
 He said that when studies are published, "We plug into all of that automatically." 
 
 Tenenbaum said the information Accu-Metrics was using came from a 2007 McMaster study. 
 
 "If we have it in the computer, we got it from somewhere." 
 
 Late Thursday, however, the company changed its position. 
 
 Kyle Tsui, a geneticist at Accu-Metrics, told CBC News the company would be removing any reference to the Beothuk from the company's database. ||||| Viaguard Accu-Metrics is the company that tested the DNA of Carol Reynolds Boyce, a North Carolina woman whose mother is from Gander. Reynolds Boyce told The Telegram earlier this week her test results identified her as a Beothuk, a Newfoundland First Nation thought to be extinct since 1829. 
 
 
 
 Related story: 
 
 Woman says DNA test proves she is Beothuk 
 
 
 
 Reynolds Boyce, 55, has established a Facebook site called Beothuk Tribe of NFLD and North America Reservation Nation, and said her mother and brother also tested positive for Beothuk DNA. She said her family voted her chief of the Beothuk First Nation, and she is in the midst of trying to get federal recognition. 
 
 Reynolds Boyce told The Telegram she would soon take applications from people looking to join the nation, and is accepting donations. 
 
 “Since I am the chief of the Beothuk, why don’t you all take the donated money and assist me in relocation of me and my tribal members, what would be a kind gesture, don’t you think?” Reynolds Boyce posted on Facebook. “Our Beothuk ancestors left the island of NFLD, but we just need assistance in coming back to live at our village and tribal lands.” 
 
 Reynolds Boyce also posted that, “Some are jealous, hatred because that means land entitled to our tribe.” 
 
 In Thursday’s Telegram, Accu-Metrics laboratory manager Kyle Tsui said the company used genetic information from a 2007 published study that examined mitochondrial DNA taken from the remains of two Beothuk people, Desmaduit and Nonosabasut. 
 
 The study declared genetic matches between the Beothuk couple and present-day Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq and certain Cherokee, Chippawa and Kiowa people of the United States. 
 
 That study was refuted in 2011, when a second study argued the DNA data from the Beothuk remains did not support a close genetic relationship between Beothuk and Mi’kmaq people. 
 
 Memorial University biology professor Steve Carr, who specializes in genetics and evolution (and co-wrote the 2011 paper), didn’t mince his words when he told The Telegram earlier in the week that Accu-Metrics’ DNA test was invalid. 
 
 The DNA taken from the remains is too small and incomplete for a match to be determined, he said, and not necessarily exclusive to the Beothuk. 
 
 “Were the company to produce a report now to show a ‘perfect match’ between the woman and one of the 2007 (genetic) sequences, it would reinforce the assumption of fakery,” Carr said. 
 
 While the notion that there are people of part-Beothuk heritage still living is generally not contested, most experts appear to agree with Carr that a determination of Beothuk DNA based on the 2007 genetic information is impossible at this point. 
 
 Accu-Metrics is seemingly the only business offering DNA testing for ancestry claiming the ability to prove Beothuk heritage. 
 
 Tsui stood by Reynolds Boyce’s test results Thursday morning, saying her DNA proved to be a match with the genetic information from 2007, but when asked his opinion on her establishment of a First Nation and request for donations based on her test results, he said, “The test that we do is not a legal test, it’s just for informational purposes, just like many of these genetic tests that are on the market. You can’t use it as any evidence whatsoever. It’s just for informational purposes. You can’t take it to court and so forth.” 
 
 The website for Accu-Metrics, which also offers paternity testing, drug testing, dog breed testing and other services, says, “All tests can be done for legal purposes.” 
 
 Tsui reportedly told another media outlet late Thursday Accu-Metrics would remove any reference to the Beothuk from its genetic database. 
 
 He didn’t return calls from The Telegram on Friday, but another Accu-Metrics employee confirmed the Beothuk testing is still being offered. Beothuk is still listed on the company’s website as one of the First Nations/Native American tribes it’s able to match on DNA testing. 
 
 Reynolds Boyce didn’t return a request for comment from The Telegram on Friday, either, although a number of posts on her Beothuk First Nation Facebook page were deleted, including one that declared, “Beothuk First Nation constitution laws do not permit disrespect to the chief of the tribe amongst its members. The chief is the door to your membership and if you can’t respect the chief at the door, then the chief does not let you in.”
– The Beothuk, an Indigenous tribe that lived in Canada, came to an end in 1829 with the death of its last member. Or did it? CBC reports a 55-year-old woman from North Carolina says she and her family are long-lost members of the Beothuk tribe, and she has the DNA test to prove it. Carol Reynolds Boyce says her mom told her when she was young, "You got Indian in you." She tells the Telegram her family is originally from Newfoundland and hid their Beothuk ancestry. Last year, she paid for a DNA test by Accu-Metrics to prove her heritage. "It's a bad feeling when people say you are extinct," says Reynolds Boyce, who says people claiming the Beothuk are gone are committing "political genocide." The Accu-Metrics test did indeed state Reynolds Boyce was Beothuk. The company believes it's the first time a Beothuk match has ever happened. But geneticists say that's impossible, arguing there isn't enough Beothuk DNA on file to confirm a match, and if Accu-Metrics told Boyce Reynolds otherwise, she was "being lied to." After originally standing by its results, Accu-Metrics told CBC it was removing Beothuk from its database. But a followup from the Telegram found it was still there. In the meantime, Reynolds Boyce says her family has voted her chief of Beothuk First Nation. She's sent her DNA test to the Canadian government, is demanding federal land, and is soliciting donations on Facebook to relocate her family to Newfoundland. (Suspected serial killer doomed by genealogy-curious relative.)