Cognito wrote:My guess is a little further south yours, that X mt DNA evolved in the Black Sea area before it flooded, and is marked by cardiod pottery and a whole lot of nifty technologies - polished stone tools, serated edges, mesolithic crops. I think this group may have been responsible for the advanced tech we see in SE Turkey.
EP, I consider the Caucasus area to be split into two regions during the late Pleistocene, north and south. The Transcausus range was an effective barrier to travel in both directions until the Pass of Dariel was discovered. Otherwise, transport was by boat. To me, the southern range is contiguous with SE Turkey. The northern range was interesting since the Caspian was flowing into the Black Sea for thousands of years via the Manytch Straits post-LGM.
By the way, which flood? post-14.5kya (glacial), 11.6kya (glacial) or (Mediterranean) 7.85kya?
There is that X pocket in the Levant area, not simply Jewish (if I remember (Druze?) damned stroke, you know).
You must be recovering from your stroke. Yes, there is an X2 pocket in the Levant among the Druze (constituting 27% of their population). However, they are not X2a which is only found in North America and splits from the Old World haplogroups a very long time ago (see below). Druze is a mix of:
X1a
X1b
X2
X2b
X2e
X2f
Just because X2a (Native American haplogroup) looks similar to the other X2 haplogroups doesn't mean they are close genetically. Recent estimates put diversion at 20-26kya. However, a misunderstanding of mitochondrial genetics will give people an excuse to advance their agenda in a politically sensitive area.
Well, you'll read about the European confusions in my guide.
Now as for Cherokee traditions, I am reluctant to speak of them, as I am not of Cherokee heritage nor speak Cherokee. But I think I would be correct in saying that there are two main traditions, the ani kwitani (eastern, around Watsega) and the ani tsulagi (western). The first retained some elements of Savanah River (Oanachee/ Yuchi) traditions, including south Atlantic ocean crossing, and among modern Cherokee they are sometimes re-set in time and viewed in European biblical terms.
The later western tradition, of the ani tsulagi, has many elements in common with Shawnee traditions.
One major problem is the number of tradition keepers who perished in the conquest.
Cognito wrote:You cannot have a meaningful discussion about "Haplogroup X" or even "Haplogroup X2" since it is necessary to go all the way to "Haplogroup X2a" to begin discussing the Native American version. This is something the Mormons, Cayce, et al, fail to do. See this chart for the different groupings:
http://www.ianlogan.co.uk/discussion/hap_X.htm
As far as the Cayce group goes, have you read my guide inside the cult archaeology industry yet?
No, I haven't read your guide but would be happy to do so.

Please write to me for a copy of my guide - I set the address to write to out in old world section here. You will be amazed - I guarantee it.
Now back to the subject at hand. The X mt DNA haplogroup in NA is associated with a group of people with male adult height 7 1/2 feet -
check out Dragoo and Neuman's "Adena" excavations and discussion in "Mounds for the Dead". They really were 7 1/2 feet tall.
These folk survived to contact as the Andaste, and for eye-witness European contact accounts of them see my book "Man and Impact in the Americas".
Further, everyone remembered fighting them, Ho-Chunk (Hotcegea), Menominee, Ojibwe, Wendat, Five Nations, Shawnee, Cherokee.
As to which floods, and whether we have a sea or land population diffusion, we still don't have an earliest date for the appearance in SE Turkey of "hi-tech". Those flood dates should correspond in some way to the 10,900 BCE date (12,900 kya) for the comet impacts in North America, unless they were earthquake related, so I'd take another really close look at how reliable they are.
The cardiod pottery spread west does occur later. There was an excellent piece on the internet on the spread of early tunny fishing, along with sheep or goats (can't remember which).
The "hi-tech" shows up in coastal North America at 8,350 BCE, and that date may be considered firm.
How this "northern" "hi-tech" may be related to an Indian Ocean/ Egyptian mesolithic "hi-tech" (12,000 BCE) is another one of those intriguing questions.
For the development of the different mt DNA haplogroups, human populations were separated by massive impact events. Key some of the DNA differences to those impacts, and then you'll have a reliable rate of DNA shift estimate.