Each of these haplogroups represents a different maternal line within the founding population of the Americas — a different woman, somewhere in the ancestral population, from whom a distinct line of maternal descent runs through to the present day.

They are called founding haplogroups or founder lineages because they represent the maternal lineages that were present in the founding population of the Americas and that gave rise to the maternal diversity seen in Native American communities today.

Haplogroup B is one of these five founding haplogroups.

It is found in Native American populations across a broad geographic range — from North America through Central America and into South America.

It has a particularly high frequency in some Indigenous populations of Central and South America and in certain North American communities, though its distribution is broad across the hemisphere.