Shows the power of mathematics.
Still, all of this mtDNA analysis is under the cloud of discoveries that every now and then some mtDNA from the father gets in there and does stuff!
The Sa'ami ancestry of the Iroquois, Cherokee, Ojibway/Chippewa, Berbers, Fulbe, Yakuts/Sakha and the Sa'ami was demonstrated with such a mtDNA sequence referred to by some as "the X factor". This sequence is dated back about 9,000 years ~ at the end of the Younger Dryas. Not all Sa'ami have this sequence ~ there are others.
Good point. It’s not necessary for them to have died out, but merely only bred with females from the mitochondrial Eve line. Presumably this was one highly attractive lady! :)
How exactly do mitochondria pass from the father? There’s not enough room in a sperm cell to fit a mitochondrion. (Not that I don’t believe you; I’m just curious about the mechanism by which it happens.)