Yeah, we’re still talking about Elizabeth Warren’s DNA, apparently. #ButHerDNA is the new #ButHerEmails. Back when Senator Warren first ran for her first term, her opponent (Scott Brown) made it a “campaign issue” that Warren had told some anecdotal stories about how she likely had Native American ancestry. That really is how it started – as a Republican smear on a popular Democrat and academic. Then Professor Warren had never applied to be part of any tribe, she wasn’t going around, claiming to know the Native American experience first-hand. She merely talked about some of her family stories. And for that, the Republicans waged a racist campaign in which they made “Tomahawk” chants and gestures outside her rallies. Years later, Donald Trump would embrace the racist campaign Scott Brown began – Trump dubbed her “Pocahontas” and he used the name as a pejorative.
Well, back in October, Senator Warren began to really step up and get her house in order in preparation for a presidential run. She wanted to address the Native American ancestry stories head on, so she… took a DNA test. The test proved that she had Native American ancestry six to ten generations back, which would indicate that some of her family lore is true – there was a Native American great-great grandmother somewhere. Warren addressed the DNA test and her “family stories” with an excellently produced video. The video featured her relatives, and information about her DNA testing. At no point did Senator Warren claim that she was a full-blooded Native American, or a member of a tribe, or looking into membership in a tribe. She was merely trying to take the air out of racist attacks against her, much like Barack Obama finally giving in and releasing his long-form birth certificate.
The reaction to Warren’s video and DNA test was… puzzling. Native American groups were up in arms that she would claim to be Native American, liberals were like “I’m not so sure about this?” and Donald Trump said he didn’t even believe the DNA test and he wanted to “test her personally.” There still seemed to be a lot of shenanigans and racism, and I really didn’t understand why. I still don’t understand why. But apparently, it’s not been established by the political intelligentsia that Warren-taking-the-DNA-test was a Bad Idea. The New York Times did a story about it this week (Nate Silver makes a good point):
There's something very (Hillary) Clinton-esque about the Warren DNA test story and the way the press is handling it.
—Yeah she showed poor judgement.
—But it's a minor story treated like a major crisis.
—Probably a proxy for other concerns (and/or biases).https://t.co/9uRhvnWgET— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) December 6, 2018
The New York Times’ story is about how Senator Warren is questioning whether she should have even taken the DNA test:
Two months after Elizabeth Warren released the results of a DNA test to show that there is “strong evidence” of her Native American ancestry, the Massachusetts senator is reportedly starting to question whether promoting the in-depth racial analysis of politicians was a good idea.
Publicly, the senator hasn’t admitted to having any regrets. In private, however, that may not be the case: “Advisers close to Ms. Warren say she has privately expressed concern that she may have damaged her relationships to Native American groups and her own standing with progressive activists, particularly those who are racial minorities,” the New York Times reports.
And indeed she has. Many have criticized Warren’s decision, saying the DNA test not only played directly in to Donald Trump’s attacks on her (the president has repeatedly referred to her as “Pocahontas”), but also that it was exactly the kind of genetic testing has been used to subjugate native and minority communities in the United States for centuries. Native communities and groups also condemned the test, with Cherokee Nation secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. writing in a statement after Warren’s revelation that she has Cherokee ancestry, “A DNA test is useless to determine tribal citizenship,” and “using a DNA test to lay claim to to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong.”
In an interview following her release of the test, though, Warren was asked whether she regretted her decision and she said, “I put it out there. It’s on the internet for anybody to see. People can make of it what they will. I’m going to continue fighting on the issues that brought me to Washington.” The senator is reportedly planning to announce her 2020 presidential bid in the coming weeks, and her advisers strongly suspect she will be forced to revisit the issue, so … we have that to look forward to.
I understand that Native American communities aren’t here for Professor Becky to adopt their struggle just because she’s 6% Cherokee or whatever. But I’m begging all people to please use logic: Senator Warren never claimed to be a member of any tribe. She never attempted to become a member of any tribe. All she did was repeat some family stories, and she was called a liar and she was smeared with a hateful, racist campaign, and as it turns out…her family stories were true. Maybe I’m completely naive about this, but what the everloving f–k, you guys? How is Sen. Warren’s DNA test somehow a “negative” against her presidential run??
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Don’t apologize Elizabeth. It won’t change anything. They’ll still use this against you.
Trump said he would donate a million dollars to any charity she wanted if she took the DNA test, so I don’t blame her for doing it. Hand over the money Donnie Dumbass!
It’s a negative because that’s what the GOP has made it. Clearly they couldn’t find any real dirt to use against her, starting back with the Scott Walker race, so they manufactured this. Such a classic Tea Party move, all fury with no substance. The vast right wing conspiracy and propaganda machine is remarkably, depressingly effective.
I think that people were probably upset because she made mention of her Native ancestry but has made no effort to connect with it or to bring light to/support Indigenous struggles or issues. The way that she has revealed it makes it appear appear as though she wanted attention from being “exotic” but wanted none of the struggle. Because it is strange that she has not discussed any of her European ancestry which she very clearly has.
It was family lore that she was sharing, a personal anecdote. She was not trying to get attention for being “exotic,” lol.
In the 1990’s, Harvard referred to her as their first tenured woman with a minority background. She listed herself as Native American in a law directory for a decade. She has revised history a bit around this issue, which is why she is vulnerable.
Exactly Megan. I don’t know her exact motivation, but yeah……this.
Thank you! People forget this.
Here’s detailed information about the usage of her Native American status. https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/dec/01/facts-behind-elizabeth-warren-and-her-native-ameri/. Judge for yourself, but personally, I think she made the decision to check a box when she was much younger, when people weren’t as culturally aware, and ultimately, it really should not be that big of a scandal. Especially in comparison to the many Trump scandals. I understand Native Americans found the DNA test insulting and it makes sense why; however, when someone does something unintentionally culturally offensive, we should look at it as an opportunity to open up a discussion and increase awareness, not vilify a person for making a mistake. And really, in this case, she was dammed either way.
Hindsight is always so clear. And there’s no reason to discuss “European” ancestry in a country that views it as the norm.
It’s all unfortunate — she walked into a trap.
Word.
ITA, @Renee2. The DNA test was a debacle, it showed NOT Cherokee ancestry but rather 0.1% to 1.5% possible Peruvian, Mexican, or Columbian DNA. She should have realized well before getting to that ridiculous point that this fight was not a winner and abandoned it and apologized for her still unproved claim of Cherokee-ness. Quoting someone else on this, “She has no identifiable Native American ancestor, no clan affiliation, and no meaningful connection to Cherokee language, customs or culture.” I am as bleeding heart liberal as anyone, but Dr. Warren is never going to be president and she should not run, as she will be an endless distraction in the primaries because regardless of her six-to-ten generations ago single unknown ancestor, she has and is appropriating a specific native american identity and it is NOT acceptable.
She would be dinged for that just as much, if not more. As Kaiser said above “No one wants Prof Becky to adopt their struggle bc of 6% DNA.” And she shouldn’t. She never claimed to have faced any racism or persecution for this. It was a family anecdote.
Cmon now, Not accurate. She was listed as American Indian in a law directory for many years and…..left it alone. She at a minimum depicted herself or at best allowed herself to be misrepresented as A Erica’s Indian. It’s hardly the worst crime a politician has been guilty of, but let’s not pretend she was above reproach, She was not.
Quick look at USA history and having native Americans as ancestors is not unusual. So what’s the big deal? The real crime happened to native Americans, but that’s not her fault.
I like Elizabeth Warren but think she’s more effective in the Senate than she would be as President. I’ve met her and heard her speak, she’s much better/dynamic in person than she comes across in the media but she’s also not great at reading a room so not sure how well she’d do on the campaign trail.
My issues with Warren has nothing to do with this ridiculous DNA issue…however, her stock lowered in my political intelligence portfolio because she allowed POS Tramp to play her like that…the WHOLE thing is/was ridiculous…
Warren is a former Republican…who acts way too often like a former Republican
Warren was introduce to Washington D.C. by Hillary Clinton, when Bill Clinton was POTUS and the historic welfare bill was being constructed and Hillary and Bill were trying their damnedest to see where they could get in line items that wouldn’t decimate…so Hillary sought out Elizabeth and bought her in to help her and Bill….and when Hillary ran in 2016…Warren played both sides of the fence between her and Sanders….and in the end…played herself…
I think Warren makes an excellent Senator…I think she is magnificent at policy infrastructure….
She would never get my vote in the Dem POTUS primary….
^^^^^^
This.
Yup. All of this.
Spot on.
ITA. Great post.
You got it!
Exactly.
I’m appalled by Trump’s reaction (as always) but I understand the Native people…
Remember when Blake Lively claimed she was part Cherokee in a L’oreal commercial ? Everybody was like (and rightfully so) ” lol no Blake, you’re a privileged white woman”. I don’t see the difference here.
Very much this.
While she’s on this ancestry.com tip, she should get her genealogists to see if she’s related to the British MP Stephen Lloyd. They look similar.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^THIS!!!!
Was Warren using it as a political or economic maneuvering tool, though? My sense is that she talked about it casually as a bit of family lore, and it got dragged into the press as a major issue because anything minority/woman related is like catnip for them. They have to bastardize it somehow.
I agree she owes them an apology, though. It does have its flavor of “exoticizing” non-white heritage.
I think that it goes beyond family lore though. She was literally described in the Fordham law review as Harvard Law’s first professor who is a woman of color. Where would that have come from other than her?
I think one of the things that rubs liberals the wrong way is the sense that she is trying to claim ownership over an experience that is not hers by doing things like get published in a Native American cookbook, and going along with Harvard using her as an example of diversity in their staff to try and avoid reaching out to hire people who actually do have the experience of a Native American person. So it’s not quite right to say all she did was repeat some family stories. I’m not unsympathetic to her – I’m a quarter Asian but look white and I’m still working out whether I think it’s ok to refer to myself as mixed, or if it’s better to just say I’m white because that’s how I’m treated the vast majority of the time, and whether that feels like a slap in the face towards my mother since her mixed identity is important to her and saying I’m not mixed sort of feels like choosing my dad over her. It’s tough, and whenever people take shots at white people claiming an identity without the experiences to back it up I cringe and hope that’s not me.
I do think that Warren should have had some kind of discussion with the Cherokee community because then she’d at least have realized what a minefield the DNA issue is. I think this issue is so damaging because it goes right to the heart of how white progressives respect (or disrespect) POC they claim to support, and that’s a much bigger deal to liberals than email servers. I feel like the gross racist Republican take on the issue is much different from the liberal one, so it’s complicated. I don’t think Warren is totally out because of this, but if POC feel that the Democrats are disrespecting POC communities, then that could be fatal to the Democratic coalition.
I think that first sentence in your second paragraph is very telling. Warren went ahead with this DNA scheme without ever having reached out to Cherokee leaders, even after THEY contacted HER. They would’ve explained the importance of Cherokee beliefs in this area and probably even helped her find her roots (if they truly exist). And then Warren wouldn’t have put her foot in her mouth.
Generally speaking, it’s disturbing that a politician believes she can take actions that will affect other groups/people she’s not a part of without bothering to consult them first. Surely, we’d prefer a Democratic nominee who would listen and consult with others, not just plow forward and ignore them.
I genuinely think this is one of the most unnecessary self-inflicted wounds I’ve ever seen. Anybody who had been paying attention to our President should’ve known that her getting a DNA test was dumb af because it engaged in the nonsense and Trump wins every time when you engage his nonsense. Now Warren looks like a dummy.
For the record, I thought BO engaging in that Birth certificate nonsense was dumb af too.
Obama’s first elections. What some lowlifes said, i get why he got involved. That was racism at it’s finest, I don’t think i ever felt so much love for a politician. Until i heard his wife. And btw her book made me cry several times. Mobama is the hero to black women, for sure, but she’s also hero to any woman, her voice and her normality in an environment where just being a woman is bad enough, that’s inspiring. I love that family. I love how intelligent they are, how they stand together. How the white House didn’t destroy them, turned them into well… Clintons circa 98.
So, sincere question here, why did she tell Harvard that she was Native American? What purpose did that serve? I’m willing to believe that it was blown out of proportion (this whole thing of) but I’d love to know why that even came up at Harvard.
My great grandmother was full blooded Natuve American, but I don’t go around telling people that I’m Native American in any official sense. If Elizabeth Warren’s ancestory goes back 6-8 generations, that’s pretty far back. It’s a fun fact to know, but I don’t see why it would be used in any official capacity.
She put it on her HR paperwork after she was hired. Harvard had heavily recruited her beforehand so this played no role in the hiring
That’s true and there should be no doubt that she was hired because she was supremely qualified. But we also shouldn’t forget that she’s being criticised by Native American organisations for this. So this is problematic from a minority point of view. I mean if white people who maybe have a poc ancestor 8 generations ago are allowed to tick of the minority box that is not helpful to minority representation.
I am 1/2 native american. The historical trauma of colonization, cultural genocide and forced relocation is alive and well on my reservation and in my family. Although I no longer live on a reservation and most people think I’m Mexican, I still suffer because my family suffers and as a consequence my children have suffered. It is not something that is necessarily erased with addition of white blood.
Thank you, YES. Intergenerational trauma is real. Certainly was real for my grandmother’s generation.
Kamala Harris 2020
That is all.
Yup. Warren is at the bottom of my primary list, personally.
Yeab I like warren but I think Harris is the better candidate of the females that might run.
Warren is not that great as a speaker, she apparently suffers from stage fright and won’t energise POC ( and let’s face it charisma and ability to give a decent speak matter or at least the ability to talk and engage with people while campaigning matters) and this whole incident shows she wlll bow under pressure from the trump and her instincts aren’t great. Would still vote for her but rather see her as treasure secretary or something within a democratic administration. I think she will do worse than Hillary if shes the nominee even though I like her platform.
Running is a lot about timing. Warren should probably have run in 2016 instead. But she gave bernie and Hillary the stage when she probably would have appealed to both their voter bases and could have been a more unifying candidate.
So you want the Democrats to lose again, right? Kamala Harris has no chance whatsoever. She has a very messy personal life and is a divisive figure to too many people.
What is messy about her personal life? All I know is she married fairly recently.
Every single woman with an interest in national politics will be accused of being a “divisive figure.” Every single man with an interest in national politics will be affirmed as being a “unifying figure.” This never stops!
@ mimi
You sound like you believe right wing talking points already. The shit you are talking about is one relationship (when she was in her 20s) so calling her private life messy because it that seems like a vast exaggeration and you’re playing straight into right wing hands .This type of point of view is actually far more problematic than the warren shit in some respect because warren is actually also being criticised by native Americans so there’s some legit criticism that has zero to do with misogyny or the right. Look, Beto and Bush 43 can get arrested and have their rich daddy’s fix the situation repeatedly and it’s not a problem.. But a Woc who didn’t come from that kind of privilege is evidently “messy” because she had a relationship 300 years ago with a older separated guy?? I mean .. really is it more problematic to have relationships than to drive drunk now? Safe to say if Harris or any POC had been arrested they wouldn’t even be in the the senate much less talked about as a presidential candidate.
As for Harris being divisive. Sure the core trump base won’t vote for her. But they won’t vote for warren either or any female. But at least Harris will have a bigger chance of energising the poc vote that went down in 2016 so I think she’s a stronger candidate.
Republicans can no longer talk about a messy personal life when they got behind Cheeto. Divorces, kids by several women, affairs, p*ssy grabbing, paying for abortions–family values, y’all.
She had a chance to prosecute Steve Mnuchin for his financial shenanigans and she declined to do so, cause it wasn’t politically convenient for her (she might lose the case, get less donations from the financial sector, etc.). He was basically stealing people’s homes through paperwork. She showed that she won’t hold powerful people to account when she has the power to do so.
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5980d18ee4b09d231a518205
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren has created change that meaningfully protects ordinary Americans from this kind of crap #butherDNA.
@ ally
Except that he wasn’t ever going to be prosecuted it was the company ONEWEST that was investigated. It was never a civil case.
As much as I agree that they should have been prosecuted people need to stop falsely claiming she passed on the chance to prosecute HIM. Hell even the guy at the intercept who wrote about this says it’s a mistake to make Harris the fall guy because mostly likely she was pressured from above given that other AGs did not prosecute either.
Also to claim Harris never held powerful financial people accountable is equal to the swift boating of John Kerry. It’s a complete misconstruction of her record, she literally wrote laws to regulate the financial sector in California and has better record of you know actially DOING something as opposed to just talking about what a disgrace it is -like some of the grandstanders in Congress.
https://www.thenation.com/article/kamala-harris-protecting-and-serving-99-percent/
Harris built her rep on taking on the financial sector in California.Which is why Warren was one of her biggest supporters and endorsed her in a campaign video when she ran for senate citing exactly her work going after Wall Street for the endorsement. So even warren disagrees with you on your assessment of Harris.
She also went after for profit colleges and oil companies.
Harris record is not a simple case of all bad or all good. As is the case for all of them (warren was a freaking republican till she was almost 50 and voted for the people who started the deregulation of the financial sector and Bernie voted for deregulation so please let’s not pretend they are flawless in this regard ). Seriously fed up with this white privilege shit where Beto can vote like a centrist for 6 years but run like a progressive and it’s fine (“he’s authentic”) whereas when Harris votes like a progressive her whole time in senate and went after Wall Street as an AG its not good enough because Mnuckin- or booker moves left ( Beto and booker have both voted pretty centrist in congress so why is booker villified while Beto is the white saviour? ) the left says they are only doing it for votes and “can’t be trusted”. Authentic seems to be dogwhistle for white these days.
She punted. She’s chasing the Clinton donor class.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/24/democratic-donors-kamala-harris-rising-star-hamptons
It’s too late for Democrats who learn the lingo but aren’ t as aggressive in pursuit of the right thing as Republicans in pursuit of the wrong thing.
She’s no substitute for a Sanders or a Warren.
What a shock! Yet another example of how female candidates have to be *perfect* before they can be cleared to run but any craphole dude is automatically deemed a viable candidate. Looking at you Donald Dump.
I’m a big fan of Elizabeth Warren, and her politics. But I’m not surprised this issue is dragging her down. The Republicans have focused on it because she was classified by Harvard as counting as ‘Native American’ for various diversity counting exercises – and she did nothing to clarify the situation, despite being completely aware of what was happening (as she has admitted). So she passed herself off as a Native American when she isn’t in any meaningful sense of the term. You don’t have to be a deplorable to see that’s a problem – and the DNA test does nothing to solve it. If anything, by drawing more attention to the situation, it has made things much worse.
As a MA resident and constituent of Senator Warren, I must say that there are no words to describe how fed up I am with this topic. She put it on her HR paperwork at Harvard AFTER she was hired. It played no role in her getting the job. She derived no benefits from it. What Harvard may or may not have done with it reflects on Harvard.
Howie Carr, a Rush Limbaugh wannabe, latched on to this in a desperate attempt to help his beloved Scott Brown stay in the Senate and has been spinning lies about it now for 8 years. Seriously, 99% of the stories on this are lies started by Carr and his minions. ETA Carr’s relentless, ridiculous, vengeful attacks on super competent Martha Coakley because she dared to her job as DA and hold him accountable for housing violations in his rental properties was part of how we ended up with Senator Centerfold to begin with.
Where’s my outrage? Aimed at our current ambassador to New Zealand, who directed his Senate staff to disrupt Warren campaign rallies dressed in costumes and chanting war cries while on work time paid by our tax dollars. So much of that was not only offensive but illegal yet he faces no repercussions. Also aimed at a society that incessantly pulls this up to attack a brilliant woman, who is dedicated herself to public service, because brilliant women must be torn down and our society is happy to let vile, corrupt white men like Howie Carr, Limbaugh and Trump do so.
Warren is my Senator. I like her as my Senator. I want her to remain my Senator.
What infuriates me? The current US Ambassador Scott
Says it all. Scott is scum and always has been.
Re: comments on the DNA test not tying her to a specific Indigenous Nation, it wouldn’t! There are not enough of us Indigenous People that have taken DNA tests to show which tribe we belong to. I had my DNA done knowing fully my bloodline but all it said was i’m as close to fully Indigenous as one can be without giving me a region of my Nation.
Now, I know there are a lot of people who are against DNA testing but for me the benefits outweigh the negative. We have family that went missing on my Dad’s side. We are sure there are relatives out there in the wind and my brother and I each got tested so we can cast a wide net to catch them.
I understand politically why political leaders in Tribes are against it given it’s a small pot and they turn protectionist so the money doesn’t need to be stretched thinner but that’s the wrong reason to dissuade people from searching for their roots. I know many people who were taken from their families in the 60’s scoop. Many who didn’t come back from residential schools. They deserve to know where they come from.
This! I don’t have Native American ancestry but I did a DNA test earlier this year for fun. My results were not what I expected at all. My Irish ancestry was only at 29% and I somehow had 45% British ancestry which didn’t necessarily confuse me but I didn’t think it’d be so high! Western European ancestry (aka my dad who is 100% French as far as we know) only 8%!!
And then just this past week I noticed Ancestry had emailed me saying my DNA results had been updated because they had received several thousand more samples and were refining their process. My Irish/Scottish ancestry skyrocketed to 51% which is where I honestly expected it to be. British ancestry went down a bit to 40%. They added French as its own category but that’s still only 2% lol and I also have low Norwegian/Swedish/Eastern European ancestry (where prior I had weird categories). So if more people of Native American ancestry/members of tribe send in their DNA samples, Ancestry will have a better way to catalog them. Obviously not everyone wants to have their DNA stored somewhere and I did think long and hard about it (especially since I had just finished reading the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks whose cancer cells were taken from her without her or her family’s knowledge so it gave me pause). But like you to me the benefits outweigh the negatives.
For those stating that she stated the heritage AFTER getting hired, my question is why? My daughters have a 100% Korean grandmother, and they are not Korean, nor would they claim to be. What was her motive for doing this? Whether she did it before or after, it is very suspicious. If it was just an anecdote, why identify as a minority when you are clearly not??
That’s the thing though–at what point are people no longer considered people of color or a person of a certain race/ethnicity as they intermarry people of other race/ethnicities? One generation removed? Two generations removed? Three, four? Until they no longer have “defining characteristics” that tie them to a particular race/ethnicity? It brings up all sorts of things nobody really has the answer to. 8 or 10 generations is obviously pushing it but… what is the cut off?
Notice the pattern. A high-profile female politician, who may run for president, is attacked before she even announces. “Too old, too liberal, too conservative, too racist, not racist enough, poor judgement, elitist, too folksy, kind of weak, too brash, and on and on. Not one thing about what policies Warren supports or anything about her successful career. The GOP are going to do this hit job on every woman that steps up to run. And they’re going to co-opt the Me Too movement to attack male Democrats who run (already hearing how “handsy” Biden is…). The NY Times and other publications are using ink to amplify these attacks–instead of talking about something critical like the climate change emergency. This is wrong. We’re in the fight of our lives.
Megan says:
December 7, 2018 at 11:09 am
In the 1990’s, Harvard referred to her as their first tenured woman with a minority background. She listed herself as Native American in a law directory for a decade. She has revised history a bit around this issue, which is why she is vulnerable.
Exactly, Megan. If this was a Republican, we would be all over it. Don’t deny it.
But she was a fool. Why did she even stoop to engaging with Trump and playing his game? She lost. He’s an idiot and doesn’t care about facts anyway Just like he ignores everyone about producing his tax returns, why did she bother with this? The results were embarrassing. He was never going to donate a million dollars anyway. The Deplorables only care about ranting and raving against us. They never cared when Obama produced his birth certificate. It wasn’t good enough. The truth wasn’t good enough. They stay with their alternative facts and smears. They despise Democrats, period. Don’t play to them. And especially don’t take Dumpy’s bait.
She engaged because the media are morons and would have made this her email-style issue in 2020.
But never discount the left’s circular-firing-squad tendencies. We’ll be the most progressive of them all! But we won’t have power and horrible ish will keep being done to us.
Insisting that white people with Native American ancestry shut up about it, because their life experience doesn’t include the same level of pervasive discrimination and structural disadvantages faced by Native Americans who are visibly of color and/or live on reservations, is all part of the great erasure of Native Americans, IMO. I am a member of a federally recognized tribe that doesn’t have a blood quantum requirement, so I and a lot of my fellow tribe members look white. It doesn’t mean we’re not tribe members, and it doesn’t mean our Native ancestors didn’t suffer, to the detriment of their descendants. Many female Native Americans who received allotments through the Dawes Rolls married into white society — some were taken advantage of by land-hungry whites, but some were trying to secure a less precarious future for their children. Similar intermarriages also happened long before the Dawes Rolls. I’m fed up with people disrespecting this history by erasing it and pretending like it’s no big deal.
Good for Senator Warren for keeping her family’s stories alive. I agree with what some other posters said, that it would have been more sensitive and astute for her to talk with the Cherokee tribe before putting that video together, to ensure that the tribe she claims a connection to wouldn’t have been blindsided and had a chance to guide some of the positioning (like the importance of distinguishing between DNA and criteria for tribe membership). But it wasn’t wrong for her to put stock in family stories that had specificity, and to investigate them through the tools that are available to her. Of course, as others alluded to, DNA testing for indigenous ancestry tends to underrepresent a person’s level of Native heritage, because most Native tribes have not contributed to any large extent to DNA databases and are understandably wary of doing so. The level of indigenous heritage reflected by Warren’s DNA results is a floor, not a ceiling — she may have other genetic markers of indigenous DNA that are not recognized as such by current testing due to the paucity of verifiable Native DNA markers that have been scientifically confirmed.
I agree, Other Katherine.
What liberal politicians must understand is they are not dealing with people on the Conservative front, they are dealing with bullies. You cannot make reason with a bully anything and everything can and will be used against you. As the end goal is to smear you. Libral politicians all seemed to be nerds in school so they don’t realize how to play the game. From the beginning of Trump’s DNA BD she should have said: “I will show my DNA when he shows us his taxes” and every time DNA was mentioned she should have twist it into stuff about his taxes and what a cheat he is … He would have stopped with the DNA stuff quick. But she fell into the bully trap. Sorry EW I like you but you have no chance against the Cheeto.
This!
I have avoided commenting on this one, because my opinion isn’t the be all and end all from a Native perspective and there’s lots of great commentary already. But, I’m up and why not, especially since this will be buried? Working with mostly the helping professions and some political-ish arms of Tribes and Tribal governments, there’s a lot of pragmatism. People make missteps and have reacted with less provocation. It veers towards the always annoying “I understand you so much, because my family is from (invariably) some stellar Native bloodline.” I always think of one of my favorite jokes and t-shirts: “I’m part White, but I can’t prove it.” However, I think Elizabeth Warren was attempting something that seemed like a good idea and if in the future she is a good ally legislatively, like Senator Maria Cantwell with the OVW and the violence against woman act and missing and murdered Native women, Tribes and Native voters will likely support her. At least among those I know and practically no Native person I know would say their opinion is speaking for all. Most POC end up in the side business of educating others, along with whatever the original reason you’re meeting and as long as someone is genuine and willing to learn it can go well. I don’t know about anyone’s future candidacy prospects yet – just no more career politicians, no Joe, NO Bernie, no Beto (sorry, I did donate to him, though). Elizabeth is still in that running for me, which is probably why they want to continue to attack her. Also, the real message from the three Navajo code talkers, who are national treasures, got long forgotten with this whole mess and that’s what really pisses me off. If you had a chance to listen to them, they were wise and brilliant.