“She’s got her Ivy League diversity box checked, and she wants nothing more from us.”

As a result of her Twitter war with Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren’s false claim to be Cherokee has been back in the news.

For a comprehensive account of how Warren used the false claim for employment purposes, then tried to cover it up through misleading claims of family lore and refusal to release records, see Elizabeth Warren Native American / Cherokee Controversy.

Warren is called out as being even worse than Donald Trump by Terese Mailhot, a Canadian First Peoples [what in the U.S. we call Native American] writer at Indian Country Today, Trump and Warren Are Racists, and I Won’t Defend Either:

Trump’s limited vocabulary limited his criticisms of Warren’s claim to Native ancestry to calling her “Pocahontas.” How he offended her, while offensive to me, is secondary to the true offense of Warren. While his constant refrain of Warren’s claims to Native ancestry is in true form of a troll, he brings to light the shame she carries in her inability to produce anything substantial on her claims to being Native. Let’s face it, Warren cashed in on being Native. She checked the box, like so many Pretendians do, without living the struggle, acknowledging the struggle, or connecting with her people. To be honest, I’m more offended by Warren than Trump… Warren, this woman claimed to be Native when it counted on a box, then did nothing with it. Yes, white woman, your parents told you that you were Native. Do you have any pictures of your great grandmother on her land, standing proud against the trees she planted? Do you have any mementos from the lineage you come from? Have you done anything to connect with your people? Do you know the stories from the time before contact? Are you even interested? Being Native is more than checking a box. I know Native people displaced from their own land, living in Oakland, who cling to anything linking them to their past. The struggle is real for Natives displaced, and it’s not real to Warren. Warren’s the type of white lady I’ve dealt with in academia for some time. “I have some Cherokee in me,” is no doubt familiar to many Native people. We deal with this on a daily basis in our offices, classrooms, and workplaces. Well-meaning liberal white women could be the death of us. Their “claims” to a heritage they refuse to honor is abhorrent. … Their limited idea on what Native is has allowed Trump to make his commentary, and Warren to check a box she earned no right in checking…. Warren knows nothing of real struggle. She’s got her Ivy League diversity box checked, and she wants nothing more from us. As far as I’m concerned, she and Trump are both enemies.

Warren uses the dodge that questioning her story is an attack on her family. It’s not an attack on her family to tell the truth that Warren is not Native American.



