Posted on 06/01/2012 11:12:17 AM PDT by chessplayer
How worried has Elizabeth Warren become over the controversy surrounding her self-identification as a Native American at Penn and Harvard Law, both of which promoted her as an example of diversity? At the beginning of the week, the Democratic Senate hopeful told her critics that she wouldn’t answer any more questions about the subject. By yesterday, though, she picked up the phone and called one of those critics, the Boston Globe’s Brian McGrory, to explain herself further — and to tell an odd story about her parents’ courtship:
"Warren gave far and away her most elaborate and emotional responses to questions over why she still believes she has Native American heritage, despite a lack of documented evidence. She revealed that her parents eloped because of tensions between their two families over her mother’s ancestry."
"Her family is not known to have an official affiliation or any registration with an Indian tribe, and any sparse indications that a great-great-great grandmother had Cherokee blood would fall short of federal guidelines that would grant Warren minority status. Warren was born and raised in Oklahoma."
“In the 1930s, when my parents got married, these were hard issues,’’ Warren said. “My father’s family so objected to my mother’s Native American heritage that my mother told me they had to elope."
“As kids, my brothers and I knew about that. We knew about the differences between our two families. And we knew how important my mother’s heritage was to her. This was real in my life. I can’t deny my heritage. I can’t and I won’t. That would be denying who my mother was, who my family was, how we lived, and I won’t do it.’’
Her claim to Cherokee ancestry has been that she has 1/32nd Native American ancestry. Are we to believe that her father’s family objected to a marriage between their son and a woman who was 15/16ths not Native American? To a woman who never bothered to claim membership in a Cherokee nation, and whose family never did either, according to Cherokee tribal authorities? That sounds more like desperation than “family lore.”
When they don't know which tribe to claim, they usually (almost always?) claim "Cherokee". :)
I also claim Cherokee blood, but I don’t think any of us has ever tried to find our ancestor in the rolls. Maybe we should, just for the sake of doing it. Might be interesting.
Great post. How about Tina Turner and Anita Hill. They are blacks who seem to have Cherokee blood. How about Leon Russel?
So the feds shunted them on to this `worthless’ land—Indian territory—between Kansas and Texas and, to their chagrin, it turned out to be over an ocean of oil and natural gas.
Yeah it is odd, isn’t it—everyone claims to be Cherokee, no one will admit, “Yeah, I’m from the Nowipeebottom tribe. No one tangled with us, would get close to us ....”.
Scott Brown, thou, is going to win!!!
I've posted it before but here it goes again anyway. My wife's grandmother was 100% Cherokee, born on the reservation Cherokee and her grandfather was a "half breed", which made my wife's mother 3/4 Cherokee and my wife 3/8 Cherokee that's 12/32 as compared to Warren's claimed 1/32.
The thing is, she has never tried to use that fact on any form, census,etc. whatsoever. She has dark hair and other than that no other discernible Indian characteristic. It has never occurred to her to try to gain any advantage because of her heritage.
I knew my wife's mother before she passed away and she definitely looked Indian and I've seen pictures of her grandmother who was very dark skinned.
If Warren's grandparents objected to their son's marriage it's probably because they were conservative and objected to their son marrying a lying thieving liberal, knowing that would be passed on to their off spring.
What utter BS. Everbody in OK claims to be part Cherokee. Remember Will Rogers?
No records no where - just like thousands and thousands of others.
Honestly, it really hurt my mom to know that our situation could have been much different if only...
I know that's not a popular sentiment around here but she had four delinquent ingrate kids to raise, with a son (not this one) graduating from high school in 1968, with her working for pennies, it seemed, to keep him in college.
I don’t know who this Warren is but for some reason I keep recalling a picture of Cher wearing a big, feathered head dress (and little else) while sitting on a horse.
My point stands, though. If they're really native Oklahomans they probably have some Native American blood in them, most likely from some tribe other than Cherokee. This goes for everyone, although Cherokee is a possibility.
However, a good rule of thumb is: If some white guy with blue eyes tells you he's part Cherokee the chances are he's blowing smoke, although there are exceptions; I know a guy who's white-white with blue eyes who is an "extremely well-connected" Cherokee. Difference is he can prove it.
That’s berry, berry bad.
A lot of British sailors jumped ship and married into the tribe back in the North Carolina days, a lot of other whites married in over the years during the 1700s and 1800s. Thats one thing that made the Cherokee unique, they were fairly open to outsiders. The chief during the 19th century was married to a white woman. In Oklahoma they allowed white businessmen to settle in with their families, and white ranchers leased land from the tribe. Some of the rich Cherokees sent their kids back east or even to England to be educated.
Blacks were enlisted in the rolls after the Civil War and given land (the Cherokees had slaves, but freed them at the end of the war). A lot of southern blacks moved into Cherokee Territory after the war because it was relatively safe for them there, they could blend in with the Cherokee blacks. Recently the tribe made a move to eliminate the black Cherokees from the rolls, but the scandal was embarrassing and I think they dropped it. Someone else may know more details about how it all played out.
Lieawatha is 1/32nd Cherokee, she claims.
That is like 3%!
Who brags about being 3% of ANYTHING?
Google "Cherokee freedmen" and get more information than you could ever digest.
Unfortunately, it's a familiar story, "All about the money." In this case, the casino money, with a faction of Cherokees trying to screw the blacks out of their share of it.
and pass the bourbon
Grew up thinking my heritage included Osage. Found out later it was Cherokee because of the shame associated at the time with being Cherokee, at least in Kansas it was. Didn’t register.
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