Elizabeth Warren claims DNA test proves she has Native American ancestry

Elizabeth Warren. The Daily Beast/Getty.

Elizabeth Warren has released DNA tests that she says proves that she has Native American ancestry. The Boston Globe. Warren has come under massive criticism for claiming that she had Native American ancestry, especially by President Trump, who nicknamed her "Pocahontas". In order to counter that attack and claims she lied about her heritage to get hired as a professor via diversity quotas, Warren commissioned a DNA expert to analyze her DNA. He found that Warren was almost all white but had some Native American DNA from 6 to 10 generations back. That would mean Warren would be between 1/64th and 1/1024th Native American. Due to tribal resistance to widespread DNA testing the expert had to use DNA samples from South and Central America. Warren is widely expected to run for president in 2020. 

For the Cherokee Nation's part, who Warren claims she is a member, they accuse Warren of undermining tribal interests. The nation claims that DNA tests are useless and that Warren is making a mockery of them and tribal laws on heritage.

My Comment:

Man oh man are the media hyping this story, and not in a good way. The difference between the headlines and the actual results is stunning to the point where it looks like the media is lying. There is a huge difference between a headline that says "Elizabeth Warren takes DNA test and finds she has between 1/64th and 1/1024th Native American DNA" and "Elizabeth Warren takes DNA test that proves she has Native American ancestry". It's to the point where it's a lie of omission. 

The statement from the Cherokee Nation was hard to find as well. I saw a screenshot on Twitter and wanted to verify it but both Google News and Bing News had nothing. A second glace at Twitter showed the Daily Beast story above but even then I had to search the Cherokee Nation on Twitter, which was trending at the same time. You would think that the actual Native Americans calling Elizabeth a lair and a scoundrel would be the end of this story, but I think a lot of people aren't even going to see it. If I wasn't on Twitter I would have missed it. 

I do think it's hilarious that Warren apparently thinks that this vindicates here claims that she's Native American. My great grandfather was Greek, which makes me 1/8th Greek on my father's side. I sometimes jokingly refer to myself as Greek but I would feel guilty as hell running for a Greek scholarship or being counted as a Greek American for diversity quota's. 

But Elizabeth Warren, with her tiny amount of Native American DNA and no affiliation with any tribal organization, did exactly that. She claimed to be Native American during her career as a college professor. Why is unknown but my guess is she thought she would have had a better chance of being hired if she was "diverse" than if she just admitted that she was white. 

Though I personally think that diversity quota's are both stupid and wrong, it's pretty obvious that Warren played the system. And she is going to great lengths to try and justify what she did. Part of it is just genuine annoyance at Donald Trump for continuously bringing it up, but it's also clear that she thinks it's a major issue for her reelection campaign and for her 2020 presidential ambitions. 

I also think that anyone claiming ancestry from a 1/64th to a 1/1024th DNA sample is being foolish. From what I understand, most Americans have similar levels of Native American DNA. Having an ancestor from that long ago doesn't make you an American Indian unless you are actually a member of a tribe. I do know that there are quite a few generally white people who are in Native American tribes but it's not the color of your skin or your DNA test that makes you eligible for that. It's up to each tribe to determine their membership, not a DNA test. 

Do I think that her lies disqualify her from the Senate or a presidential run? Probably not, though it is a scandal that shows she is dishonest. I always encourage people to vote on policy, not character as pretty much everyone in politics is some kind of scumbag and if you dig into anyone's lives like we do to politicians you are pretty much guaranteed to find something. That being said, I absolutely do not endorse Warren in the senate or as a presidential candidate. Her views on gun rights alone should forever bar her from running for dogcatcher, let alone President of the United States. 

Finally, I have to say that President Trump's attacks on Elizabeth Warren have very clearly worked. Before he started calling her Pocahontas, I wasn't aware of this issue at all, but now pretty much everyone in the country knows what Warren is and what she did, to the point that's she's probably as famous for this as she is for her actual accomplishments and policies. And he also baited her into releasing this DNA test that doesn't actually prove her claims and got the Cherokees to call her out on her behavior. Not bad for an obvious troll attempt.