Originally Posted by
Yppej
I was always told I was part Cherokee, as was Elizabeth Warren, but I didn't use it to benefit from affirmative action. 1) It was not proven, and when I spent several years intensively tracing my roots - travel to genealogical libraries, the national archives, hiring professional genealogists, etc. - I concluded it was a myth. 2) Even if I had found a distant ancestor, for Cherokees that person has to be on the Dawes Roll for you to claim tribal membership. 3) I was not disadvantaged by a heritage that no one associated me with.
Ian Frazier wrote in "On the Rez" about the appeal of Native American culture, but without trying to appropriate it, whereas Elizabeth Warren has not been particularly responsive to the concerns of others of this supposed heritage of hers, nor as a public figure has she done the work I would have expected to verify her claims.
Having travelled to several reservations in the West and seen real poverty amongst people who cannot pass, it's ironic that highly assimilated Eastern tribes like the Pequots are the ones cashing in on their ethnic heritage. And it's definitely surprising that Warren listed herself that way when she was a privileged professor. .