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Elizabeth Warren claims listed herself as minority to meet people, but story doesn’t hold up (Update: High cheekbones?)

Elizabeth Warren claims listed herself as minority to meet people, but story doesn’t hold up (Update: High cheekbones?)

I admit it, I didn’t see this explanation coming.

Or maybe I did, I repeatedly have said “it doesn’t add up” as to why Elizabeth Warren claimed minority status on her law association self-reporting.

And it doesn’t:

Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, fending off questions about whether she used her Native American heritage to advance her career, said today she enrolled herself as a minority in law school directories for nearly a decade because she hoped to meet other people with tribal roots.

“I listed myself in the directory in the hopes that it might mean that I would be invited to a luncheon, a group something that might happen with people who are like I am. Nothing like that ever happened, that was clearly not the use for it and so I stopped checking it off,” said Warren….

“Being Native American has been part of my story I guess since the day I was born,” said Warren, who never mentioned her Native American heritage on the campaign trail even as she detailed much of her personal history to voters in speeches, statements and a video. “These are my family stories, I have lived in a family that has talked about Native American and talked about tribes since I was a little girl.”

Why doesn’t it add up?

Because the section listing “minority” faculty doesn’t list which minority, so Warren listing herself that way would not be a means of meeting other Native Americans, because no one else would know she was claiming to be Native American just from the listing.  (I wonder how Harvard knew if she never told them and it never came up?)

Here’s her entry on the 1986-87 AALS List II, Minority Law Teachers:

Here’s her entry on the 1994-95 AALS List II, Minority Law Teachers:

I checked, and her full bios also did not disclose her Native American status.  Perhaps Warren just lumped all minorities together in her friendship plans.

Other evidence her story still doesn’t add up?  Warren felt compelled to play the sexism card:

“The only one as I understand it who’s raising any question about whether or not I was qualified for my job is Scott Brown and I think I am qualified and frankly I’m a little shocked to hear anybody raise a question about whether or not I’m qualified to hold a job teaching,” she said, pushing to put Brown on defense. “What does he think it takes for a woman to be qualified?”

Something tells me this is not over.

Updates:  Reader Richard emails:

Professor Jacobson,

I read with interest the claim of the Warrren campaign that there is no good genealogical information with regard to Oklahoma Indian tribes.

“Harney said that Warren does not have any records documenting her Native American heritage, but that is being researched. Harney said that the campaign has been told that there is no good genealogical documentation with regard to tribes from Oklahoma, unlike tribes from some other areas. Harney did indicate that the tribal connection is believed to be on Warren’s grandmother’s side of the family.”

Nothing could be further from the truth as regard the Five Civilized tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole). The Dawes Commission compiled the Final Rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes prior to Oklahoma statehood. More information about the Dawes commission can be found at http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/D/DA018.html.

Digital copies of these records in the national Archives can be viewed online at:

Index to the Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory, 03/04/1907

The Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory, 03/04/1907

Use the index to find out which roll number the individual is listed on and then go to the final rolls. The individual roll will show the name, sex, degree of Indian Blood and census card number.

If Ms. Warren has Indian blood, her ancestor will be listed on these rolls.

MORE: I really don’t know what to say about this. It’s not about whether she is 1/32nd Cherokee, although it may become about that if she can’t come up with proof.   More important, this is a candidate on the verge of something, I’m just not sure what, yet.  H/t HotAir for the video:

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Comments

    William A. Jacobson in reply to LukeHandCool. | May 2, 2012 at 5:31 pm

    It’s a good thing I said bye-bye to Brown, otherwise I might start obsessing about this thing.

      LukeHandCool in reply to William A. Jacobson. | May 2, 2012 at 6:24 pm

      Quite admirable that you didn’t fall back on your native American heritage to get where you are today, Professor.

      LukeHandCool (who, shameless namedropper that he is, lived on the same street as Mel as a kid. Never saw him even once. He erected a big wall around his property before he moved in and you could just barely see the roof of his house from the sidewalk. Mel had one of the few front lawns on the street where Luke and his friends were never able to play an impromptu football game, access being completely denied. His loss. We were charming little buggers … who would tear up your lawn before you knew it).

Ragspierre | May 2, 2012 at 4:39 pm

Ummm….

HORSE SPIT…

What a lying liar.

Ragspierre | May 2, 2012 at 4:42 pm

“The only one as I understand it who’s raising any question about whether or not I was qualified for my job is Scott Brown…”

This ALSO a lie. (Unless someone can point to a statement BY BROWN [not a news outlet] making that claim.)

Frank Scarn | May 2, 2012 at 4:43 pm

“[B]ecause she hoped to meet other people with tribal roots.”

Granny Warren would’ve found target-rich environments if she had gone Indian-owned casinos.

File this one under Incredibly Lame Excuses.

that might happen with people who are like I am.

People like her and fair-skinned and blonde-haired. Maybe she should have checked out the Norwegian Students’ Association.

    Milwaukee in reply to OCBill. | May 2, 2012 at 8:04 pm

    Hang on, I’ve been to a Sons of Norway meeting or two before, and they were all good solid citizens, most of them Lutheran. Definitely salt-of-the-earth types, no putting on airs and making out like they were more special than anybody else. Definitely not her type of people.

      nordic_prince in reply to Milwaukee. | May 2, 2012 at 11:03 pm

      Yup, we Norsemen don’t want her. Check with the Swedes, though – they might be willing to take her in. 😉

There are many reservations all across this country. They do not keep their locations secret. At any time in the late 80’s or early 90’s she could have visited any one of them and shared in their friendship and culture.

Of course that was before the financial success that many tribes are now enjoying thanks to casinos, but she could have taken an interest in the high rates of drug and alcohol addition, the family domestic violence, the abject poverty and hopelessness that so many native Americans were living in at that time.

Of course many of the problems that her fellow native Americans were experiencing were due to exactly the kind of government she advocates. The tribes were the ultimate government dependent socialism that sound so good over a fine white wine at a faculty dinner but work so horribly anywhere else.

What a creature from the post-modern progressive lagoon.

    Ragspierre in reply to raven. | May 2, 2012 at 4:56 pm

    Truly.

    Which is interesting, because she came up hard…in Oklahoma. Which can be pretty hard.

    She showed a lot of promise. Maybe it was the move to New Jersey…?

    Like Sherlock Holmes said, “Some trees grow to a certain height, and then some abnormality twists them”. (I paraphrase)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Warren

      Midwest Rhino in reply to Ragspierre. | May 2, 2012 at 5:14 pm

      interesting … indeed she was not born with a silver spoon, but at some point she decided government was the answer? Before 1995 she was Republican! … hard to psychoanalyze … but this current episode does not bode well for her.

        VetHusbandFather in reply to Midwest Rhino. | May 3, 2012 at 10:02 am

        My guess is she made that flip as soon as she figured out it would help her advance more quickly in academia. After all changing your political affiliation for personal advantage is a lot easier then changing your racial identity…

“Something tells me this is not over.”

I hope it’s not over. This is possibly one of my favorite liberal-bullshit-blows-up-in-their-face stories of all time.

Midwest Rhino | May 2, 2012 at 5:00 pm

“What does he think it takes for a WOMAN to be qualified?”

ha ha ha …

qualified to use the Native American race card? check

qualified to use the “war on women” gender card? check

what a joke … just wanted to meet other privileged white liberals that were also 1/32nd or less Native American, that were seeking higher position in the halls of academia?

How incompetent she must be … she wanted to meet fellow Native Americans, and that was the best effort she could come up with?

And she is so steeped in victomology that she can only muster up the “war on women” excuse? Good grief …

This raises the important question, what do white people who are 1/32nd Indian eat when they gather for luncheon?

Cassandra Lite | May 2, 2012 at 5:43 pm

I blame the damn war and that lying S.O.B. Johnson.

Where else and when did Warren start claiming this status (college applications? grad school apps? driver license?)

BannedbytheGuardian | May 2, 2012 at 5:52 pm

In 1980 Harvard University offered an Australian 40 year old woman -Bobbi Sykes- to do a Masters in Education . Bobbi had not even finished school (left at 14 ) & did not do any alternate education paths. Nothing of course like a degree.

She gained this Masters in one year. Then she was offered a PHD – where she spewed on about aboriginal health blah blahs . She was awarded that of course after only 2 years.

What did she have that got her not only into Harvard but 2 higher degrees? She was black & a campaigner for Australian Indigenous rights.

The truth was that although she may have suffered for being dark skinned -she was not aboriginal but a side product of the US marines visiting in 1943. She sported a rather fetching Afro in the 60s a la Angela Davis.. In fact she was quite exotic & was actually a stripper (now exotic dancer ) so there goes the black discrimination!

She hopped on the global Native Land Rights movement in the 70s & was arrested at the original OWSer-The Aboriginal Tent Embassy. Court records have the police saying “She was a good looking girl until she opened her mouth” .

After her return from Harvard no Australian University would offer Dr Sykes a position. Though he waved the Harvard stuff they all knew a phony . I think she got a Creative writing Fellowship once.

She split the Indigenous Peeeps here . They are not an aggressively analytical breed & let her go until she started swiping some very traditional & revered symbols to illustrate & name her copious books of Poetry. Particularly she stole the Snake Dreams art & Dreaming stories.

This race is proving to be more fun than Brown’s race against Martha!
If anyone has any doubt the Boston press has looked under every rock for stuff on Romney, here is your proof. I read in Boston Magazine a few years back a reporter had asked Romney if he had any vices. Romney repleid he ate Cocoa Crispies every night before bed.

BannedbytheGuardian | May 2, 2012 at 6:01 pm

But yes thank you Harvard. Not that many know what Harvard is/was she used it to bludgeon the true Indigenous plus throw the White Discrimination card at universities here.

I went to a university that was a leader in Indigenous archeology /linguistics /anthropology & there were not impressed.

When she died the Indigenous were freer.

MaggotAtBroadAndWall | May 2, 2012 at 6:20 pm

Pale faced woman speaketh with forked tongue.

Look, it’s either part of the family lore or she doesn’t remember. Which is it? Case CLOSED. Two different stories.

1. If I read the bylaws correctly, Warren is not eligible for Regular Membership in the National Native American Bar Association.

There is a Special Member category for those who do not meet the regular requirements. I presume the Association would be pleased to admit a Harvard Law professor. Did Warren apply?

2. I have not yet posted a suggestion for Warren’s Indian name. Afaic it should contain ‘chipmunk’. I can’t decide between Evil Chipmunk and Scheming Chipmunk.

Her Indian name, sorry “Native American” name is Dances With Wolf Blitzer.

My maternal great grandmother was a full blooded Cherokee. I never selected minority status on a job application. like Elizabeth Warren, I have no documentation and we both have blue eyes.

As to Warren, Howie Carr of the Boston Herald, has quite a few ZINGERS..

“Maybe White Eyes Warren saw the smoke signals”

“Maybe someday she’ll even smokum peace pipe with Tim Geithner”

..And not only for Warren. #44 comes in for a few shots, too.

Warren simply misremembered her family oral history.

She’s not Cherokee, she’s Hekawi.

Stolen Indian identity
By Michael Graham
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
http://bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view/20220502stolen_indian_identity

My family has lived in Michigan for over 150 years, although my ancestry hails almost 100% Irish and some Scottish I am told there is some Native American blood as well bit it would never occurr to me to use a distant ethnic background to my advantage as Faux-Cahontas Liz Warren has done.

America Loves Bacon
I believe OcTEApi will now hail being 1/32nd Bacon!

Let’s see, by my calculations, my great-great-great-grandmother would have been born sometime between the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the Battle of the Alamo. Something tells me this wouldn’t qualify me for a gaming license.

Elizabeth Warren’s about to learn that being the butt of jokes is the cruelest fate possible for a politician … http://bit.ly/qVdDUt

Cassandra Lite | May 2, 2012 at 8:50 pm

The best part of this is that her comment–“I’m a little shocked to hear anybody raise a question about whether or not I’m qualified to hold a job teaching”–implicitly reveals that she thinks affirmative action hires aren’t qualified for the jobs they get.

[…] so Warren listing herself that way would not be a means of meeting other Native Americans, because no one else would know she was claiming to be Native American just from the listing. (I wonder how Harvard knew if she never told them and it never came […]

The tribal rolls are authoritative but only for those who signed up. I know for a fact I have trace American Indian heritage, roughly similar to Warren’s, but I’m not on the rolls because my great-great-great something or other was white and didn’t want to be on the tribal rolls. So, I’m not “officially” any part Indian even though I am inifitesimally Indian.

The bottom line is STILL that Warren is lying about her motivation even though she may not be lying about her actual bloodlines. If she wanted to meet someone, there were lots of other ways to do that. She wanted to be considered a minority for hiring purposes and/or other special privileges to hoped to enjoy.

[…] …is, I think, in a process of meltdown. […]

pilgrim1949 | May 3, 2012 at 10:57 am

She wanted to get invited to lunch? Well, heck, why didn’t she just come right out and say so sooner?

A classic 1960s song from Stan Freberg’s “History of the United States” captures po’ lil’ Lizzie’s desires and yearnings perfectly (or maybe not?) in “Take an Indian to Lunch” —

Take an Indian to lunch this week
Show him we’re a regular bunch this week
Show him we’re as liberal as can be
Let him know he’s almost as good as we
Make a feathered friend feel fed this week
Overlook the fact he’s red this week
Let him share our Quaker Oats
‘Cause he’s useful when he votes
Take an Indian to lunch
Two, four, six, eight, who do we tolerate
Indians, Indians, rah; rah; rah
Take an Indian to lunch this week
Let him sit right down and munch this week
Let’s give in and all do the brotherhood bit
Just make sure we don’t make a habit of it
Take an Indian to dine this week
Show him we don’t draw the line this week
We know everyone can’t be
As American as we
After all, we came over on the Mayflower
Take an Indian
Not a wooden Indian
But a real, live Indian
To lunch!

[…] American box to meet new friends with tribal roots, simply doesn’t hold water.  Why?  The Legal Insurrection blog writes, Why doesn’t it add up? Because the section listing “minority” faculty doesn’t list […]

[…] including favorites like “Elizabeth Warren’s claim of being 1/32 Cherokee in doubt” and Elizabeth Warren claims listed herself as minority to meet people, but story doesn’t hold up (Upda…. Check out the whole list […]

[…] advancement.”  Cornell’s William Jacobson says that Warren’s claims just “don’t add up,” in multiple ways.)While some idiosyncratic members of these hiring committees — […]

The comments about cheekbones makes me think of German professors in the 1920’s going on about cranial types and what they reveal about the true nature of the racial makeup of a person or group (for pride or shame). She’s proud of those cheekbones!!

[…] for career advancement.”  Cornell’s William Jacobson says that Warren’s claims just “don’t add up,” in multiple […]