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.
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:
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:
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
