Hundreds of Cherokees form new group to challenge Elizabeth Warren

A new group of over 150 Cherokees and growing has formed with the purpose of forcing Elizabeth Warren to give up her false claim to Cherokee heritage.

The group has a new blog, Cherokees Demand Truth from Elizabeth Warren, and corresponding Facebook page:

Mission Statement

Cherokees Demand Truth from Elizabeth Warren is a group of authentic Cherokees and descendants devoted to sharing the truth about our history. Our mission is to help people understand what a real Cherokee is and to show why Elizabeth Warren claiming to be Cherokee without proof is harmful and offensive to us.

The group presently consists of 156 Cherokees and is growing:

We are a group of concerned enrolled Cherokees and descendants from the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes; the Cherokee Nation, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; who demand that Elizabeth Warren tell the truth about her “Cherokee” ancestry and identity. Our group, 149 members strong and growing each day, is in it’s infancy so we are, at this time, an informal one with no specific organizational structure. Spokespeople for the group are Twila Barnes and David Cornsilk….This is NOT a political group, but instead, a group that demands Elizabeth Warren and others like her understand OUR history belongs to us and no one has the right to try to rewrite it or make up fictitious stories so they can fit in it or take advantage of it. Only those who meet the requirements under Cherokee law should claim to be Cherokee. We hope to help educate the public on what is and is not true about our history and also why the false claims like Elizabeth Warren is making are harmful to the Cherokee people.

The first blog post is Elizabeth Warren – The Cherokees Will Not Be Silenced:

Many wonder why we Cherokees are so insistent on Elizabeth Warren coming clean about her false claims of Cherokee ancestry. This is not a political issue to us. We don’t care if Elizabeth Warren is a Democrat, Republican, or an Independent. We do care, though, if she goes around claiming to be Cherokee and has tried to benefit from that claim….Many members of these fraudulent groups base their claim of Cherokee ancestry on the same thing Ms. Warren bases hers on…family lore…. Like Warren and her contributions to the Pow Wow Chow cookbook, those fake Indians bastardized our traditions by doing things that were not representative of true Cherokee culture…. Like Warren in her “checking the box” to further her career, these people did the exact same thing, “checked the box”, in order to try to benefit from it.We have researched Ms. Warren’s ancestry in the line she claims to be Cherokee through, as well as researched the collateral lines connected to that family. There is absolutely no indication of her having anything other than Caucasian ancestors…. Ms. Warren’s ancestors were not Cherokees and neither is she. We, as Cherokees, cannot allow Ms. Warren to continue on with her false claims…..It is time for Ms. Warren to come clean and tell the truth. Until she does, we will not be silenced.

There is a separate section of the blog on Warren’s genealogy which traces Warren’s Crawford family line (which is the supposed source of her Cherokee ancestry) back to the great-great-great grandparent level, finding no Cherokee lineage.  This is consistent with prior findings by others.

One of the spokesmen for the group, Twila Barnes, previously has spoken out about Warren’s false claims. Barnes has led the genealogical effort and in a prior post and another post today, demonstrates the falsity of Warren’s claim.  This is consistent with prior findings by others.

Will Warren just keep repeating that she is Native American because her mother told her so, or will Warren finally come clean?

Update:  Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart.com notes that the explanations from Harvard do not make sense, What Did Harvard Know About Elizabeth ‘Woman of Color’ Warren, and When Did They Know It?

How is it that many students and members of the Harvard Law School faculty were aware of Warren’s Native American ancestry claims at this time of her tenure offer in February 1993, but the two key players in the hiring decision have no recollection of those claims until afterwards?

Leahy also has an interview of Twila Barnes regarding the new Cherokee group.

And, Leahy, who has led the way in investigating Warren’s claims, also notes that the Warren campaign issued a statement refusing to respond to the new Cherokee group’s demands.

Tags: Elizabeth Warren

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