A Letter to Elizabeth Warren

Dear Ms. Warren,

I am writing this letter in the hope it will help end the current situation you have found yourself in. It seems you are being ripped apart in the media because of your claim of Cherokee ancestry and you don't like it. According to a recent article in the Boston Globe, you believe your opponent is "creating a distraction" by "ridiculously" attacking you "with questions that have already been answered." It seems you would like the "attacks" against your claims of Cherokee ancestry to stop so I thought I would offer some advice on how to make it stop. 

Tell the truth. 

You see, Ms. Warren, some of us have independently done our own research and we know you have no documentation supporting your claim of Cherokee ancestry.* We wonder why you believe you have the right to claim Cherokee ancestry and to call yourself a Native American when you have no evidence to support your claim. While you cling to a family story and the inaccurate report that ONE document was found that supports your claim, we real Cherokees understand that those things mean nothing. You see, we Cherokees have lots and lots and lots of documentation supporting our claims of our ancestry. Our Cherokee ancestors are found on every roll of the Cherokee Nation (30+ rolls!) dating back to before the removal and in all sorts of other documentation, including but not limited to claims against the US government for lost property; the Moravian missionary records; ration lists before and after the forced removal, etc...yet your ancestors are found in NONE of those records. 

But, your ancestors are found in plenty of historical records, and every time, they are found living as white people among other white people. Never are your ancestors ever found living among the Cherokees. Never, never, never, never.......yet you claim they were Cherokee.

Hmmm........and they say you are an elite lawyer! Really?

Are we supposed to believe an elite lawyer knows nothing about the burden of proof? According to Lawyers.com, the burden of proof is the responsibility of producing sufficient evidence in support of a fact or issue and favorably persuading the trier of fact. Well, Ms. Warren, you should know that you are not doing a very good job of supporting your claim or persuading anyone to believe what you say. This is starting to make us question your ability as a legal mind! And that makes us question whether you really got your job at Harvard on your own merits or whether you climbed on the backs of the Cherokee people in order to further your career.

So, Ms. Warren, you see, it is not just your opponent who has questions. We Cherokees have questions too and those questions have yet to be answered by you. You see, for us Cherokees, this is not political. This is about the truth. 

You have claimed something you had no right to claim -- our history and our heritage and our identity. Those things belong to us, and us alone. These are not things we choose to embrace when they benefit us and then cast aside when we no longer need them, but that is what you seem to have done by "checking a box" for several years and then no longer "checking" it more recently, when apparently you no longer needed it. 

Of course, you say you only "checked the box" in an attempt to meet others like you, but that doesn't make sense. If one is claiming to be Cherokee and wants to meet other Cherokees, they don't "check a box" on a job application or in a directory for their profession! They go to where Cherokees are.  

You are from Oklahoma!  

If you wanted to meet "other" Cherokees, you should have known you could go there to meet them, so stop with the "I only wanted to meet others like me" BS. You disrespect us by saying things like that and we don't appreciate it!

We also don't appreciate knowing you might have used us to give your career a leg up over the competition when you were hired at Harvard. It is time you offer us some proof showing you did not do that. Until then, we have no alternative but to suspect you are not being honest about how you got that job. It is unfortunate that you might have not had enough confidence in your abilities to depend on them to carry you and therefore, felt you had to lie and invent a Native American identity to get ahead in the world. Sad, sad, sad.

Those are my thoughts for today.

Thanks for reading.

*Note - Several people who are experienced researchers in Cherokee genealogy have been working together exploring Elizabeth Warren's ancestry. They have uncovered many documents that, combined, paint a very clear picture that Warren descends from white people who had no connection whatsoever to the Cherokee Nation. These documents will be posted soon.

copyright 2012, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

Tweet

Time to Come Clean, Ms. Warren?

There has been a lot in the news about Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor who is running for US Senate. It seems she may have wrongly claimed to be Native American to help further her career. Of course, she claims she "checked the box" to get involved in social activities with "people who are like" she is. I would like to know what she meant by the statement "people who are like I am." If she means people like Ward Churchill, I guess I get it, but if she means people like me and other REAL Indians, I don't. She isn't a real Indian. And contrary to most of the current media stories, she doesn't even have a Cherokee ancestor.

Chris Child of the New England Historic Genealogical Society publicly stated that Ms. Warren did have a Cherokee ancestor, but it seems both he and the NEHGS have backed away from that claim, thanks to media attention and to the investigative work of another Native American genealogist.

I have been unavailable to research this much due to a family emergency, but I have been kept in the loop of the research done by both my team and others. The team I work with has been tracing Ms. Warren's ancestry and has found no indication of Cherokee ancestry in any of her ancestral lines so far. Emails from them to Chris Child of the NEHGS went unanswered. But one researcher was able to get answers to at least one of his emails where Mr. Child admitted the only thing they had showing Cherokee ancestry for Ms. Warren was the infamous family newsletter. That newsletter has now been shown to be inaccurate. 

It is unfortunate that things like this have to happen in order for us to see why false claims of Cherokee ancestry (or any Indian ancestry) can be harmful. Did Ms. Warren use her false claim to get the edge over others who might have been equally as qualified to teach at Harvard? This doesn't just affect Cherokees or other Native Americans. It effects everyone. What if Ms. Warren was selected over another equally as qualified white woman simply because she "checked that box"?

I have read a lot of comments to the recent news stories and some people are asking why it matters. It matters because Ms. Warren lied. And her lie is worse than that of the average Joe Shmoe on the street who wrongly claims to be Cherokee because Ms. Warren is a LAW PROFESSOR. She is aware of laws and the standards of proof needed for what we claim to be true. High cheekbones wouldn't cut it in court and it doesn't cut it in genealogy either. Ms. Warren cannot claim ignorance nor can she claim she just didn't have the money to do her genealogy. After all, she is a Harvard professor and also works as a consultant.

I have a lot more to say on this topic with a lot of documentation, but for now, I would just like to say:

It's time to come clean, Ms. Warren. You can blame all this attention on Senator Scott Brown if you like, but we Cherokees aren't buying what you are selling either. It is time to admit you have nothing but a family story on which you base your claim of Cherokee ancestry and that after investigation, you realize that story is not true. It is time you apologize not only to your supporters but also to the real Cherokee people - not just for pretending to be one of us to further your career, but also for that "high cheekbone" comment. Come on, if you really got your job at Harvard on your merits, then you are intelligent enough to know that is a stereotype and insulting. Buh! 

Those are my thoughts for today.
Thanks for reading.





**Note - I would like to thank both the team of researchers I work with for keeping me aware of their findings while I was busy taking care of family responsibilities. Your unending devotion to finding and revealing the truth is admirable and makes me proud to call you all friends.

copyright 2012, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

Tweet