Elizabeth Warren roasted for ‘American Indian’ claim after Indigenous Peoples Day ‘respect’ tweet

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s call for “respect” in a #IndigenousPeoplesDay tweet elicited immediate backlash Monday and conjured up reminders of her “American Indian” claim and “1/1024th Indian” DNA test.

“The story of America’s mistreatment of indigenous peoples is long and painful. And yet, Native communities have proven resilient,” the Massachusetts Democrat tweeted. “We owe them our respect — and we must honor our government’s commitments and promises to them. #IndigenousPeoplesDay.”

Nearly 2,000 comments highlighted the presidential hopeful’s decision to register as “American Indian” for the State Bar of Texas in 1986 and make similar claims for Harvard Law School.

A sampling of the comments include:

• “The best way to honor them is not to pretend that you’re one of them and prevent one from going to college because you claimed you were one of them.”
• “You thought you should weigh in on this, of all the things.”
• “Yikes. You went there. And with a straight face.”
• “’Mistreatment’  — like impersonating one to get minority benefits? Asking for a former ’woman of color’ professor at Harvard.”
• “This is 1/1024th sincere.”
• “Cringeworthy lack of self-awareness right here.”
• “And we should honor them with recipe books called ’Pow-Wow Chow.’”
• “A powerful message from the first Native American member of Harvard faculty.”

Mrs. Warren maintains that her claims of being Native American were made in good faith.

The story of America’s mistreatment of indigenous peoples is long and painful. And yet, Native communities have proven resilient. We owe them our respect—and we must honor our government’s commitments and promises to them. #IndigenousPeoplesDay

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 14, 2019

“Based on what I learned growing up and the fact that I love my family, decades ago I sometimes identified as Native American,” she on CNN’s “The Axe Files” in March. “It never had anything to do with any job that I ever got.”

Host David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, cornered her on this issue, asking, “The question I have never understood is why. Why did you in 1986 fill out on your law license or something? Why did you check those boxes, because obviously, that’s a very small part of your lineage? 1/32nd or something, so why did you do it? … The universities kind of fudged and used you for their own purposes.”

“I shouldn’t have done it,” Mrs. Warren replied. “I’m not a person of color. I am not a citizen of a tribe, but what I try to do is be a good friend of Native Americans.”