Warren’s DNA claim angers some Native Americans

Oklahoma City — The DNA test that Sen. Elizabeth Warren used to try to rebut the ridicule of President Donald Trump angered some Native Americans, who complained that the genetic analysis cheapens the identities of tribal members with deeper ties to the Indian past.

Warren was born in Oklahoma, which is home to 39 tribes and where more than 7 percent of the population identifies as Native American, one of the highest proportions in the nation.

But she's not a member of any tribe, and many Indians take exception to anyone who claims to be part Indian without being enrolled in a tribe, especially for political purposes.

“It adds fuel to that misconception that I can go out, get a DNA test and then, boom, that's all I really need,” said Brandon Scott, a Cherokee Nation citizen and the executive editor of the tribe's newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix. “But the facts of the matter are you need a lot more than that.”

The nation's 573 federally recognized tribes collectively do not have a single standard for determining membership. Tribes such as the Cherokee Nation use lineal descent, meaning a person is Cherokee if an ancestor is listed on an original roll regardless of their amount of Indian blood. Descendants of black slaves the Cherokee once owned are also members of the tribe.

DNA tests are not typically used as evidence to determine tribal membership.

The genetic results released Monday provide some evidence of a Native American in Warren's lineage, though the ancestor probably lived six to 10 generations ago.

Native Americans also resented Trump's continuing use of Indian heritage as a means to mock Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts who is widely expected to run for president in 2020.

Trump's references to Warren as “fake Pocahontas” are particularly offensive because they show how pop culture has glossed over the treatment of Native Americans, particularly women, said Chelsey Branham, a member of the Chickasaw Nation.

“It's a sore topic to begin with,” said Branham, a Democratic candidate for a state House seat in Oklahoma City. “Then on top of that, using it as a derisive term to put someone down, it's a racial slur. It certainly was offensive to me.”

“It adds fuel to that misconception that I can go out, get a DNA test and then, boom, that’s all I really need.” BRANDON SCOTT, CHEROKEE NATION CITIZEN EXECUTIVE EDITOR OF THE TRIBE’S NEWSPAPER, THE CHEROKEE PHOENIX