Remember when the Boston Globe prematurely declared this political scandal over last May? Good times.
Four outraged Cherokee activists who say Elizabeth Warren’s campaign has ignored their emails and phone calls will trek to Boston this week in hopes they can force a meeting with the Democratic Senate candidate over her “offensive” Native American heritage claims.“It’s almost becoming extremely offensive to us,” said Twila Barnes, a Cherokee genealogist who has researched Warren’s family tree. “We’re trying to get in contact and explain why her behavior hurts us and is offensive, and she totally ignores that. Like we don’t exist.”
Late last night, a Warren campaign official told the Herald that staffers will “connect” and “offer to have staff meet with them.”
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“We would like to see her look at the documentation and admit there’s no Indian ancestry there and then apologize,” Barnes saud. “Hear us. Acknowledge us. Know that she’s brought us into this. We didn’t bring ourselves into this. This whole trip was planned to get a meeting with her.”
Barnes said there is still no evidence, despite research conducted by her and other genealogists, to support Warren’s claim of Cherokee roots.
These four Cherokee activists aren’t the only Native Americans offended by Elizabeth Warren's ancestral claims. As we reported last week, an enraged Harvard University alumna named Margo (Kickingbird) DeLaune (who, by the way, belongs to the Kiowa tribe of Oklahoma and is a registered Democrat), penned a joint op-ed with her son criticizing the Senate candidate’s conduct and urging the Harvard community to hold her “accountable for the damage she has wrought.” And, incidentally, much like DeLaune’s crusade for truth and justice, these particular Cherokee activists’ aren’t motived by politics or partisanship, either.
Politics isn’t a motivator, Barnes insisted. One of the women is a registered Democrat, and the other three are left-leaning independents, said Barnes, who said she voted for President Obama in 2008.
In any case, it’s not surprising “Granny” Warren is hesitant to meet with these individuals – after all, she’s failed to produce one single shred of evidence corroborating her tenuous claim that she is “1/32” Cherokee. What’s baffling, however, is that she simply refuses to renounce her “heritage” or apologize for her actions (her grandfather’s “high cheek bones” notwithstanding) especially when it’s painfully evident her conduct has offended Native Americans across the United States. If -- if -- Elizabeth Warren does apologize at some point, it would seem to suggest that she is indeed guilty of academic fraud. On the other hand, if she continues to hide from the Native American community -- and evade their unwelcome questions -- the backlash is likely to be more pronounced.
In short, one thing is clear: Cherokee activists want her to apologize for committing (what they consider to be) academic and ethnic fraud; and they’re not going away until she does.
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