Sen. Warren hits back at Trump's use of 'Pocahontas' vows to highlight Native American issues
Elizabeth Warren
Six years ago  the contested story of Sen. Elizabeth Warren's Native American heritage began its rise from local newspapers to national headlines  and eventually into presidential speeches and Twitter feeds.
On Wednesday   Warren  raised the subject  herself  — not budging from the story  she  has relayed for years — in a surprise speech to the National Congress of American Indians.
And I want to make something clear. I respect that distinction. I understand that tribal membership is determined by tribes — and only by tribes. I never used my family tree to get a break or get ahead. I never used it to advance my career ”  Warren  said.
The stories  she  grew up with are real   Warren  said  which is what  she  has regularly said on the matter. There is no known documentation of  Warren ’s Native American ancestry (though somewhere in the 2012 back-and-forth a genealogist estimated  Warren  was 1/32 Cherokee)  but the senator has steadfastly argued that she was raised on stories of Native American family members and this is what she knows to be her family's heritage.
 Warren  has been adamant about the pride  she  feels to be Native American — though the topic has dogged  her  politically. At the event  a days-long policy summit in Washington  D.C.  attended by a wide range of tribal leaders   Warren  described  her  dedication to fight against the “country’s disrespect of Native people.”
“For far too long  your story has been pushed aside  to be trotted out only in cartoons and commercials ”  she  said.
 Warren  used President Donald Trump’s nickname for  her   Pocahontas  as an example of the disrespect.
The questions began  however  four years earlier. At the time  the Republican incumbent senator of Massachusetts  Scott Brown  was up against  Warren  for the senate seat. He brought up  Warren ’s undocumented claim of Native American heritage in a debate and asserted that she’d been using it to get ahead in jobs.
The main evidence of  Warren ’s use of  her  heritage was to list  herself  as a minority in a legal directory in the 1980s and 90s.  She  was later described as the only minority female faculty member at Harvard Law School in a 1996 survey report on diversity.
 Warren  has repeatedly denied that  she  ever used it to advance  her  career. “All I can say is  I busted my tail as a teacher. I am qualified for my job "  she  said in 2012.
On  her  family   Warren  said  “They’re gone  but the love they shared  the struggles they endured  the family they built  and the story they lived will always be a part of me. And no one — not even the president of the United States — will ever take that part of me away.”
Six years ago  the contested story of Sen. Elizabeth Warren's Native American heritage began its rise from local newspapers to national headlines  and eventually into presidential speeches and Twitter feeds.
On Wednesday   Warren  raised the subject  herself  — not budging from the story  she  has relayed for years — in a surprise speech to the National Congress of American Indians.
And I want to make something clear. I respect that distinction. I understand that tribal membership is determined by tribes — and only by tribes. I never used my family tree to get a break or get ahead. I never used it to advance my career ”  Warren  said.
The stories  she  grew up with are real   Warren  said  which is what  she  has regularly said on the matter. There is no known documentation of  Warren ’s Native American ancestry (though somewhere in the 2012 back-and-forth a genealogist estimated  Warren  was 1/32 Cherokee)  but the senator has steadfastly argued that she was raised on stories of Native American family members and this is what she knows to be her family's heritage.
 Warren  has been adamant about the pride  she  feels to be Native American — though the topic has dogged  her  politically. At the event  a days-long policy summit in Washington  D.C.  attended by a wide range of tribal leaders   Warren  described  her  dedication to fight against the “country’s disrespect of Native people.”
“For far too long  your story has been pushed aside  to be trotted out only in cartoons and commercials ”  she  said.
 Warren  used President Donald Trump’s nickname for  her   Pocahontas  as an example of the disrespect.
The questions began  however  four years earlier. At the time  the Republican incumbent senator of Massachusetts  Scott Brown  was up against  Warren  for the senate seat. He brought up  Warren ’s undocumented claim of Native American heritage in a debate and asserted that she’d been using it to get ahead in jobs.
The main evidence of  Warren ’s use of  her  heritage was to list  herself  as a minority in a legal directory in the 1980s and 90s.  She  was later described as the only minority female faculty member at Harvard Law School in a 1996 survey report on diversity.
 Warren  has repeatedly denied that [TGT]she  ever used [TGT] to advance  her  career. “All I can say is  I busted my tail as a teacher. I am qualified for my job "  she  said in 2012.
On  her  family   Warren  said  “They’re gone  but the love they shared  the struggles they endured  the family they built  and the story they lived will always be a part of me. And no one — not even the president of the United States — will ever take that part of me away.”