Politics

Indian delegates offer ways to test Elizabeth Warren's ancestry





Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, took center stage at the 2012 Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night but didn't address her claims of Indian ancestry.

So Indian delegates offered some ways Warren could prove her alleged heritage. “Someone needs to make her take a DNA test,” Harlyn Geronimo, a member of the Mescalero Apache Nation and a great-grandson of the legendary Apache leader Geronimo, told The New York Times.

“If she wants to claim it, then she can pay $100 and have it verified,” offered Helen McNeil, a Tlingit delegate from Alaska, The Boston Herald reported.

Jim La Pointe, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe who is a great-grandnephew of Crazy Horse, had a different test in mind. “I’d like to hear her speak her native language,” he told the Times.

Warren, who grew up in Oklahoma, has claimed both Cherokee and Delaware ancestry. However, she is unable to provide documentation and has refused to answer questions about her heritage.

Indian delegates at the DNC sought a meeting with Warren, who introduced former president Bill Clinton, but she refused.

Get the Story:
For Warren, Bad Blood Over Ethnic Claims (The New York Times 9/6)
Elizabeth Warren passes on chance to meet with Native American Dems (The Boston Herald 9/6)

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