Warren on taking DNA test to prove Native American heritage: 'I know who I am'

[laserhaas]

Source: The HILL

Link to tweet

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in an interview broadcast Sunday said she knows who she is after being pressed about her claims of Native American heritage.

She was questioned during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" about an editorial in a Massachusetts newspaper, "Warren must resolve debate on heritage," which said a DNA test would "permanently resolve the issue."

"Look, I do know. I know who I am. And never used it for anything. Never got any benefit from it anywhere," Warren said.

"But what I did a couple of weeks ago is I went to talk to the leaders of the native tribes across the country," she added.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/377812-warren-on-taking-dna-test-to-prove-native-american-heritage-i-know-who-i-am?amp&__twitter_impression=true

[TranssexualKaren]

1. Oh wait, the Repos dont believe in science....

It’s pointless to argue with someone who is dumb enough to follow them. She shouldn’t waste her time trying.

[laserhaas]

2. Pointless to argue with those damnation bent on finding fault

If she came back 100% Cherokee, they'd find another way to complain.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. This kind of shit is just distraction. It's not policy, it's not corruption, it's not visionary.

RepubliConMen love it, especially because it attacks a powerful strong popular woman.

[old guy]

7. Distraction, distraction, distraction.

The only item on the repub menu.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

27. that's why it was on Meet The Repugs

Distraction and the promotion of GOPers is what Chuck Todd and that show are all about.

Toadie is just filling Matthew Todd Lauer's shoes.

[wishstar]

4. Just like Obama's short form BC was never enough, DNA test results wouldn't be enough

Trump and Scott Brown and the rest are just playing politics since they have nothing else with which to attack her. Her detractors would claim the DNA results were fake just like they claimed Obama's short and long form BC's weren't legitimate.

[Eyeball_Kid]

5. It's possible that DNA testing may not show N.A. ancestry, even though she does have ancestors.

It's highly unlikely, but still possible.

[Miigwech]

8. So true

I know someone who took the Ancestry DNA test and it showed her to be 1% NA, when her grandmother was 100% NA.

[catrose]

14. Mine showed me as 3% NA, 3% Sephardic Jewish

The rest snow white--but nobody could figure out where the NA & Jewish lines came from.

[ChazInAz]

19. I'd bet mine is confusing.

Part of my ancestry is Russian, which naturally includes a bit of Mongol. (Thanks, Genghiz!) Since Native Americans may have come from the same area an exceptionally long time ago, we might show up as related!

[Hortensis]

22. A lot of families that pride themselves on this background

are finding there's no basis for it. It's a shame that new truths are not always supporting proud family histories as they'd been handed down through generations.

I have no idea what genealogy would turn up about Elizabeth, but she filled out that form long before it became available and it would be a non sequitur either way. What mattered is what she believed. If I thought that was in my blonde/blue-eyed background, I'd have checked the box happily also. It wasn't the big issue Republicans pretend it is.

[WePurrsevere]

16. The 1st sentence is true but it's not necessarily "highly unlikely"...

A good bit of how much, if any, specific heritage shows up is how far back and how much it is. A lot of what shows up as inherited is luck of the draw too.

I shared these in a different thread on this topic so please pardon the duplication.

http://www.legalgenealogist.com/2014/05/18/admixture-not-soup-yet/

This one is specific to NA DNA...
http://www.rootsandrecombinantdna.com/2015/03/native-american-dna-is-just-not-that.html

[keithbvadu2]

6. Donald Falsely Claimed His Family Was Swedish

Trump Mocks Warren’s Native American Heritage Claim, But Falsely Claimed His Family Was Swedish

https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/trump-mocks-warrens-native-american-heritage-claim-but-false?utm_term=.hrN5grRZ6#.nn8b1XG0m


http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/26/nyregion/fred-c-trump-postwar-master-builder-of-housing-for-middle-class-dies-at-93.html

Donald needs to start using his REAL last name, Drumpf.

[stuffmatters]

9. This is such an offensive, violating question Whoever asked it should be fired.

If they're the host. If it was a Repug pundit, they should be taken off the show.

[elocs]

10. I thought I knew myself as well.

I thought I knew who I was as well. My father died when I was 17 and my mother was separated and divorced from him from when I was 5 and I saw him for the last time when I was 10. When I was 30 I met his brother who hadn't seen me since I was a baby and he told me that their grandmother was a Cherokee and being from rural Mississippi that wasn't exactly something the family on my father's side was going to brag about. I had no reason to doubt what my uncle told me and I'm sure he believed it.
When I was 62 I took the 23 and Me dna test. The result: no Native American ancestry, none.
Yet for years I had told people that I did have Native American blood. So was I lying? No, I was just mistaken.

[Codeine]

24. I was told I had NA ancestry

and that an ancestral family name was Irish in origin. Mom used to make a big deal of our Cherokee background despite the fact that we were basically the most blonde-haired and green-eyed motherfuckers on Earth.

Turns out I don’t show any NA genetic heritage and some genealogical research showed that the last name in question is actually a Portuguese name that had been mispronounced for several generations. I think everyone in the sixties decided they were descended from Native Americans.

[moriah]

25. We never had a family story, but genealogy stops...

... on tracking my mother's birth surname with a suspiciously dark and short (likely underage as records show he grew three inches in a year) young man who served in the 39th Regiment of the US Infantry during the Creek War, from an area known to have a lot of Cherokees. Since it was the 1/8th Cherokee by blood guy who later became a chief who gave the intelligence to the US government about the Red Sticks, and Cherokees fought on the US side to curry white favor, if he was a "half-breed" (or quarter, or 8th) who could "pass", enlisting in the Army vs being in a Cherokee-managed fighting unit might have been a smart move for a young man seeing times were not favorable to his people.

Heck, he could have even been half/quarter/whatever AA instead of NA, as the Cherokee also had slaves.

But there is a white guy born the year after the Revolution in what was still called "Campbell County, NC" even though it's further west than Hawkins where my ancestor was born (and more historically white, Hawkins County was part of Cherokee country then), who also served in that regiment, with the same last name and named later with my ancestor in court documents about some disturbance right after the War. White guy with same last name not prosecuted, my ancestor fined $150 and made to spend a night in jail. The white guy could have been my ancestor (an uncle or perhaps father), matches the other genes that manifested in that lineage later on, but records are sketchy.

So definitely not exactly a legend to pass down... "Yeah, our Native American ancestor fought for the government under the same general that pushed for the rest of his people to be removed to Oklahoma."

[JI7]

11. Where are trumps tax returns ?

Are we really going to get hung up on this bs just like with obama and the birth certificate.

But the piece of shit hiding his taxes gets pass.

[TrollBuster9090]

12. Stupid, Stupid, STUPID!!! Don't duck the question, Elizabeth. What you SHOULD do is...

What you SHOULD do is say: "Fine, I'll do a DNA test if TRUMP releases his last five TAX RETURNS."

Make it a challenge, knowing that either:

A) He'll never do it, so you don't have to worry, or

B) He WILL do it, and the top story will not be whether you are or are not of Native American heritage, but the fact that Trump borrowed $5 billion from Putin, has $5 billion in assets and $5 billion in debts, and thus has a net worth of 300 bucks.

Warren wins either way.

[Plucketeer]

13. Maybe she should have an I next to her name

I for Indian , that is. I don't care WHAT her lineage is so long as she keeps on doing as she has been.

[CTyankee]

15. And then say, "That's it. I'm done."

enuf already! Spare her energy to making America great again, like the way you have been!

[pnwmom]

17. She's smart enough to know that a person can have an Indian ancestor in their family tree

and NOT have any DNA from that ancestor. That's why 2 full siblings can have different percentages of DNA from various backgrounds -- just like one can be a redhead and another a brunette.

[humbled_opinion]

18. Logic tells me that she

most likely already privately did the test. At least I know it is something that I would have done if someone questioned my integrity.

[Yupster]

20. That seems logical

If it turns out she has NA DNA, she shows the test results, if she doesn't, then she never says she took one.

I'd take one anyway. ........ I mean I already did take one anyway and I was surprised by my results too. It makes you say, hmmm, that's interesting, and then you shrug and move on.

[olddad56]

21. I'll bet she would take a DNA test, if the Tramp would take a polygraph.

[LexVegas]

23. 'I know who I am'. A white woman?

[maxsolomon]

26. Posts like this are not helping.

This issue alone has taken her out of consideration for the Democratic nomination in 2020. The GOP will hound, ridicule, insult, and some posters on DU will gleefully pile on. It will be Birther Bullshit Part 2.

Warren should have her brother (if she has one) take a DNA test privately. If there's Native American DNA, trumpet the results. If nothing, well, she said she wouldn't take the test. Plausible deniability.

[LanternWaste]

28. I'm quite certain you find that irrelevance clever.

I'm quite certain you find that irrelevance clever.

Like the wisdom of a bumper-sticker or a fortune cookie, we pretend to find depth in the shallowest parts of the pool.