7 pols with Native American heritage

[MindMover]

Elizabeth Warren’s 1/32 Cherokee heritage has caused the Massachusetts Senate candidate quite the headache recently, with critics — among them Sen. Scott Brown — accusing the Democrat of using her lineage to gain an unfair advantage in her professional life. Here’s POLITICO’s look at current and past members of Congress who have Native American heritage:

1. Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), member of the Chickasaw Nation. He is currently the only lawmaker serving in Congress who identifies himself as having Native American heritage, and supports Sen. Scott Brown’s reelection bid.

2. Former Rep. Ben Reifel (R-S.D.), first Sioux Indian elected to the House of Representatives. Reifel was born in a log cabin on a Sioux reservation, and died at the age of 83 in 1930 at Sioux Valley Hospital in Sioux Falls.

3. Former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), member of the Council of Chiefs of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Tribe. Campbell was first elected to the Senate as a Democrat, but switched parties a few years later.

4. Former Sen. Robert Latham Owen (D-Okla.), mother was part Cherokee. Owen invented an international alphabet for diplomatic use. He died in 1947 after complications from prostate surgery.

5. Former Rep. Brad Carson (D-Okla.), member of the Cherokee Nation. Carson was born in Winslow, Ariz., and got his master’s degree at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

6. Former Rep. Charles David Carter (D-Okla.), of both Cherokee and Chicsaw heritage. Carter died in 1929.

7. Former Rep. William Wirt Hastings (D-Okla.), member of the Cherokee Nation. Hastings graduated from the Cherokee Male Seminary and got his law degree from Vanderbilt University. He died in 1938.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/75924.html#ixzz1tw6QCrf1

[DURHAM D]

1. Not sure why this is posted here but -

Senator Fred Harris ( D Oklahoma) was not native American but he has been by far their best advocate ever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_R._Harris

Fred was married to LaDonna Harris who is Comanche. LaDonna is famous in her own right as an activist and VP candidate in 1980 on the Citizens Party ticket.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Donna_Harris


If I was Elizabeth Warren I would give those two a call and have them come up and campaign with her. That would fix her problem and I am sure that Fred and LaDonna would love to be in the spotlight. Maybe I will send her campaign an email.

[MindMover]

2. Thank you for sending that email.....

[Alexander]

3. Let's not forget there was a Vice President who had Native American heritage.

Charles Curtis, Hoover's VP from 1929-1933.

His maternal ancestry was three-quarters' Native American, of ethnic Kaw, Osage and Pottawatomie ancestry.

[customerserviceguy]

4. Thanks for mentioning that

I wondered why his name was not first on the list.

[braddy]

5. I'm glad you mentioned that

I have always been mystified as why that never comes up, it is in the really, really, only for true trivia obsessed people category, and I have never known why.

Every decade or so I have to look it up again just to verify my memory, but I never even bother to bring it up to people because it never gets a response.

Thanks for the post.

[sofa king]

7. He became much more Indian after his death.

Curtis' heritage was carefully minimized during his campaign, but later it emerged that even his non-Indian ancestors were mostly of Indian descent. His family appears to have been a good example of "patterned out-marriage," which is one tool anthropologists use when studying tribes.

He spent a good part of his childhood on the Kaw reservation, surrounded by Oklahoma, but I guess he was left off this list because his political career was mostly as a Kansan.

[Tx4obama]

6. Do ya'll remember when Obama became an adopted member of the Crow Nation?

It was during the 2008 campaign and folks there were dressed in traditional tribal costume, they gave Obama a Native Indian name (Barack Black Eagle), and they presented gifts to Obama and Michelle.


Here are a few links with info, some have photos/video

http://www.crowtribe.com/obama.htm

On May, 19 2008, Senator Barack Obama a Democratic presidential candidate visited and campaigned in the Crow Reservation. He is the very first candidate who has taken an interest in American Indian issues and visited an Indian Reservation for a campaign rally. Senator Barack Obama was immediately "adopted" into the Crow Nation by Hartford "Sonny" and Mary Black Eagle. He was given a Crow name by Hartford "Sonny" Black Eagle. His name pronounced in Crow is Awe Kooda bilaxpak Kuuxshish, which means "one who helps people throughout the land." Barack's Clan is of the Whistling Water and child of the Newly Made Lodge. He was also presented with several gifts from the wives of the Executive Officials. The gifts included a beaded medallion for his wife and miniature beaded buckskin cradle boards and purses for his two daughters.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/obama-adopted-by-native-americans/

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-05-20/crow-nation-welcomes-barack-black-eagle/2441766

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2008/05/obama-adopted-into-crow-nation.html