Last October, Elizabeth Warren released a video tracing her roots back to the small town of Norman, Okla. At a first glance, her story looked like another iteration of the homegrown, hardworking, all-American narrative that constituencies have rewarded politicians handsomely for using in the past.
Quickly, though, the intent behind the video was made transparent: to bite back at Trump’s attacks on her character, to settle the question of her racial identity to her voters and to save face before midterm elections rolled around.
A dispute seven years in the making, Warren was first accused of cultural appropriation in 2012 when The Boston Herald discovered that she had listed herself as of “Cherokee ancestry” on a number of forms when applying for a position at Harvard, despite the lack of conclusive proof to back up her ancestry.
The issue resurfaced when, after she publicly opposed his campaign, President Trump referenced to her as “Pocahontas” and argued that she had listed herself as Native American for the sake of advancing her career. At rallies, he gained crowd support by pressuring her to release a DNA test.
With Trump and the press pressing her for answers, her response culminated into the video that was released in October. In it, she had a DNA test conducted, and according to Dr. Carlos Bustante of Stanford, “The facts suggest that [Warren] absolutely has a Native American ancestor.”
It didn’t take long, though, for conservatives to find the full report where these “absolute” facts had come from. At best, Warren’s genetics are 1/64th Indigenous. At worst, they are 1/1024th Indigenous.
While Warren turned out successful in the midterms, gaining sixty-percent of the vote and the confidence to announce her run in the 2020 presidential election, the video did the opposite of its intended effect. The lasting backlash solidified in turning her controversy into what will be a constant talking point with which her opponents will use to undermine her campaign.
The point of contention with the video has less to do with its results and more to do with the use of it to justify how Native American a person is. It led to an outcry from Native American communities, and the Cherokee nation released a statement shortly afterwards.
“A DNA test is useless to determine tribal citizenship. Sovereign tribal nations set their own legal requirements for citizenship,” Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. said, continuing, “Using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong…Senator Warren is undermining tribal interests with her continued claims of tribal heritage.”
While it is a common occurrence for people to self-identify as Native American without proof of ancestry, the impact of Warren’s actions as a public figure could have a disastrous effect on how Native American tribes are perceived. By caving to pushes for a DNA test, she has essentially “equated ‘biology’ with culture, ‘race’ with citizenship,” as the writers of the Critical Ethnic Studies put it.
“Public perception of Native identity has a measurable impact on Native rights,” Huffington Post reporter Rebecca Nagle wrote. “At a time when our rights are under attack, public discourse needs to uphold accurate and true information about Native identity.”
Controversies like these make Warren a divisive figure in the eyes of the public, as she currently only retains a 24-percent approval rating with independents.
Warren does have her appeals for her liberal audience, though. She is consistently able to give complicated policies relevance and untangle the nuance of their implications. As the person who conceptualized and helped build the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, many of her proposed government reforms relate to the economy, an issue that Americans value in the person that represents them. With an emphasis on how her past accomplishments prime her ability to follow through with future promised ones, she is wildly popular within her party.
But, with the complex history she has, Warren may not be up to the task of converting the rest of the American people to believing in her message. Her controversy has alienated many, and its shadow may end up costing her the presidency.
