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If Senator Elizabeth Warren thought that the publication of the results of her DNA tests showing Native American ancestry would neutralize a line of Republican attack, she was mistaken.
The test – part of his strategic preparations for a possible presidential campaign – did not appease President Trump, who made fun of Mrs. Warren under the pseudonym "Pocahontas" and promised one day a million dollars to a charity of his choice if a DNA test supported his claims. and the Delaware legacy. And his announcement of the results angered many Native Americans, including the Cherokee Nation, the largest of the three Cherokee tribes recognized by the federal government.
DNA testing can not prove that Mrs. Warren is a Cherokee or other tribe, said Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr., in a statement. Tribes set their own citizenship requirements, and DNA testing does not distinguish between the many Aboriginal groups in North and South America. The test that Ms. Warren did not specifically identify cherokee ancestry; she found that she probably had at least one Amerindian ancestor six to ten generations ago.
Ms. Warren defended herself by asserting that she was not claiming to be eligible for Cherokee Nation membership – which she did not, given that her ancestors did not not in the Dawes Rolls, early twentieth-century government documents that form the basis of the Cherokee citizenship process. She said that she simply corroborated the family stories of the Native American lineage that she often told.
But this distinction actually explains why Native Americans are so angry with her. Basically, their anger is about what it means to be a Native American – and who has to decide.
"The American public does not understand the difference" between ancestry and tribal affiliation, said University of Alberta professor Kim TallBear, who wrote a book titled "Native American DNA: Tribal Affiliation and False Promise". genetic science ".
While many people see the word "Native American" as a simple racial category, "we have other ideas on how to identify a Native American who do not really fit the thinking of most Americans. Our definitions matter to us. "
And when someone like Warren insists on the undocumented lineage above the tribal citizenship criteria, said Dr. TallBear, a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribe in South Dakota, "What's wrong?" they tell us, it is that they favor non-aboriginal definitions of being aboriginal. "
Belonging to a Native American tribe is "very precious to us," Cherokee Secretary of State Cherokee said in a telephone interview. "It's not just a card we hold. This is something we consider a cherished possession that we do not take lightly. "
This perspective is rooted in a long history of persecution, displacement and massacre. Over many decades of US history, the government seized the territory of the Native American tribes, including the Cherokee, and gradually pushed them back to the west. President Andrew Jackson forced the Cherokee to travel to their present territory of Oklahoma, in the path of tears, in 1838 and 1839. The administration after administration signed treaties with tribes before violating them . It was only in the 1930s that the tribes acquired the sovereignty they now have on their reserves.
"Those of us who are Cherokee citizens, we know that our ancestors sometimes perished along the trail of tears," said Mr. Hoskin.
"Most reasonable people can understand", in this context, why claims on Native American heritage based on a DNA test are cumbersome, he added.
Neither Ms. Warren nor any of her staff contacted the Cherokee Nation before publishing the DNA results, Hoskin said. Kristen Orthman, spokeswoman for Warren's re-election campaign, declined to comment on this point.
Warren's announcement was clearly intended to end Mr. Trump's favorite attack. (Mr. Hoskin also criticized Mr. Trump for his repeated use of "Pocahontas" as an insult.) Instead, the DNA test generated a series of negative titles and opinions in liberal-type publications. as HuffPost as well as conservative ones like the New York Post.
Asked about the criticism, the spokeswoman for the Senator's campaign, Ms. Orthman, sent links to a tweet from Mrs. Warren and to a statement posted on Facebook by Eastern Band Cherokee, a separate tribe of the Cherokee Nation.
The statement of the Eastern Band Cherokee supported Ms. Warren, claiming that she "had not used her family's history or her evidence of Aboriginal ancestry to secure a job or other benefit And that she "respected tribal sovereignty by recognizing that tribes determined citizenship and respected the difference between citizenship and ancestry. There was also reference to the Aboriginal-friendly bills that she had supported in the Senate.
"Some people who have family histories or evidence of Aboriginal ancestry have sought to appropriate cherokee culture, claim a preference for hiring, claim that their art is an" Indian art " or advance in their careers based on a family history or evidence of Aboriginal ancestry, "Chief Chief Richard G. Sneed added in the statement, saying that Ms. Warren had done nothing of such . "We strongly condemn these acts as prejudicial to our tribal government and the Cherokee people."
On Wednesday, the message was removed from the tribe's newspaper Facebook page, but Ashleigh Stephens, spokesperson for Chief Sneed, said he was keen on that.
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