FAUXCAHONTAS STRIKES BACK

by Hewitt E. Moore
@hewittemoore

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a potential 2020 presidential candidate, addressed her claims of “Native American heritage” in a surprise speech to the National Congress of American Indians on Valentine's Day.

But now we have a president who can’t make it through a ceremony honoring Native American war heroes without reducing Native history, Native culture, Native people to the butt of a joke.

The joke, I guess, is supposed to be on me.

I get why some people think there’s hay to be made here. You won’t find my family members on any rolls, and I’m not enrolled in a tribe.

And I want to make something clear. I respect that distinction. I understand that tribal membership is determined by tribes — and only by tribes. I never used my family tree to get a break or get ahead. I never used it to advance my career.

But my mother’s family was part Native American.

Senator Warren's “Native American ancestry” has been a topic of much debate. The clear consensus is that she's misrepresenting herself. One can only speculate as to the motivation behind her claim. Perhaps she truly believes she's an American Indian and doesn't care that most people know what an American Indian looks like. Typically, they don't have pale skin, blond hair and blue eyes. As a general rule of thumb, people with those characteristics are considered “White.”

Aside from being delusional, the major controversy regarding Warren's revelation is whether or not she deceptively made the claim to achieve minority status in order to advance her career (what about that White privilege, though?).

That narrative made headlines in 2012, when Warren acknowledged that she listed herself as “Native American” on her Harvard and Penn applications. Both she, and officials at both universities, denied that Warren's minority designation played a role in her hiring. However, Harvard Law School paraded Warren as a “Native American employee” in the 90s when the school was under fire for a lack of diversity.

A spokeswoman for Warren said that she classified herself as “Native American” because she's proud of her heritage, and not for career advancement. And that's fine. Be proud of who you are. But if you're at least 97% European (she says that she's 3% American Indian), how do you rationally identify as Native American? Remember, before she was a politician, Warren was a professor of law at Harvard. It's not like she's some low IQ hillbilly who just doesn't know the difference.

Interestingly, when she was asked to select the racial identity she most closely identified with while employed at the University of Texas from 1981-1991, she only chose “White.” Even though multiple boxes could be checked, and “American Indian” was one of the options (for what it's worth, she was a Republican back then).

Warren's knowledge of her Native American ancestry doesn't come from DNA testing, or any documented tribal affiliation, but rather “family lore.” I'm sure she's been asked countless times why she doesn't just take a DNA test. She's obviously fascinated with her heritage, so why not have a scientific understanding of it? If not to satisfy her own curiosity, just to shut her naysayers up. Personally, I suspect that she has taken one and the results didn't support her claim. Therefore, as opposed to admitting that she was wrong, she just sticks with “that's what momma told us.”

For a brief time, it appeared that Warren's claim had an alibi when an amateur genealogist reportedly found evidence that Warren was 1/32 Cherokee (great-great-great grandmother). But that was later determined to be a fabrication:

Lynda Smith, the amateur genealogist who unknowingly found herself at the root of the false “Elizabeth Warren is 1/32 Cherokee” meme introduced to the media by “noted” genealogist Chris Child of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, acknowledged in an email...that her statement in a March 2006 family newsletter upon which Mr. Child based his claim of Ms. Warren’s Cherokee ancestry was made with no supporting documentation. It was, in fact, an honest mistake that Ms. Smith now acknowledges is entirely without foundation. 

Many on both sides of the political aisle have been highly critical of Warren's claim. Perhaps most notably, President Trump. Trump recently referred to Warren as “Pocahontas” at an event honoring Native American code-talkers:

"You were here long before any of us were here. Although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas." 

Warren's response was exactly what we've come to expect from liberals. She accused Trump of, what else, “racism”:

"It is deeply unfortunate that the president of the United States cannot even make it through a ceremony honoring these heroes without having to throw out a racial slur" 

Warren primarily used her platform at the National Congress of American Indians to address Trump's nickname for her. She did so by lecturing real American Indians on the difference between the fictional character of Pocahontas and the one that really lived (whose name wasn't even Pocahontas):

Not Pocahontas, the fictional character most Americans know from the movies, but Pocahontas, the Native woman who really lived, and whose real story has been passed down to so many of you through the generations.

Pocahontas — whose original name wasn’t even Pocahontas.

In the fairy tale, Pocahontas and John Smith meet and fall in love.

Except Smith was nearly 30, and Pocahontas was about 10 years old. Whatever happened between them, it was no love story.

In the fairy tale, Pocahontas saves John Smith from execution at the hands of her father.

Except that was probably made up too.

In reality, the fable is used to bleach away the stain of genocide.

As you know, Pocahontas’s real journey was far more remarkable — and far darker — than the myth admits.

As a child, she played a significant role in mediating relations between the tribes ruled by her father and the early settlers at Jamestown. Those efforts helped establish early trade relations between the two peoples. Without her help, the English settlers might well have perished.

Notice how Mrs Warren is the arbitrator of reality and fantasy? It's as if she was there. Which is likely what Trump was insinuating with his comment (“Although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago.”). Warren's speech provides us another prime example of how the Left rewrites history by turning fable into fact.

Warren even credited the real Pocahontas with the literal survival of the English settlers (ironically, at the expense of her people's “genocide”). Because those stupid Englishmen would have never been able to figure out how to grow corn if the American Indians hadn't taught them. Thanks, Pocahontas!

How disheartening it must be for American Indians to have a fraud like Elizabeth Warren representing their interests. Not only is a fake Indian representing them, but she is educating them on their own history. As if they're not only blind, but dumb also. Too bad Obama didn't pardon Leonard Peltier. He and AIM would have organized a pow-wow in protest of Fauxcahontas.

Warren's behavior personifies the essence of liberalism. If there's common ground I can find with Black Lives Matter, it's that “liberalism is White supremacy” (although BLM is just parroting propaganda, fundamentally it's true).

Warren not only humiliates the common sense of the American Indian, by assuming they aren't smart enough to know their own mythology, or even what an American Indian actually looks like. But she nominates herself to speak on their behalf, because she's a smarter Indian than they are. And if she didn't speak for them, they would just sit around and drink themselves to death. Or they'd do rain dances instead of watering their gardens. All because the White man stole their land and killed all the buffalo. So it's up to the Elizabeth Warrens of the world to right the wrongs of Whitey and save the American Indians from their own devices. Hallelujah!

Keep in mind, there's a possibility that Senator Warren will be the Democratic nominee in 2020. Which would certainly be entertaining, if nothing else. I can see it now: Trump vs Fauxcahontas. How fun would that be?