In Washington, it is often the response of politicians to allegations that get them into more trouble than the original allegations themselves. Harvard Professor and US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren appears to be reaffirming that rule as more information surfaced that casts serious questions about her veracity over the claim to being a Native American. The latest disclosure comes from the Boston Globe, a Democratic-leaning newspaper that has been criticized for downplaying the controversy in the past. I previously discussed how claiming to be a minority is a significant act for law professors due to reporting to the federal government, the ABA, and AALS. Warren has insisted that she was unaware that she was listed as a minority, but, as a law professor, I am skeptical how such listings can occur without a professor volunteering the information. Now, the Boston Globe is reporting that Harvard listed Warren for years as a minority in reports to the federal government. Obviously, this story has particular interest to law professors, but it is being played out in the Massachusetts senatorial race.
I do not share the view that anyone should be able to claim to be a minority, particularly when reporting responsibilities to the government and the ABA hold great importance for schools and academics. Warren is not a minority. She also does not meet that federal definition of a Native American.
Warren’s denial of knowledge of being viewed as a minority and a Cherokee has faced repeatedly contradiction including the recent disclosure by the New York Times of being claimed as a minority faculty member at her earlier law school, the University of Pennsylvania. There have also been smaller disclosures like her contributions to the “Pow Wow Cook Book” as a Cherokee woman.
The Globe reports on Warren’s pasts denial but reveals “for at least six straight years during Warren’s tenure, Harvard University reported in federally mandated diversity statistics that it had a Native American woman in its senior ranks at the law school.” The school notes, as we previously discussed, such statistics are based on the reporting of the professors themselves as minorities. The newspaper states the new information “further questions about Warren’s statements that she was unaware Harvard was promoting her as Native American.”
Warren is refusing to respond to the new information and her campaign insists that she has already answered enough questions.
Alan Ray, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, was the official responsible during this period for reporting at Harvard. He is now president of Elmhurst College in Illinois and says that he did not list Warren unilaterally and never encouraged an professor to report themselves as a minority.
Warren was repeatedly identified as a minority Native American in various publications for the Harvard Crimson. As previously discussed, she was called Harvard Law’s “first woman of color” in a 1997 Fordham Law Review and in 1998, Harvard published a letter to the New York Times heralding the presence of a “Native American” on the faculty. Then again in 1998, the Crimson followed up on the New York Times publication and wrote “Harvard Law School currently has only one tenured minority woman, Gottlieb Professor of Law Elizabeth Warren, who is Native American.”
I have previously said how much I respect Warren as an academic and her intellect would be clearly be an asset in the U.S. Senate. However, I remained concerned over the denials of knowledge and the years of claims to be a minority. Whether such claims assisted her career or not, the reporting of minority hiring affects myriad of different issues and rankings. To count a minority member on a faculty, reduces pressure on the school to further diversify its ranks and elevates the status of the professor. Under any reasonable definition, Warren is not a minority and there is no documentation establishing that she is even 1/32 Cherokee. Even if she were 1/32 Cherokee, would we feel it was fine for someone to claim they are black or hispanic with 1/32 connection to that minority or asian? If so, law schools could claim a multifold increase in minorities. Clearly, we cannot have reporting data if anyone is given carte blanche in self-proclaiming themselves to be minorities.
While I do not question her pride in the family claim to have Indian blood (though tens of millions have such potential claims of a small presence of Indian blood in their families), there is a big difference between such pride and claiming to be a minority or Native American. I tend not to view these stories in partisan terms. Frankly, I am a critic of both parties. I believe that story does raise legitimate questions, particularly regarding the denials of knowledge. While I do not believe that this is the most important question in the campaign, I do believe it warrants further answers from Warren.
What do you think? Do you believe Warren should respond to these latest allegations in the Boston Globe and New York Times or is this completely irrelevant to judging Warren’s character and veracity?
Source: Boston Globe
“As I said, it’s all just tribal.”
It’s just election politics as usual. The Rove machine and its allies have gone digging into Warren’s life. Evidently, this is the only thing they could find–so they are going to attempt to keep the story/faux scandal in the media as long as they can. They don’t want the media/press examining Brown’s record and his Senate votes–nor do they want the media/press calling attention to his Wall Street ties.
Wikipedia, however, suggests that if true, the settlers of 20 or more thousand years ago were wiped out and so current day American Indians would not be Caucasian due to that theory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlement_of_the_Americas
Wege,
The court can kiss my ass. Can you could prove anything to a court’s satisfaction?
Brooklin Bridge,
What about the stone they found in Minnesota?
Elaine M. seems to be the ONLY commenter here who shows even the slightest awareness of how different the “Cherokee” experience is from almost all other Native American tribes.
Lots of opinions from a lot of folks who are riffing off the political pundits instead of heading over to Wikipedia to get some basic info. Also, I doubt anyone here is 1/32d anything that you could prove to a court’s satisfaction.
MetroCowboy 1, May 25, 2012 at 1:18 pm
“My last question is…Who it the arbitrator of what percentage makes a person a member of a certain group?”
===============
The BIA sometimes decides, lots of white men in suits, to determine who gets government money. I would point out, again, that the newly elected chief of the Cherokees is 1/32.
Elizabeth Warren apparently did not use any claim to her native heritage in getting into college, law school, or any job. It seems more reasonable to me that, as a matter of pride, she did indicate her NA heritage as an identifier later. As pointed out by others here, for many years people hid their NA heritage. And, from some of the comments here, some are still hiding it, or at least not claiming it. Warren is not hiding it.
She is having a hard time imo b/c she doesn’t want to diss her heritage but she also doesn’t have the genealogical proof of it. I’m hoping that an OK/Cherokee genealogist is actively looking for it. It’s possible that her great-great-great grandmother was alive after 1910 when OK first showed up in the census records. In 1900 they were asking color/race, as they still are. I can’t readily find a 1910 record and even if I find one in my file, it’s unlikely that the ones I have would identify even a single NA. It’s probable that this g3gradmother’s children didn’t claim their heritage (and show up in the census records as such) b/c it was socially unpopular. But who knows? There are other records, such as the marriage application previously identified.
Note, you can’t click on the above .pdf. Sorry. If interested, you need to cut and paste it so as to download the actual .pdf. (I hate those things).
Because of recent findings that pre-date the last ice age by quite a bit, the theory that many Americans did come from Europe by way of island and reef hopping in near shore boats.a very long time ago is gaining in mainstream scientific credibility.
A 2004 .pdf on the subject:
http://www.allendale-expedition.net/pressreleases/AJC18earlyman.pdf
Aren’t female law professors in the minority in the law schools?
Sadly, professor Turley’s assertion that the Globe is “Democratic-leaning” and my assertion that it’s a right wing rag are both true and both consistent with each other.
ID707,
Why is Hillary Clinton a Senator in New York? She’s from Chicago, then she moved to Arkansas. Now she’s in New York. If you’re trying to insult, try again.
What a silly place this land is today. And she wants to be a politician? Nutty idea.
Karl Röv could get an ape elected president. He did once, twice and now he’s got one that has 50% percent chance of holding onto Kennedy’s old seat. Shame we don’t have some
good guys doing what the CIA covert ones do when needed. We need them now.
One thing is clear in my biased head: Professor Turley, clad in his academic robes, seems me to have a personal horn in the side of the lady. No proof, who has. Just suspicions, which I judge most of the previous comments as belonging to the same category. So guess I’m safe for now.
anon,
Draw your own conclusion. It’s my understand that people of Native American, Hispanic, and European ancestry are caucasion. Perhaps you would like to discuss the land bridge crossing from the Bering Sea?
“OOOHHHH! You speak of sweaty anxoiusness. Is this discussion getting you all hot and bothered?????”
Actually it’s all the lesbianism at this board that makes me hot and bothered. Go on.
“Native Americans are caucasian by definition. She didn’t do anything that was unethical, and potentially illegal. This is a bunch of nonsense about nothing.”
What definition is that?
Most anthropologists and scientists in the reality based community believe native americans have roots (and routes) in Asia with only a smattering (20%) of european ancestry.
http://genetics.thetech.org/ask/ask41
Scientists looked at mtDNA from many Native Americans and many Asians. They were surprised again. Based on their DNA, Native Americans belong to five different groups. Groups 1-4 are closely related to Asian people. The fifth group is most closely related European or Western Asian people! So it seems most Native Americans are originally from Asia and as you said fundamentally Asian. However, it seems there are some whose origins are from Europe!
I am genuinely curious what the definition is that you are using that makes native americans caucasians.
As I said, it’s all just tribal.
The 2nd Mass is getting its ass kicked. Call the 1st Wisconsin. I was in the Navy, but I can probably adjust. Don’t ask me to cook, because I don’t know how.
I know of a young man that tried to use native american heritage in order to gain admission to Stanford. His case was not documented so they threw the well- qualified young man’s application in the trash. He ended up at Notre Dame. Warren did not use this for college or law school admissions.
Warren just needs the voters to pull the democratic lever, and she will pull through. The race is tied even with this controversy. I will send some more too, Blouise. We can’t have Karl Rove back in charge again. He is working hard for Romney and Brown.
At a certain point, this is the kind of thing that takes on a life of its own. Most people with some Native ancestry don’t know how much because of the shame that was attached to it for generations. I have a bit more Native American ancestry than Warren and have never used it for any situation to acquire gain, but others have used in much the same way as Harvard, without my knowledge. A federal agency used to call me on a fairly frequent basis to serve as a scientific peer reviewer. Only later did I find out that a former colleague involved in the review process who knew about my ancestry used me to improve their diversity status.