For months, Donald Trump has been taunting Elizabeth Warren for her claims of a Native American ancestor. These taunts have, as with most things Trumpian, been racist. He has also brought into it his eugenicist thinking, by demanding that Warren take a DNA ancestry test. This is the equivalent of Trump’s birther claims against Obama, a thinly veiled attempt to question Warren’s identity and paint her as an other.
Were that she had been as careful during her earlier, academic career. Warren disclosed her tenuous Native American heritage and allowed it to be listed in formal professional credentials. There’s a good case to be made that she should apologize for this. Warren had previously said she had Delaware and Cherokee ancestry. So it’s reasonable to expect that when sharing the results of her DNA test, Warren would have consulted with representatives of both tribes. This does not appear to have happened.
Indigenous peoples have an understandable skepticism towards DNA analyses. Given the long tortured history of eugenics and “blood quantum” in American law, we should be too. Native American scholars have questioned the entire premise of DNA analyses helping determine native ancestry, at least when it comes to identifying ancestry in a particular tribe. DNA ancestry analysis is itself, an in-exact technique.
At the same time, Native American tribes have used DNA analyses in cases where paternity needs to be established to enroll a member. Both the Delaware/Lenape and the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes rely on ancestry to determine tribal citizenship. This is partly due to the common settler-colonial practice of forcing membership rules on indigenous peoples, in an attempt to control their affairs and succession.
Questions of Native American identity, as with all human identity are not simple. Native peoples traveled and intermarried. All our ancestors were human, they too had the capacity to fall in love, sometimes with strangers. In some cases, marriage or sex was forced. Native populations in both North and South America went through a population bottleneck after European contact which brought a succession of epidemics. Certain native peoples had traditionally adopted individuals, who over time became full-fledged members. During the population bottleneck, many peoples were adopted by tribes they had not been born into. This was done to preserve identity, not dilute it. We all know that identity is as much linguistic, cultural and religious as it is genetic or ancestral. In my culture, telling someone they “have forgotten their mother tongue” is a grave insult. Language and their heritage were forcibly taken from many generations of native children in an attempt to erase their culture.
Trump’s use of “Pocahontas’, as a slur is both universally offensive and unexpectedly illuminating. We do not know the circumstances of the young Powhatan woman, Pocahontas’s relationship with the settler we know as Rolfe. This union, along with other such mixed marriages, and indeed the mixed ancestry of the next generation was used to potent political effect. We cannot be sure of much, but we can be certain that Donald Trump should keep Pocahontas’ name out of his mouth.
Yes, this is a complicated issue with many facets to it. Yet, at its heart lies a simple question. Who are we with?
On one hand, you have a guy who uses 'Pocahontas' as a slur, admires Andrew Jackson without reservation, and uses every opportunity to undermine all minorities. On the other, we have someone who should have been more careful about claiming native ancestry given the long and hurtful history of such cultural appropriation in this country.
Warren responded to Trump's challenge, by taking a DNA test. At the end, she called his bluff and demanded that he make a donation to a charity that benefits Native American women.
This is a political question, one that requires recognizing the moment, and your allies (however imperfect). It is also critical to recognize who opposes you, and who seeks to divide and conquer
Critics of Elizabeth Warren have to consider the impact of gifting soundbite critiques of Warren to Trump. This man has said over and over again that he admires Andrew Jackson, the very man who created the policy of Indian removal and the trail of tears. Why, even accidentally, aid this man in achieving his objective?
Is it unfair to suggest that criticism of Warren be softened? Absolutely, it is deeply unfair to Native Americans who have had to deal with such disrespect for their culture and identity for decades. It is as unfair as every alliance is. Every alliance involves sacrifice from many allies. Often the biggest sacrifices are imposed on the least powerful. We hope that our alliance will do better, we must demand it do better.
Throughout history, colonial powers have employed divide and rule strategies to undermine and extinguish native opposition to their rule.
Warren did not take the DNA test and telegraph her identity without prodding. She did it because Trump challenged her family history. It’s the same story as Obama’s birth certificate. Yet, Warren did jump into the quicksand of identity with her claims of native heritage. At the same time, Cherokee nation officials jumped into political quicksand with their response:
“DNA tests do not even distinguish whether a person’s ancestors were indigenous to North or South America" — WaPo
This walks right into a trap meant to divide us.
Trump does not care whether an indigenous person is from North, Central or South America. He’s working overtime to separate families at the border. Families who are largely indigenous to the Americas. You’d be forgiven for thinking this might be the right moment to express some solidarity. We are at a moment that practically begs for solidarity. Instead, courtesy of the Cherokee Nation, we are reminded why solidarity is difficult, and how divide and rule works.
We sometimes don’t recognize our foes till it is too late. This truth is exactly why divide and rule policies have been an integral part of colonization efforts. That is why it’s important to recognize your foes.
And Trump is a foe, one who relishes bullying people. The Cherokee Nation statement could easily be used to ill effect by Trump. What if tomorrow, Trump were to turn around and say: “Look, the Native Americans have a ‘grandparent test’, maybe we need one too. If your grandparents weren’t American, we should strip away your citizenship”. There are, in fact, instances of Native American tribes stripping people of citizenship after a DNA paternity test. Does anyone, for a moment, think Trump, Miller and Bannon won’t misinterpret tribal practices to further their agenda of a white ethno-state?
I appreciate why some native people are unhappy about the way this has played out. There’s a case to made that Warren should not have done the DNA analysis at all. No question, she shouldn’t have claimed native heritage in any formal setting like a university.
At the same time, she’s talking about something personal to her family. And her experience is quintessentially human, it’s a desire to know more about our ancestry. The resistance and close-quarters bigotry from family members she describes is something that the children of most mixed families deal with. It is an identity that Warren has carried around with her, and yes, there are many cases where families mislead children about their ancestry, for various purposes. Some sensitivity is warranted, and this is a human experience that we must empathize with.
Warren has tried to be sensitive and thread the needle. She said she's not enrolled in a tribe and only tribes determine citizenship. She does indeed appear to have a distant Native American ancestor. Her identity, her family's identity, this story of her parents mixed marriage are as visceral to her as anyone else's history and identity are.
Crucially for this discussion, she is not (or no longer) saying she's Cherokee (or Lenape/Delaware). As she admits, no one apart from tribes can determine who has tribal membership. However, individual tribes don't really get to say whose family has "native heritage". That's a much looser identity.
Nor is she using the DNA test to "claim" native heritage. She's using it to support her family history of native heritage and answer the attack from Trump, who has, yet again, managed to set us upon each other.
Yes, there’s an inglorious history of settlers claiming native heritage for a variety of selfish ends. Yes, there are aspects of cultural appropriation to this.
There is also a complicated history of some tribes’ relations with various peoples on their margins, including African Americans and slavery. an example is the question of whether Cherokee Freedmen could be enrolled.
Far, far more significant, for today’s moment is this fact. Trump is using Warren in the same way that conservatives have placed Asian Americans front and center in several test cases in an effort to destroy and undermine affirmative action. Divide. Conquer.
Trump’s identity based attacks are a gambit designed to weaken us. They are a strategy to obtain and retain power.
It’s also clear that Trump revels, absolutely revels in these attacks at identity. You can see the relish in his face when he engages in such attacks. It brings him enormous joy. Recognize your foes.
Along with Trump, enrolled Cherokee and Republican Congressman from Warren’s home state of Okalhoma, Markwayne Mullin stepped in to say:
"There was a 2014 scientific study and it said that the average European American walking around is 0.18% Native American. She's half of that. So, the idea that she continues to double down on this lie is the most disgusting thing to me," Mullin told 'FOX & Friends' on Tuesday.
"It's the fact that she's in the public eye and she continues to use this," he said. "And what she was trying to do is put this to bed so she could run against President Trump in 2020 and it is backfiring on her. I'm glad to see it because what she needs to do is come out and apologize to all of us." — www.realclearpolitics.com/...
Let’s set aside the fact that the percentages Mullin is quoting are wrong and does not account for the genome sampling (rather than whole genome analysis) that was performed for Warren. Forget that and remember this. Mullin has previously offered to wrestle Avenatti on behalf of Trump.
This should put to rest the notion that being a duly enrolled member of a federally recognized tribe implies you have a shred of good sense.
Perhaps the most sensible and sensitive thread you’ll read from a native writer on this is by Ruth Hopkins, below:
Go read the whole thread, it’s worth your time.
Identity is not simple, and it’s not easy.
In a very human way, all of us, as Americans, face the same trials. As a first-generation immigrant, I wrestle with the very same challenges that face people whose ancestors have inhabited this land for hundreds of generations. I too have calculated what portion of my own cultural heritage I can maintain, and what part of the time given to me I must spend in making a new world. I have to make a conscious effort to ensure my children speak the language I consider my mother tongue. I have to find a way to prepare them for a world in which their very mixed cultural, religious and genetic identity is held with courage, rather than hidden in fear.
I remain hopeful, that out of our efforts will spring the society, as yet unrealized, that was promised.