My Thoughts on Elizabeth Warren and Paying it Forward

“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody.”  Elizabeth Warren

Of all people, she should know. Warren started using a Cherokee persona in 1986 and then managed to move up to the Ivy League the next year. She continued to use that persona until 1995 when she took a permanent position at Harvard. Then she stopped “being Cherokee” professionally. Other people can believe what they want, but in my humble opinion, it is pretty clear she didn't get rich on her own. She used Cherokees to get it. 

"But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.” Elizabeth Warren

Now she has the nerve to tell other people they need to pay it forward. Is she kidding? There is a tight knit group of American Indian professors in the US. They do what they can to mentor and help one another and they often end up working with and helping tribes. Warren was not part of that group, nor did she ever make any attempt to be part of that group, despite her claim she listed herself as a minority to meet others like herself. She has never reached out to tribes or Cherokees to "pay it forward." She wouldn't even give the Cherokee women who traveled a long way to meet with her the courtesy of meeting with them.

Apparently Warren’s way of “paying it forward” is to marginalize Cherokees and other American Indians. By watching her behavior and actions, one might think she believes she is the only living "Native American" in the entire United States because she has turned her backs on all the real ones. Frankly it makes me mad. Who does she think she is? Does she think there is one set of rules for her and a different set for everyone else? Warren didn't get rich on her own. She did it on the backs of the Cherokee people. 

Warren is not Cherokee, yet she still claims to be such. She says she knows who she is. I say she doesn’t. Our team has done her genealogy and there is absolutely no indication of Cherokee ancestry. 

It is time Elizabeth Warren reviews the documentation of her genealogy and admits she is not Cherokee. Maybe then, and only then, she can find a way to “pay it forward” to Cherokees and other American Indians. Until she takes ownership of her misunderstanding of Indian identity and tribal citizenship, in my opinion, she will just be another wannabe  claiming to be Cherokee in an attempt to benefit from it.

Those are my thoughts for today.

Thanks for reading.

copyright 2012, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

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