The Two Faces of America: Elizabeth Warren v. Baby Veronica

America, as a whole, clearly does not understand sovereignty or how it applies to Indian tribes. According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs website,

"federally recognized tribes are recognized as possessing certain inherent rights of self-government (i.e., tribal sovereignty) and are entitled to receive certain federal benefits, services, and protections because of their special relationship with the United States."

How does this apply to Elizabeth Warren and Baby Veronica?

It applies because, time and time again, Americans repeatedly want to make both situations about race when they aren't. While many Americans said Warren had a right to claim her purported Cherokee ancestry, even if only a drop, and had a right to "check the box" based on family lore, many Americans are now saying Baby Veronica only has a "drop" of Indian blood, therefore, it isn't enough to matter.

When it was Elizabeth Warren claiming to have Cherokee ancestry, even though she couldn't prove it, there were plenty of Americans who spoke out in her defense, calling anyone who stood up against her false claims "a racist." Her supporters believed a drop was enough for her to claim, even though she couldn't show she actually had "a drop" of Indian blood.

Now that the focus is on Baby Veronica, a child with documented Cherokee ancestry, Americans have a different perspective. They say the little girl only has a drop of Indian blood and it isn't really enough to matter. They claim anyone who supports the idea she stay with her biological father and tribe is basing the opinion on race, when she really isn't "enough" to be considered an Indian.

Ah...the two faces of America. In one case, they want to tell us Cherokees we should accept someone who isn't, because her claim is good enough for them, yet in another case, they want to tell us who we should not be able to claim because that claim isn't good enough for them. Hmm...

But guess what. America's opinion doesn't matter. The sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation  does.  

Federally recognized tribes are recognized as possessing certain inherent rights of self-government (sovereignty) and are entitled to receive certain protections because of their special relationship with the United States.

That is key. The Cherokee Nation, a federally recognized tribe, decides its own citizenship. The Cherokee Nation is allowed to decide this because of its inherent right of SOVEREIGNTY. We define ourselves based on our criteria, not America's. By meeting the citizenship criteria defined by our nation, our citizens are entitled to certain protections. Baby Veronica is entitled to such protections, (i.e. the Indian Child Welfare Act,) while Warren is not, (i.e. Affirmative Action programs.)

But still, America doesn't seem to get it. The "two faced" remarks by Melissa Harriss-Perry is a perfect example.

In discussing Elizabeth Warren's claim, possibly politically motivated, Harriss-Perry said, 

"If candidate Warren grew up thinking she is Native American by heritage, who are we to say she is not?"

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And then later, when discussing the importance of the Indian Child Welfare Act...

"there is one group that does have a right to feel actual threat and concern about that and that is in the context of this country and Native Americans."

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Props to Harriss-Perry for getting it right the second time around, but she, like others in America, is still talking out of both sides of her mouth. First, she basically said we (Cherokees) had no right to say Warren wasn't "Native American" (remember, because she claimed us, we were speaking out, but MSNBC ignored that fact), and then, she turned around and said if anyone has a right to feel a threat in this country, it would be Native Americans. Well no kidding! That is why we were protesting against Warren in the first place! We were trying to protect OUR identity as citizens of the Cherokee Nation......for our children that non-Indians keep trying to take away from us.


Those are my thoughts for today.
Thanks for reading.

copyright 2013, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

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The Bay State Banner's Confusion on Indian Identity and Racism

There are no curse words in Cherokee. My full blood friend told me that is why we learned to do it so well in English. And tonight, I was showing just how proficient I have become at it. In truth, I think I was doing so well, I might have actually made up some new bad words. I was spewing language that would make a sailor blush. Do you wonder what caused such a reaction from me, a woman who usually tries to display a bit of ladylike behavior?

In an editorial in the Bay State Banner, the writer said,

“Discrimination against Native Americans was also pervasive. It would have been demeaning for a white family to acknowledge any Indian ancestry. That is probably why Warren did it. She wanted to be clear that she was not failing to recognize any of her diverse family. Warren is so competent and talented she did not need special ethnic privileges. It must have been a matter of pride for her to claim her achievements on behalf of her ancestors who may well have been considered to be inferior and were undoubtedly the victims of racial discrimination.”

This writer is exploiting our painful past in an effort to demonize Scott Brown while attempting to portray Elizabeth Warren as a victim. This is absolutely unacceptable. Elizabeth Warren is not a victim, but instead a perpetrator of the continued colonization of the Cherokee people.  While she unapologetically continues to claim a history and ancestry that does not belong to her, she is, by default, saying she can take anything she wants from the Cherokee Nation and its people. 

I want to make one thing very clear here – Warren has NO Cherokee ancestry. She has NO Indian ancestry. None, nada, zilch! This is key, folks. WARREN HAS NO INDIAN ANCESTRY. Do I need to say it again? WARREN HAS NO INDIAN ANCESTRY! There, do you get it? She is not Indian and has no Indian ancestry!

This writer also says, 

“Brown’s crude assault on her ethnic heritage was unconscionable.”

Scott Brown cannot be assaulting Warren’s ethnic heritage because she doesn’t have one! In my humble Cherokee opinion, Brown is asking the questions that need to be asked. Did Elizabeth Warren, a non-minority, fill a spot at Harvard that should have gone to a minority professor? She is not registered with a federally recognized tribe and she has no Indian ancestry, so there is no reason she should have been listed as a Native American for diversity purposes.  Because she was, it brings into question the reason she was hired at Harvard since her public educational background is not in line with the rest of the tenured faculty at the college. Brown bringing this issue to the forefront is not a matter of attacking her heritage, but instead a matter of questioning her integrity. It is appropriate.

Elizabeth Warren, her supporters, and the mainstream media using the history of American Indians to portray Warren as a victim and Brown as a racist, is not appropriate. It is unconscionable that they would think it is acceptable to appropriate the persecuted past of our families and use that past in a way to portray Warren, an ethnic fraud, as a victim. It is outrageous they would attempt to use us and our heritage to claim Brown is a racist when he has, in no way, personally and intentionally, done anything disrespectful toward us or our ancestors.  

American Indians are an invisible minority, often overlooked, and usually silenced by those who stand on a higher platform or who have a louder voice. Cherokees have been trying to draw attention to false claims for years, but no one heard us or cared. When Scott Brown confronted Elizabeth Warren’s ethnic fraud, finally an issue that is important to many tribal members appeared on a nationwide stage. Whether intentional or accidental, Brown confronted one of the biggest threats to tribal sovereignty today – false claims of Indian ancestry.

As the writer of the editorial shows, Warren and her supporters have no respect for the tribal sovereignty of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes. Because Warren has no defense for her ethnic fraud, she and her supporters are trying to turn Brown’s speaking in defense of things that fall under tribal sovereignty into an attack on race.

The irony here is that Warren is the candidate who, though claiming to have American Indian heritage, refuses to speak to or interact in any way with tribally enrolled Indians. It doesn’t matter if it is a small group of Cherokee women; a group of Democratic National Delegates; or a Native journalist. If a person identifies themselves as an Indian, Warren will avoid them.

At the very least, singling out an ethnic community for dismissal is disrespectful. Though plenty of people have found Brown's conduct unnerving, he has spoken directly to Indians in an adult and reasonable way and has addressed issues as they occurred. Warren, on the other hand, has declined to even give a comment to Native media outlets that have asked for one. Highlighting one candidate's missteps while ignoring another candidate's hatefulness is misguided because it means the person is using outrage to whitewash a complex issue. If anyone was actually concerned about racism against Native Americans, they would be talking about all of the offensive things that have occurred in this race, including those committed by Warren, instead of just attacking Brown.

Those are my thoughts for today.
Thanks for reading.

copyright 2012, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

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Sticks and Stones and Scott Brown's Words

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me.”

Haven’t we all heard that or said that as a child? Isn’t that what our moms or teachers or other adults told us when our feelings got hurt over something someone said about us? I am wondering if somewhere along the way, we Indians have forgotten it because I see a lot of mad Indians buying into the race baiting that Elizabeth Warren supporters and the mainstream media are promoting. 

These people are telling us we need to be offended because Scott Brown said:

One widely publicized debate comment has become a propaganda tool for Warren and her supporters. While they try to convince us that Scott Brown is a bad person for not understanding Indian identity, they refuse to admit Warren is a fake who wrongly used an Indian identity for her own personal gain.

As a Cherokee, I understand the issues surrounding Indian identity and how some people feel if they are perceived as non-Indian when they are a tribal member. I know it hits a nerve and people get terribly upset. But, that isn’t what happened here. Scott Brown did not mistake a tribal citizen for a non-Indian. He said a white woman was not a woman of color.  He did not say anything offensive to an Indian. But the mainstream media and the Warren supporters don’t tell us that.

Remember? Sticks and stones….

One time, when speaking at an Oklahoma Historical Society event, former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Chad Smith, was approached by a woman who said, “You don’t look like an Indian.” He asked, “What’s an Indian supposed to look like?” He didn’t throw a fit. He didn’t make a big deal out of it to the media. He didn’t call the woman a racist. He just let it roll off his back.

When I went to Boston with some other Cherokee women, the very first comment left on the Indian Country Today article inquired about our appearance. Apparently the man wanted to see if we looked “Indian” enough to be taken seriously. We didn’t throw a fit. We didn’t make a big deal out of it to the media. We didn’t call the man a racist. We just let it roll off our backs.

Tuesday night, an Indian tweeted there were no Native Americans represented in the audience of the Presidential debate. I asked her how she could tell. Of course, it fell back to appearance. Though tweeted to a group of Indians, no one threw a fit. And no one made a big deal out of it. And no one called the woman a racist. No one really cared or noticed.

Well, no one noticed but me. I wondered why. Why do we get offended when the media tells us that we should be offended by something, but then when it happens right in front of our faces or when we do it to each other, we just let it go. Why are we allowing the media and Warren’s people to tell us what should or should not offend us. Don’t we know when we are offended without being told?

Warren and her supporters have played the race card well, very well, considering she is not an Indian. They played this so well that now, we real Indians are willing to overlook her theft of the very thing we are getting mad about - Indian identity. Heaven forbid someone say something to hurt our feelings even if the comment was not directed at us! Heaven forbid a non-Indian say another non-Indian is clearly not a Native American!  Oh my goodness! We better get offended!

Remember? Sticks and stones….

Elizabeth Warren has no Native ancestry. Her genealogy has been done. There is not an Indian to be found anywhere in her direct ancestral lines. I know some people misunderstand Indian identity, but since Indians themselves say the same types of things Scott Brown said and make the same types of mistakes, I think it is wrong for us to get upset with him. After all, we should know better due to our upbringing. Brown does not have that insight. And he can learn from his mistakes.

Elizabeth Warren does not learn from her mistakes. She has had ample opportunity to take ownership of her misunderstanding of tribal citizenship and Indian identity but she refuses to do so. She also continues to marginalize Indians by refusing to speak to any. If she was intentionally ignoring and avoiding any other minority group, it would be an issue. For some reason though, people think it is okay if she does it to Indians. Yet her people want us to believe that Scott Brown is the racist in this situation.

Scott Brown did not make a mistake and say a tribal member was clearly not a woman of color. He called out a fake Cherokee/Indian. It doesn’t matter if we are Republicans, Democrats, or Independents. I think this should be viewed as a good thing by all of us. Finally, no matter the reason or motivation, someone in the US political arena is actually paying attention and acknowledging there are people who make false claims of Indian ancestry. They are also saying this is unacceptable. Whether we agree with Brown’s politics or not, the fact he has acknowledged that false claims are a bad thing is, well, a good thing.

I am not suggesting anyone should support either candidate. Very few of us are able to vote in Massachusetts anyway. But I am asking all of us registered tribal members, no matter the Indian nation, to step back and think about this for a minute. Before you allow yourself to be misled by propaganda intended to incite anger in us, think about the things each of these candidates have done. Which of the two do you think is actually behaving in a manner that could be viewed as in an Indian's best interest; the one that says false claims of Indian identity are not acceptable or the one who uses a false claim of Indian identity for personal gain? Think about it carefully, because your sovereignty could depend on it. 

Sticks and stones may break our bones, but a fake Indian in Congress could destroy us.

Those are my thoughts for today.
Thanks for reading.

copyright 2012, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

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Warren and Her Direct Attack on Our Sovereignty

I am highly disturbed at how the Democrats are crying racism when it is their candidate, Elizabeth Warren, who has usurped an identity that didn't belong to her and continues to double and triple down on that claim, still, without proof. If they want to stand up for American Indians, it should not be done by yelling racism but instead, by pointing out sovereignty and treaty rights. We are sovereign Indian nations and we have the right to determine who is or is not a member of our nations, not them. By the standards they are using against Scott Brown, his misunderstanding of Indian identity, they are also guilty.

Warren has had ample opportunity to admit she made a mistake. She refuses to do it, which means she has no respect for us as Indian Nations. She sees us as a race of people instead. Now the Democratic political machine is using us, as a race, the generic Indian, to play the race card. What I see is not racism, but instead, race baiting by Warren and her supporters. Because she claimed to be us, by default, she and her supporters are now using us, the Cherokee people, as their reason to claim racism. It isn't racism.

It is an attack on sovereignty by Warren and her supporters because they think they can tell us who is Cherokee, or who should be, based on race. By this philosophy, our nation, the Cherokee Nation, would be booting out the freedmen descendents. Warren and her supporters disrespect Indian Nations as sovereign nations. We are not one group - Indians - but instead individual nations who determines our own citizenship. Warren claims to be Cherokee and her supporters, the media and many others give her the benefit of doubt. That is where they get it wrong and that is where they disrespect us. We say she is not Cherokee, so she isn't. Cherokees decide who is Cherokee. Not the media. Not the Democrats. And not Elizabeth Warren.


Those are my thoughts for today.
Thanks for reading.

copyright 2012, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

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