Cherokee Nation

In case you missed it, there was a funny story coming out of Massachusetts this week and it had nothing to do with Mitt Romney, his wife or his dog.

The leading candidate for their US Senate seat, Elizabeth Warren was caught red handed, or not. She has been claiming Native American ancestry for over 25 years in several jobs at major universities. Harvard, the Vanderbilt of the northeast has her listed as their diversity program poster child as a Native American Female Law Professor.

Unfortunately in a big money political campaign people check out your resume. If you give her the benefit of the doubt, she is really only 1/32 Cherokee. That is the same as my wife and her five siblings but they have never been able to turn it into a job preference. We couldn't even get a tuition break at Florida State University for my daughters, where they do everything they can to enroll Native Americans. I wrote about my wife's Cherokee ancestor in another story.

I suspect there will be several cases of white-out sold in Boston this weekend since there is no proof of Elizabeth Warren's Native American ancestry. She claims there was a marriage application for one of her great grandmothers from 1894 that said she was Cherokee. So far, no one, not even researchers at the New England Historical Genealogical Society can find it. Some of the press accounts (no doubt from Warren's PR team) said the Society had verified the record but they came out with their own press statement later and said that was not true. My wife at least has a paper trail to her Native American ancestor!