Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren offered a public apology Monday to Native Americans over her past claim to tribal heritage, directly tackling an area that’s proved to be a big political liability.
“Like anyone who has been honest with themselves, I know I have made mistakes,” the Massachusetts senator said at a forum on Native American issues in this pivotal early-voting state. “I am sorry for the harm I have caused.”
Monday’s remarks were an effort to move past the fallout from her past claims of tribal ancestry, which culminated in a widely criticized release of a DNA analysis last year. The issue nearly derailed her campaign in the early days as President Donald Trump began derisively referring to her as “Pocahontas.”
Now that Warren is gaining in most polls, she’s trying to prove to voters that the controversy won’t doom her in a general election matchup against Trump. The detailed policy agenda to help Native Americans that she released last week helped her secure a warm reception from attendees at the tribal forum.
After drawing a standing ovation, Warren said “I have listened and I have learned a lot” from conversations with Native Americans in recent months, describing herself as “grateful” for the dialogue. She fielded questions about her proposals, which include a legislative change for a Supreme Court ruling that impedes tribal governments’ ability to prosecute crimes committed on tribal lands by those who don’t belong to a tribe.
She did not receive any questions about her own background.
Warren’s DNA analysis showed evidence of a tribal ancestor as far as 10 generations back, part of a broader pushback against Trump’s disparaging nickname, but the Cherokee Nation joined some other Native Americans in rebuking the senator for attributing tribal membership to genetics. Warren later apologized privately to the Cherokee and had addressed her regret before Monday’s appearance.
The Native American forum this week is expected to draw 10 of her White House rivals.
New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland, who last year became one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress, introduced Warren on Monday after endorsing her presidential campaign last month and aligning with her for new legislation aimed at helping tribal communities. Haaland lamented that Warren’s ancestry has attracted outsized attention when Trump faces his own charges of racism.
Those who “ask about Elizabeth’s family instead of issues of vital importance to Indian Country,” Haaland told the forum audience, “feed the president’s racism.”
Manny Iron Hawk, 62, who lives on the Cheyenne River Sioux reservation in South Dakota, said Warren “did excellent” in her Monday appearance and has done a good job of addressing her past mistakes. “I think she did. A person has to admit their mistakes and move on.”
Iron Hawk said he had hoped to talk to Warren about tribal governance issues, but she left too quickly for him to catch her.
(AP)
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12 Responses
Where was Pocahontas with her fake “apologies” when she benefited from her “Indian” heritage in order to get teaching jobs in University of Texas and Harvard?
Now it’s time for Trump to:
A. Remove the portrait of Andrew Jackson from the oval office.
B. Apologize for calling someone who has Native American ancestry by a racist slur.
Editor, B applies to you also.
Lol!
What a riot!
Will she donate all the money she got to them because she got it through falsely claiming that she’s Native American?
Also sorry wasn’t good enough for Roseanne Barr so why is it good enough for her?
Oh yeah, she’s a democrat running for president
Who mistakenly identifies as native American? Only a liberal narcissist.
I think I remember reading somewhere, actually Rabbi Zelig Pliskin’s “Love your neighbor,” that it’s forbidden to call someone by a derogatory/derisive nickname. And Chazal don’t mention anywhere that it’s OK if the President does it first.
Maybe YWN should change the headline to something like “Democratic Presidential Candidate,” or just “Elizabeth Warren.” and don’t say that it doesn’t apply because she’s not Jewish or a Democrat. We get accustomed to using forbidden speech with the excuse that it’s OK because the target isn’t Jewish, and the Yetzer HaRa leads us on to eventually use it against Yidden too. That’s elementary hashkafah – something which is repeated becomes felt to be mutar.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/04/12/elizabeth-warren-profile-young-republican-2020-president-226613
Will she apologize to the GOP for calling herself a republican?
Midwest2 , i hope you reserve your “it’s forbidden to call someone by a derogatory/derisive nickname” to President Trump as well. practice what you preach.
It was only 1/1024th of an apology
Chief Shmerel, Warren has no Indian ancestry, and “Pocahontas” isn’t a slur. It mocks her, not Indians generally. But Trump got it wrong; she’s not Pocahontas she’s Fauxcahontas, or Taxajawea.
@Milhouse, you’re right. She has no Indian ancestry.
She does have native American ancestry, 6-8 generations ago.
And if Native Americans consider “Pocahontas” a slur, it is.
Would you care if a native American said that k*ke isn’t a slur?
“Would you care if a native American said that k*ke isn’t a slur?”
A better equivalent would be if someone nicknamed AOC “Haim” or some other commonly known Jewish name, after she claimed to be Jewish.
Warren claimed to have grown up with native American heritage and that her heritage caused her to be discriminated against. Calling her “pocahontas” is making fun of the fact that she thinks she passes as a native American when she’s only barely more native American than me.
No, Chief, she has no Indian ancestry whatsoever. Not even 6 or 8 generations ago. And the term is “Indian”. “Native American” means anyone who was born here.