A university professor chided Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., for taking a DNA test to prove her Native American heritage, saying her action ultimately does more harm to Native Americans.
Kim TallBear, part of the native studies faculty at the University of Alberta, said Monday that Warren taking a DNA test is “yet another strike — even if unintended — against tribal sovereignty.”
In a statement, TallBear said Warren has refused to meet with Cherokee Nation community members who have challenged her ancestry claims.
“This shows that she focuses on and actually privileges DNA company definitions in this debate, which are ultimately settler-colonial definitions of who is indigenous,” the statement said. “As scholars of race have shown, it is one of the privileges of whiteness to define and control everyone else’s identity.”
Warren’s DNA analysis, conducted by Stanford University professor and 23andMe adviser Carlos Bustamante, showed she was between 1/1024 and 1/64 Native American.
“Tribal governments establish regulations that do not use genetic ancestry tests, but other forms of biological and political relationships to define our citizenries,” TallBear said.
“Whether Elizabeth Warren or Donald Trump or 23andMe’s Carlos Bustamante know it or not, they are making settler-colonial claims to our cultural and biological patrimony yet again,” she continued.
President Trump has mocked Warren over her claims that she’s a descendant of Native Americans, referring to her as “Pocahontas.”