Notes on Napkins

Elizabeth Warren’s Native Roots

Today I read the Salon story on the “Cherokee story” for Elizabeth Warren is a problem for her and her campaign.

Here’s the thing Republican Conservatives in Massachusetts might not know… The native thing is a big deal in Oklahoma because pretty much everyone is tied to one tribe or another.  We all take it for granted and some look more native than others - not to mention there are like a billion different ties back to multiple tribes all over the state.  We all grow up hearing stories about what tribes we belong to - what relatives were in the leadership in which tribes 100 years ago. 

It’s so much a part of our heritage and our state.  You see Native art and architecture, we go to PowWows and ceremonies, and a majority of Oklahoma History talks about the beautiful multicultural history of our people.  It’s an amazing thing when you think about the various customs and stories that are passed down from generation to generation about our people and our past.

The interesting subtext I read from Scott Brown and Conservatives in the Boston Herald, however, was that Warren was some kind of Affirmative Action option to Harvard which was infuriating.  Are they insinuating that she wasn’t good enough or smart enough to garner a job at Harvard?   Because I’ll take the odds of Warren over Scott Brown on who is smarter ANY day of the week. 

The question I have for this from a New England perspective is you’ve got the DAR and Colonial Dames who are SEVERAL generations removed from the colonists yet they spend a whole heck of a lot of time and effort talking about some dude their great great grandmother’s uncles cousin’s BFF dated who was on the Mayflower.  Whole thing seems like a double standard…