Elizabeth Warren’s ‘Pocahontas’ Controversy
Q: Is Sen. Elizabeth Warren part Native American? Is that how she got jobs as a professor at Ivy League law schools?
A: Warren has not proved that she is part Native American, and no one has proved that she was ever hired because of her alleged racial background.
FULL QUESTION
What are the facts regarding Elizabeth Warren’s Native American heritage and did she use it to further her career?
FULL ANSWER
No proof has emerged that confirms that Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is, as she has claimed, part Native American. Likewise, no proof has surfaced that Warren was previously hired as a professor by any university based on her alleged heritage.
The subject of Warren’s ancestry came to national attention in April 2012, when she was a candidate trying to unseat then-Sen. Scott Brown, the Republican incumbent.
The that Warren had previously been touted in the 1990s by officials at Harvard Law School, where she was a tenured professor, as an example of the faculty’s diversity. That led to the revelation that Warren — citing only anecdotal evidence — claimed to be part Cherokee and Delaware Indian, and had listed herself as a minority in a directory of law professors from
