Apostolic Friends Forum - Elizabeth Warren Fauxahontas

Out here in the wild wild west, Elizabeth Warren would be called a "nosebleed Indian." She'd lose all her Native DNA in a good nosebleed.

To be honest, I find a lot of the controversy surrounding this to be irritating. Many Americans have stories of Native ancestry that have been passed down through the generations. As is the case with Elizabeth Warren, sometimes they're true.

But most people don't have a proper understanding of how DNA is passed down from generation to generation. This has been a hobby of mine the last several years as I have had mine and several family members DNA tested.

In my own genome, I have discovered that I inherited a huge amount of my maternal DNA from an Illinois great-great grandfather with roots back to early colonial times. I've had matches with folks who appear to be close relatives but are actually 7th cousins. But I've also lost any DNA connection to other ancestral lines because that DNA was not passed down to me. One cannot know these things without testing.

My mother, sister, and uncle all inherited a chunk of Native American DNA on chromosome six. They all inherited that piece from my maternal grandfather. But, alas, I inherited that stretch of DNA from my grandmother. I have worked with Native Americans for years and could have used that DNA for bragging rights. Our research has led us to think it may have come from a half-Native great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother who died in 1785. Some think she was Shawnee, others Chowanoke.

Where folks go wrong is when they claim special rights based on such a tenuous connection to some long-dead Native American. I am descended from that part-Native woman along with my other relatives, but I didn't inherit the Native DNA. Even if I did, I cannot say I'm an American Indian and should be given Affirmative Action rights to employment based on it. That's where Elizabeth Warren went wrong, in my opinion.