The tribe has spoken.
Via Newsweek:
After Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren took a DNA test to determine if she had Native American ancestry, a Cherokee Nation official responded, calling such a test “useless.” In a statement, Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. said the test was “not evidence for tribal affiliation.”
“A DNA test is useless to determine tribal citizenship,” Hoskin Jr. said. “Sovereign tribal nations set their own legal requirements for citizenship, and while DNA tests can be used to determine lineage, such as paternity to an individual, it is not evidence for tribal affiliation.”
Hoskin Jr. went on to say that the use of a DNA test was “inappropriate and wrong.”
“Using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong,” he said. “It makes a mockery out of DNA tests and its legitimate uses while also dishonoring legitimate tribal governments and their citizens, whose ancestors are well documented and whose heritage is proven. Senator Warren is undermining tribal interests with her continued claims of tribal heritage.”
via Weasel Zippers
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