Elizabeth Warren Seeks to Revive Senate Campaign

[yellerpup]

16. Almost everyone in Oklahoma has NA heritage

of some sort. If your family was counted in a census in Indian Territory and was living there prior to the Land Run (1889) they were most certainly Native Americans displaced from some other part of the country. Whites had to have written permission to be there--however, because I.T. was outside the jurisdiction of any law enforcement except tribal laws, it was a 'safe haven' for those of any color who were outside the law. Warren probably grew up like every other Oklahoma kid and heard tales of her Cherokee heritage from her family. Many eligible families did not sign up for the final Dawes Rolls accounting of tribal citizens in advance of the distribution of land allotments, a program invented by the federal government, because they didn't want to be classified as Indians. Considering the history of government betrayal of the indigenous people of this continent, I really can't blame them. The first NA got the vote in 1926, for instance. Anyway, I'm sure she is part-Cherokee but unless her family signed up on the Dawes Rolls, she would have no way of qualifying for tribal membership. No matter how 'the controversy' shakes out, it means nothing. Except, as you say, a distraction. I'll trust her to steer the debate back to issues.