Flashback: Warren Claimed to Have ‘Plenty of Pictures’ Highlighting Native American Heritage

Elizabeth Warren, Pocahontas.Painting of Pocahontas around the time of her wedding to John
Three Lions/Getty Images

A video of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has resurfaced, showing the then-Senate candidate claiming to possess “plenty of pictures” highlighting her Native American heritage.

A reporter asked Warren in the 2012 video if she possessed “anything in the house that reflects her Native American heritage.” Warren said she did, but refused to show the items.

“I have plenty of pictures. They’re not for you,” Warren replied:

Another resurfaced clip shows Warren doubling down on her Native ancestry claims, telling the story of her parents. She claimed her family was divided due to her father’s parents’ prejudice against her mother, who was – Warren claimed – part Cherokee and Delaware.

“It was an issue in our family the whole time I grew up, about these two families,” Warren told New England Cable News’s Jim Braude.

Braude followed up, asking Warren – who identified as a minority – if she would still identify as such if her ancestors were black instead.

“If your family heritage had an African American like you have, the grandfather or great grandparent who was a Cherokee, would you call yourself a black, and expect African Americans to accept that?” Braude asked.

“If that same ancestor was black and not Cherokee,” he added.

“If my Father’s parents had said, ‘You can’t marry her because she’s black, and that had been part of our family growing up, that we had two different families?” Warren replied.

“You would be comfortable with saying you’re black?” Braude asked.

“It would be part of identification,” she said:

The Massachusetts senator has been under fire for identifying as a minority in the past, listing herself as a minority professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Harvard Law School. She also claimed Native American heritage on her Texas Bar registration card:

Warren has tried to put her claims of Native American heritage behind her, but a DNA test – taken last year – revealed that Warren had between 1/64th and 1/1,024 Native American ancestry. The results followed years of Warren’s claims of Native American heritage, citing her high cheekbones as physical proof. Additionally, the DNA results indicated an association with individuals from Colombia, Mexico, and Peru– not Native American tribes in the United States, further debunking her claims of Cherokee heritage, specifically.

Warren has since admitted that she is “not a person of color” and “not a citizen of a tribe” and has called her decision to identify as a minority for years on end a “mistake,” although she has yet to offer a detailed explanation for making the claims for years without solid proof.

“Like anyone who’s been honest with themselves, I know that I have made mistakes,” Warren told the crowd at the Native American Presidential Forum in Sioux City, Iowa, in August. “I am sorry for harm I have caused.”

“I have listened and I have learned a lot, and I am grateful for the many conversations we have had together,” she added:

President Trump joked at a rally in August that he “did the Pocahontas thing” a bit too early but signaled that he will revive it if Warren scores the Democrat nomination.

“I did the Pocahontas thing. I hit her really hard, and it looked like she was down and out, but that was too long ago,” told the crowd in New Hampshire.

“I should have waited. But don’t worry, we will revive it. It can be revived. It will be revived. And it can be revived very easily, and very quickly, and we’re gonna have some fun in the state of New Hampshire,” he added.

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