Does Elizabeth Warren Have Cherokee Ancestry?

Does Elizabeth Warren have Cherokee ancestors? Probably not, since there doesn't appear to be any documentation to support her belief. Is she lying about it? Also probably not. Families tell stories about their lineage, sometimes it turns out not to be true. I have long noted how there seems to be a huge number of people who, while outwardly white, claim to be part Cherokee. I'm not talking about people who actually know that they're Cherokee because they have actually met that parent or grandparent who is definitely Native American or because they are an enrolled member of one of the three Cherokee nations. No, I'm talking about those who claim an ancestor far enough back that no one living knows for sure: "My great-grandmother was one quarter Cherokee" - this means the actual Cherokee ancestor is five generations back. I personally never met any of my great-grandparents, let alone great-great-great-grandparents. But family lore is hard to deny and people like to tell stories and make their beginnings a bit more exotic. That doesn't mean that those who hear those stories are lying when they pass them on.

In my own family we have our share of undocumented family lore. My two adopted sons, according to their biological grandfather, are part Iroquois. Which nation among the Iroquois Confederacy I have no idea, but we always accepted it and never had a thought of verifying or documenting it. In my own family my Aunt Agnes told me stories about our Italian and South Slav ancestors and even talked about a branch of the family, her own half-siblings, that were still living in what was then Yugoslavia. No documentation until my uncle had a chance meeting with a cousin, the granddaughter of one of the half-siblings, who verified that we were descended from Italians who migrated to the Croatia/Slovenia region and Aunt Agnes' tales were proven true.

My point is that families tell stories about themselves and believing and repeating those stories doesn't make you a liar or a bad person. Elizabeth Warren isn't the problem here, it's a President who feels empowered to demean anyone who stands up to him and hasn't a clue about how to act like the representative of all the people.