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Native American Heritage Issue Haunts Elizabeth Warren during Senate Debate

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Currents. Discussion »

BOSTON – Democratic US senate nominee Elizabeth Warren was again confronted with the issue of her claim she comes from Native American heritage.

US senate nominee Elizabeth Warren Native American Heritage?

Warren is running against US Senator Scott Brown, who won the senate seat in a special election. The Massachusetts senate seat was held for decades by Senator Edward Kennedy, who died of cancer while still in office.

Brown brought the issue up during the first US senate debate in Boston on Thursday evening.

She checked the box claiming she was a Native American, and clearly she's not,

Brown said in the opening remarks of the debate as her referred to law school directories where Warren claimed to be Native American.

When you are a United States senator, you have to pass a test, and that's one of character and honesty and truthfulness,

Brown said.

And I believe and others believe that she's failed that test.

Warren, who is a Harvard Law professor and consumer advocate, maintained her family comes from Cherokee ancestry and denied she was given preferential treatment.

The people who hired me have spoken, and they've been clear about it,

Warren said.

I didn't get an advantage because of my background. This is about family. I can't and won't change who I am. I am who I am.

She said that the median had vetted the issue and found she received no special favors for her minority status.

posted September 22, 2012 7:10 am edt