In Tahlequak, Oklahoma, Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. delivered a scorching condemnation of Senator Elizabeth Warren's attempt to claim Cherokee heritage as a political tool.
In a statement available on the Cherokee Nation's official website, Hoskin proclaimed:
A DNA test is useless to determine tribal citizenship. Current DNA tests do not even distinguish whether a person’s ancestors were indigenous to North or South America... Using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong. 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.
According to the Daily Caller's coverage, tribal affiliations aside, Elizabeth Warren is in fact less Native-American than the average white American citizen, which is cited by the Genetic Literacy Project as being "0.18 percent Native American
One Cherokee Nation representative, a Mr. Markwayne Mullen, notably demanded an apology from her during a Fox News Interview, "The Average European American walking around is .18% Native American... she's half of that... the idea that she continues to double down on this lie is the most disgusting thing to me... what she needs to do is come out and apologize to all of us.
President Trump then tweeted "Thank you to the Cherokee Nation for revealing that Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to as Pocahontas, is a complete and total fraud!"
