Pocahontas, a Powhatan hero ca. 1616.
It is now well established that Donald Trump uses Twitter to bully anyone he perceives as a political threat.
One of his favorite targets is Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. When things get boring around the White House, he viciously tweets about her, calling her “Pocahontas” because she claims Native American heritage in her family tree.
Forget about real problems facing Indian Country, like voter suppression efforts in North Dakota. Legislators there ruled that tribal ID cards that do not contain a street address will not qualify as valid forms of voter identification. On numerous reservations, Indians only have a post office box.
Forget about attempts by anti-Indian groups out West to dismantle tribal sovereignty to gain access to Indian land and resources.
Forget about how that would erase the annual millions of federal dollars based on U.S. treaty agreements that fund Indian health care, education and jobs.
When it comes to Indian Country, Trump’s only engagement with us is to bully a Democratic Senator.
No, lately when it comes to Indian Country, Trump’s only engagement with us is to bully a Democratic Senator.
Trump’s latest attack against Warren came after the senator offered proof through DNA testing that yes, in fact she has native blood in her history. Trump offered to donate one million dollars to the charity of Warren’s choice should DNA prove her indigenous claim. And no surprise, Trump mocked the DNA test, refusing to pay up the one million dollar bet.
Trump got a boost for his refusal to pay up by a high-ranking Cherokee Nation leader, who dismissed Warren’s claim.
“A DNA test is useless to determine tribal citizenship,” said Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. in a press statement. “Sovereign nations set their own legal requirements for citizenship, and while DNA tests can be used to determine lineage, such as paternity to an individual, it is not evidence for tribal affiliation.”
News flash! Senator Elizabeth Warren is not seeking Cherokee tribal enrollment. Also, Warren is no different from many well-meaning white Americans who grew up hearing they have Indian ancestors.
Believe me, there are plenty of white people who embrace Indian culture when they find out they are “part Indian.” These wannabes use their Indianness to insinuate into tribal culture. They seek citizenship in a tribe to gain access to such services as health care and reservation license plates. They attend pow wows dressed in jingle dresses (a favorite attire of white women). And they dream of, and seek out, buff Indian warriors. At the end of the day, they return to their middle-class lifestyles, pour a glass of wine, and slip back into the comforts of being white.
Now, that’s an abuse of white privilege. To my knowledge, Senator Warren does not play that Indian game.
Nearly a year ago, Trump hijacked a ceremony honoring World War II Navajo code talkers by making a racist statement about Warren, calling her Pocahontas. Trump made the remark at the White House standing in front of his favorite President, a painting of President Andrew Jackson, a man nicknamed “Indian killer.”
When I hear people like the Cherokee’s Hoskins Jr. bashing Warren for her claim, it occurs to me that Trump’s racism has found a footing in tribal politics.
At the time, when Trump’s remark hit the newspapers, I thought it was humorous and ironic that this President would honor Senator Warren with the name of a Powhatan hero, a young native girl who saved English captain John Smith from death in Jamestown, Virginia.
But when I hear people like the Cherokee’s Hoskins Jr. bashing Warren for her claim, it occurs to me that Trump’s racism has found a footing in tribal politics. In that same statement, the Cherokee secretary wrote: “Senator Warren is undermining tribal interests with her continued claims of tribal heritage.”
But that’s ludicrous. Half the people of the Cherokee nation are as white as Warren. To make her a scapegoat seems opportunistic. How can one person’s Indian claim threaten tribal relations with Washington? What does this say about the once proud tribes that used to send their own heads of state to meet with former Presidents at the White House? Today, too many tribes spend millions on lobbyists to duke it out over gaming operations.