POLITICAL FIGURES: “Senator Elizabeth Warren addressed questions about her racial heritage and vowed in a speech on Wednesday to a group of tribes to do more for Native Americans, using an unannounced appearance to confront a political liability before a potential bid for president.
In remarks to the National Congress of American Indians, Ms. Warren quickly, and bluntly, invoked President Trump’s derisive nickname for her, recalling that he had called her ‘Pocahontas’ last year at a ceremony honoring Navajo code talkers from World War II… Ms. Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts and a former professor at Harvard Law School, listed herself as a member of a minority group in a law school directory but has not claimed to be a Native American since being elected to the Senate in 2012. Beyond Mr. Trump’s ridicule, some American Indian activists have pressured Ms. Warren to be more straightforward about her heritage and to also be a more aggressive advocate for the tribes, some of which account for the most impoverished communities in the country.
Such demands, combined with the attention that Mr. Trump commands with his mockery, prompted her to try to engage in what one supporter of hers allowed was something of a deck-clearing going into her expected re-election in November and before a Democratic primary race that will effectively start at the end of the year… Ms. Warren was plainly hoping to respond to an article last month in The Boston Globe that raised questions about her commitment to tribal issues.
Yet her remarks made clear that she also sees political opportunity in her long-running feud with Mr. Trump, a way to demonstrate to Democrats that she will aggressively confront him… Ms. Warren won applause by pointedly invoking one of Mr. Trump’s favorite presidents.”
-Jonathan Martin, “Elizabeth Warren, Addressing Claims of Native Ancestry, Vows to Press for Tribes,” The New York Times online, Feb. 14, 2018