Elizabeth Warren and the Invisible Indian
The politics of Native erasure in the 21st century
Though the tactics have changed over time, U.S. politics have always sought to make Indians invisible. The first move was to murder them. Then Natives were rounded up on reservations, largely in remote and undesirable locations. Native culture was deleted through compulsory attendance at schools that de-programmed them as Indians and reprogrammed them as “white.” Forced adoptions sent Indian children to live with white families, and that only just ended in 1978 with the Indian Child Welfare Act. Today, those in power continue to seek political gain by depicting Natives as niche, distant, and meaningless — to the point of invisibility.
But an “Indian issue” recently reached the headlines. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a potential 2020 presidential candidate, felt compelled to undergo a DNA test to prove her Native American lineage in response to attacks by President Donald Trump. He and others were asserting Warren isn’t a “real” Indian and has used her false status for professional gain, with Trump going so far as to goad her by calling her “Pocahontas.” Warren ultimately created a website featuring the DNA results and other information. The site aims to show that her heritage didn’t help her climb the academic ranks as a Harvard law professor.
