UPDATED: 2019/02/06 11AM
Cue the “Pocahontas” jokes from President Donald Trump…again. The Washington Post is reporting that Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren listed her race as “American Indian” on a State Bar of Texas registration card in 1986.
Warren’s political career has been plagued with questions about her heritage after the senator claimed to be Native American, including attacks from Donald Trump and his Twitter account. Warren used DNA testing last year to prove that she did, indeed, have some Native American roots, but her assertion was swiftly met with criticism among the Native community.
The registration card is significant because it is the first time a document has shown Warren making the claim in her own handwriting. Republicans insist that she used her assertions that she was Native American to further her career (though research has proven that is not so). Warren is expected to formally announce her 2020 presidential run on Saturday, February 9th.
In an interview with The Post, Warren said that she was sorry for identify herself as a Native American for almost two decades, saying “I can’t go back, but I am sorry for furthering confusion on tribal sovereignty and tribal citizenship and the harm that resulted.” She also personally apologized to the chief of the Cherokee Nation.