General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Warren listed race as 'American Indian' on Texas bar registration [View all]Tom Rinaldo
(22,912 posts)Warren is about my age. In the mid to late 60's there was a resurgence of interest in and admiration of Native Americans among white youth. Yes, much of that was romanticized and superficial, but not completely (I for example began reading a lot more about America's indigenous people and participated in support actions for the Alcatraz and Wounded Knee occupations.) But I know that, at the time, I would have felt perhaps inappropriately proud if I heard that I had some Native American blood in my family tree.
My guess is that, like Warren said, she heard stories from her family about having Indian ancestry - but that she simple assumed it was not that far back, a great or great great grandparent for example. Until the more recent study of ancestry "craze" of the last decade or two people were a lot less conscious about degrees of ancestry. I'm betting Warren found the stories of her having Indian ancestors as something more tangible than the results of her DNA test later revealed.
It was still foolish at best for her to list herself as Native American on that form though.