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Elizabeth Warren More Average American Than Native American

October 15, 2018

Elizabeth Warren’s much-trumpeted DNA test purporting to show American Indian ancestry shows that she may have some — but possibly less than the average European-American has.

According to a study reported by The New York Times in December 2014, European-Americans have an average of 0.18 percent American Indian DNA.

A DNA expert concluded that Warren likely (not definitely) has somewhere between 1/64 and 1/1,012 American Indian DNA. That’s between 1.56 percent (if 1/64) and 0.0988 percent (if 1/1,012).

Warren claims the DNA test proves that she is just as Cherokee and Delaware Indian has she says her mother said she is.

Warren’s critics note that Warren started listing herself as Native American when she was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and they challenge whether she was entitled to do so given how low her purported Indian ancestry is and whether her claim may have helped her get hired subsequently at Harvard Law School.

A September 2018 story in The Boston Globe quotes several Harvard Law School professors and officials at the time that Warren’s supposed American Indian ancestry had nothing to do with hiring her, but doesn’t get into whether her minority listing at the University of Pennsylvania might have helped her get her foot in the door at Harvard.