White people stealing land is also the origin of the “I’m 1/64th Native American” thing that white people always parrot. The federal government was giving land away to natives, but they had to have a certain percentage of ancestry. Off the top of my head, I think it was 1/8? So one native ancestor three generations ago. But there wasn’t any sort of checks or confirmations for this. So a lot of white people just started lying, and telling the feds that they had the minimum required lineage to claim the land.
And every time the feds came to check in, the white people would start saying it again, so their land didn’t get clawed back from them. And their kids heard them say this, and got told to tell the authorities this whenever asked. And those kids actually believed the lie, because why wouldn’t they? Over time it got watered down even further, and eventually turned into the modern day “oh yeah I’m like 1/64th native, from a Navajo princess” line that white people like to use. All because their 100% white great-great-great-grandparents wanted free land.
The Governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, has been pretty open about the fact that his family did this. People gave Warren shit, but Stitt is so much worse especially considering the way he fucks with the tribes while claiming their heritage. (Stitt was also involved in lots of real estate scams - I believe there’s several states he’s barred from conducting business in)
What makes it even worse is that being “too” indigenous - having too much indigenous heritage - meant that you were too incompetent to manage your own land. It needed to be managed by a white conservator. If you want to see how fucked this situation was, Flowers of the Killer Moon is great.
See also: one of several reasons why Elizabeth Warren isn’t president right now.
I believe that she honestly believed it and had no fraudulent or otherwise malicious intent but not to make absolutely sure it wasn’t one of those cases was stupid and unwittingly offensive as fuck!
I agree. I’d have preferred Bernie and have some reservations about her cozy relationship with the corrupt party establishment, but policy-wise she was definitely the second-best choice in the 2020 primaries.
White people stealing land is also the origin of the “I’m 1/64th Native American” thing that white people always parrot. The federal government was giving land away to natives, but they had to have a certain percentage of ancestry. Off the top of my head, I think it was 1/8? So one native ancestor three generations ago. But there wasn’t any sort of checks or confirmations for this. So a lot of white people just started lying, and telling the feds that they had the minimum required lineage to claim the land.
And every time the feds came to check in, the white people would start saying it again, so their land didn’t get clawed back from them. And their kids heard them say this, and got told to tell the authorities this whenever asked. And those kids actually believed the lie, because why wouldn’t they? Over time it got watered down even further, and eventually turned into the modern day “oh yeah I’m like 1/64th native, from a Navajo princess” line that white people like to use. All because their 100% white great-great-great-grandparents wanted free land.
The Governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, has been pretty open about the fact that his family did this. People gave Warren shit, but Stitt is so much worse especially considering the way he fucks with the tribes while claiming their heritage. (Stitt was also involved in lots of real estate scams - I believe there’s several states he’s barred from conducting business in)
What makes it even worse is that being “too” indigenous - having too much indigenous heritage - meant that you were too incompetent to manage your own land. It needed to be managed by a white conservator. If you want to see how fucked this situation was, Flowers of the Killer Moon is great.
See also: one of several reasons why Elizabeth Warren isn’t president right now.
I believe that she honestly believed it and had no fraudulent or otherwise malicious intent but not to make absolutely sure it wasn’t one of those cases was stupid and unwittingly offensive as fuck!
Yup. I honestly think that she could have been president - but for that. She’s a firecracker though, still.
I agree. I’d have preferred Bernie and have some reservations about her cozy relationship with the corrupt party establishment, but policy-wise she was definitely the second-best choice in the 2020 primaries.