So, her ancestry was a native American killer

Elizabeth Warren brushes off ‘Trail of Tears’ report

By Hillary Chabot | Wednesday, May 9, 2012 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Election 2012

Elizabeth Warren waved off reports yesterday that an ancestor helped round up Cherokees in the infamous “Trail of Tears,” as well as demands from U.S. Sen. Scott Brown to prove she never claimed her Native American heritage to further her career — dismissing the developments as “politics as usual.”

“I think what this is about is Scott Brown trying to change the subject,” said Warren at a Brighton event last night. “He just wants to find a way to talk about something else, and I think it’s wrong. I think this is why people are turned off on Washington politics.”

Warren has been under fire for citing “family lore,” without documentation, that an ancestor was a Cherokee, and for listing herself as a “minority” law professor in a professional directory in the 1980s and ’90s.

But Paul Reed, a Utah genealogist who is a fellow at the American Genealogical Society, said he found primary documentation that shows Warren’s great-great-great grandfather Jonathan Crawford served in a Tennessee militia unit that rounded up Cherokees before they were force-marched to Oklahoma in the infamous “Trail of Tears.”

“Jonathan H. Crawford did serve in the Indian wars,” said Reed. “He is listed as serving in the company that rounded up Cherokees.”

Thousands of Native Americans died after they were forced to relocate under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Warren’s family link to the genocidal exodus was first reported yesterday by conservative websites Breitbart.com and Legalinsurrection.com.

Warren also brushed off Brown’s demand to release her law school and job applications.

“If Scott Brown has a question about my qualifications for my job, he can talk to the people who hired me,” Warren said. Citing Brown’s vote yesterday against a bill that would have prevented student loans from doubling, Warren said: “No wonder Scott Brown wants to change the subject. This is politics as usual.”

Democrats tried to turn the tables on the Brown campaign last night, saying they plan to file an ethics complaint against him today, accusing him of filming his recent half-court basketball shot on the taxpayers’ dime. The back and forth comes as a recent Rasmussen poll conducted Monday suggests Warren has not been harmed from the scandal. She is tied with Brown at 45 percent, according to the poll of 500 likely voters.