Rant #2,239: Indian Lake

One of the most ridiculous stories of the year--or any year--revolves around the results of Senator Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) long-awaited DNA test.

She has been saying for years that she has Native American blood in her ancestry, and this has been doubted loud and clear by many, including President Trump, who actually offered to donate $1 million of his own money to her charity of choice if she could prove this claim.

Well, the results are in, and yes, Warren has Indian blood in her.

But at such a measly percentage that she might actually have less Indian blood in her than most Americans.

According to the DNA test, Warren has Native American ancestry of anywhere from 0.09 to 1.5 percent of Native American heritage.

In her own mind and world, that might make her a Native American, but according to other measures, she is about as Native American as the average American, or even less so.

Most of her heritage, like that of most Americans, is European, so taking that into account, past studies done by the likes of Harvard University have shown that the average American has 0.18 percent of Native American blood in them, which makes Warren's claim kind of faulty.

She is pretty much average, or less than average, when it comes to those measures.

So Warren can parade around that she is Native American, where the results actually show that she is mainly European American with a hint of Native American in her background ...

In other words, she is like most of us who call ourselves Americans.

Her past behavior related to her heritage is pandering to the worst degree, and is insulting to those whose background is mostly or all Native American.

Later yesterday, the Cherokee Nation released a statement saying that DNA tests are useless in determining tribal citizenship, and and people using DNA to somehow connect themselves to the Cherokee Nation is "inappropriate."

Warren backtracked herself on her heritage, stating that her rise to Senator had nothing to do with her Native American heritage, because she was seen as a white woman in every step of her career.

So why try to make a big deal out of this, as she has--I mean, having such a small amount of Indian blood in her, does that make her Native American in any way, shape or form?

President Trump still doesn't trust the results, and wants his own independent DNA test of her before he is convinced that she has any Native American blood in her, but if I were him, I would just drop the entire thing, because this whole thing is kind of freaky.

What makes one Native American? What makes one black, caucasian, Asian?

Aren't we supposed to be Americans first?

I look at myself in all of this. I am of Eastern European heritage, made up of ancestors that came from Poland. Russia, Latvia, and other places in that region of the world.

However, I have something called "Black Man's Teeth," which I have described in previous Rants.

Now, let's say that I get a DNA test, and it finds that I am 99.999 percent Eastern European heritage, and maybe 0.001 African heritage--does that make me a black man?

No, it doesn't.

The preponderance of my DNA is Eastern European, so that is what I am.

This is only important if I claimed that I was black, and could get into certain programs because of my black heritage.

That would be 1,000 percent wrong, period.

So this nonsense about Warren's ancestry is also 1,000 percent nonsense.

She can say what she wants, she can believe what she wants, but the preponderance of her ancestry is European, so that is what she is.

She is about as Native American as I am black--and honestly, in my case, we don't really know where this "Black Man's Teeth" thing came from, so it might not have come from some intermingling with someone of black African heritage.

Unless I take a full DNA test, I just won't know.

So let's let this nonsense all peter out. It is so idiotic to be talking about it, anyway.

Whether we are of European, African, or Native American ancestry, we are all Americans, and let's leave it at that.

To harp on something that amounts to relatively little serves absolutely no purpose at all.