Warren explains minority listing, talks of grandfather's "high cheekbones"

Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren.

/ Chuck Burton

Updated: 3:08 p.m. ET

(CBS News) - Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday sought to explain her controversial decision to list herself as a Native American in a directory of law professors for nearly a decade before getting a job at Harvard Law School and said she is absolutely qualified for her job.

Republican Sen. Scott Brown's campaign last week accused Warren of "participating in Harvard's diversity sham" by allowing the school to list her as a minority.

"I listed myself directory in the hopes that might mean that I would be invited to a luncheon a group something with people who are like I am. Nothing like that every happened. That was absolutely not the use for it and so I stopped checking it off," Warren told reporters in Braintree, Massachusetts.

On Monday, he called for her to "come clean" on the issue.

According to a Boston-area genealogist's report, Warren is 1/32nd Cherokee.

Warren said she was "very proud" of her heritage and "very proud of the stories that my grandparents told me that my grandparents told my parents and my parents told my brothers and me."

"Being Native American is part of who our family is and I'm glad to tell anyone about that. I am just very proud of it," Warren said.

The candidate said Wednesday that she had never asked her relatives for documentation of her lineage, but when questioned by reporters if she regretted self-identifying as Native American, she recounted a story about her family's history with the culture.

"No, as I said, these are my family stories. I have lived in a family that has talked about Native Americans, talked about tribes since I had been a little girl," she said. "I still have a picture on my mantel and it is a picture my mother had before that - a picture of my grandfather. And my Aunt Bea has walked by that picture at least a 1,000 times remarked that he - her father, my Papaw -- had high cheek bones like all of the Indians do. Because that is how she saw it and your mother got those same great cheek bones and I didn't. She that thought was the bad deal she had gotten in life."

"Being Native American has been part of my story, I guess, since the day I was born," Warren continued.

According to the Boston Globe, Warren identified as a minority in the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) deskbook for between 1985-1996. The candidate has seemingly struggled to articulate her reasons for identifying as a minority, but has strongly rejected the notion that she benefited from opportunities she might not have otherwise received had she not identified as a Native American.

"Scott Brown's campaign has been sending emails to reporters asking them to ask if I'm qualified for my job?" Brown said Wednesday. "All I can say is, I busted my tail as a teacher. I am qualified for my job."

Noting that Brown had also questioned Elena Kagan's qualifications to serve on the Supreme Court, Warren wondered: "What is it he thinks it takes for a woman to be qualified?"

"I've worked hard for everything that I have done," Warren said Wednesday. "I am a hardworking teacher. I have won teaching awards. I have written books that have won acclaim. I have gotten out there and done everything I know to do as a law professor."

Rodney Hawkins contributed to this report

[aaniideb]

My grandmother, who was full-blood Ojibwe (Chippewa) used to say. "It must be a wonderful thing to be an Indian. Everyone I meet tells me they are part Indian, even people with blue eyes and blond hair!"

[raymailhot]

I am a native American because I have not any where else to go! I was born here and so were my ancestors going back many generations. But this is not what she is implying is it!

A Race Card at best?

[maginthat-2009]

This 'article' was so poorly written, I had to stop reading.

[loracs]

I whole heartedly agree. I found everything questionable since so much of it was gibberish.

[mbryanm]

My grandmother told me as a child that we were Scotch-Irish, French-Dutch, English-Indian. Since my granny was a truthful person, I did not question her veracity. If I had only asked her, she might have told me how. The only heritage I have not been able to confirm is that of Indian. My husband's heritage that I know of is Italian and American Indian, with probably some Scotch-Irish-English thrown in. I preferred to think of myself as a hodge-podge American with an interest in genealogy. I do not doubt the American Indian heritage of either my husband or myself, but it isn't provable. Can the media and the Repubs not find something of more substance to criticize?

[Zann-Zel]

Since my granny was a truthful person, I did not question her veracity.
---------------
Exactly! Most of us are taught to respect our elders and not question what they tell us! : )

[2happy2ride]

Can the Democrats find anything more substantive to lie about?

Your explanation is well & good, if your 10. From a mature responsible adult, more is expected. It's called character and she LIED because she assumed a benefit would follow.

[Bandofotters]

I'm sold! Based upon her credentials, "I am a hardworking teacher. I have won teaching awards. I have written books that have won acclaim. I have gotten out there and done everything I know to do as a law professor." she should stick to teaching! If senators were hired, would you hire her with those credentials?

[jt92202]

If she listed herself as a Native American and she wanted to have contact with like kind people wouldn't she have to stipulate that she is on 1/32nd Native American to get the same like kind people to be in contact with? Or else she would be sitting in a room with people that are not like her because they all have much more Native America Blood in them. I could just see it, having lunch with full blooded Native Americans and they ask her what makes her think she is Native American. I have about the same amount of French Canadian Indian in my but I don't feel I have enough of that blood in me to say I am one!

The Government doesn't even see someone as a Native American with less than 1/4 Native American Blood line!

She has every right to be proud of her heritige just as many of us are but 1/32nd isn't much and I am not sure many Native Americans would even consider that as being Native American!

BTW this story was really hard to read with all the spelling and grammer errors, what ever happened to proof reading????

[Zann-Zel]

spelling and grammer errors - LOL!

[nomealaska]

I have many friends who are 1/32 Alaska Native and still have a very strong self-identity as Native, even though they may not appear Native on the outside. The whole blood quantum thing that they BIA uses for Alaska Natives/American Indians is a flawed system, although I don't know how else you may do it. As for myself, I am human,... like most of you.

[idunnogal]

I, also, have high cheekbones. They've been commented on for years. However, being a 3rd generation Scandinavian, it doesn't mean squat trying to pretend I have native American roots. Stupid.

[raymailhot]

This idiotic blather exposes her lack of intelligence, even with the education!

Is that a voter friendly position for her to take?

She should shut-up and moveon.

[CaptainSmollett]

Strikes me as a deceitful and dishonest thing to do. So if a blue-eyed blond with snow white skin says their great-great-great-great grandmother was a of Native American decent, does that justify her claim? If so, we are all African-American because if you go back long enough all humans decended from Africa.

[raymailhot]

Pretty much true.

I claim to be American decent based on my American heritage not my French-Canadian-Indian background.

I purely base it on it is the only place I have ever lived and belong to.

But then, I am not looking for that extra boost in the ballot either!

[MistahEd]

Oh my God, please. I'm 1/16 Cherokee Indian, my Great Grandmother was a full blood Indian. I list myself as Caucasian, but am very proud of my Cherokee heritage. She did nothing wrong, leave her alone!

[pdchapin]

Bottom line is she is part Native-American and there's no evidence she every got any advantages for being such.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

[Zann-Zel]

Exactly - I don't think the form asked her "exactly what percentage of Native American are you"?

If her grandparents told her she was Native American - then she was!
A respectful person does not question their elders!

[CaptainSmollett]

I'm a white-skinned blue-eyed blond, but my Anthropology professor said we all decended from Africa. So the next employment application I fill out, I'm following Warren's example and claiming to be African-American!!!