Two current tribal government officials and one former tribal government official of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (MHA Nation) were charged by criminal complaint unsealed today for their alleged acceptance of bribes and kickbacks from a contractor providing construction services on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation (FBIR), which is the home of the MHA Nation.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Drew H. Wrigley for the District of North Dakota, and Acting Special Agent in Charge Aubree M. Schwartz of the FBI’s Minneapolis Field Office made the announcement.
Randall Jude Phelan, 55, of Mandaree, North Dakota, and Delvin Reeves, 52, of Watford City, North Dakota, were charged in complaints supported by one affidavit, while Frank Charles Grady, 52, of Hardin, Montana, was charged in a complaint supported by a second affidavit. All three defendants were charged in the District of North Dakota with one count of conspiracy and one count of federal programs bribery. Phelan and Reeves made their initial appearances in the District of North Dakota before U.S. Magistrate Judge Alice R. Senechal today. Grady made his initial appearance in the District of Montana before U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Cavan today.
According to the affidavits in support of the complaints against them, Phelan has been a representative on the Tribal Business Council, the elected governing body of the MHA Nation, since approximately November 2012, and Reeves is a paid employee of the tribal government. Grady was a Tribal Business Council representative from approximately November 2014 until November 2018.
According to the affidavit in support of the complaints against them, Phelan and Reeves solicited and accepted bribes and kickbacks from the contractor in connection with his business’s operation on the FBIR beginning in approximately 2013 and continuing through 2020. The complaint alleges that, in exchange for the payments, Phelan and Reeves used their official positions to help the contractor’s business, including by awarding contracts, fabricating bids during purportedly competitive bidding processes, advocating for the contractor with other tribal officials, and facilitating the submission and payment of fraudulent invoices.
The complaint against Grady alleges that he solicited and accepted bribes and kickbacks beginning in approximately January 2016 and continuing through September 2017. The affidavit in support of the complaint alleges that Grady used his official position to help the contractor’s business, including by awarding contracts, pressuring other construction companies to award subcontracting work, advocating for the contractor with other tribal officials, and facilitating the submission and payment of fraudulent invoices. The complaints allege that the defendants each accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks.
A criminal complaint is merely an accusation, and all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The FBI investigated the case. Trial Attorney Jessee Alexander-Hoeppner of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section is prosecuting the case with the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of North Dakota.
The year 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the Department of Justice. Learn more about the history of our agency at www.Justice.gov/Celebrating150Years.
I want to know when the U.S. is going to speak upon the residuals of the peculiar institution in the industry of trafficking of tiny humans in the U.S.
The U.S. has a very, very dark history when it comes to the way we treat children.
It always starts with the children because no one cares.
Foster care and adoption is human trafficking.
The U.S. has never issued an apology on the residuals of the peculiar institution because the multi-trillion dollar industry of slavery was never abolished.
Trump shows that he stands with Hong Kong by going against all odds and signing the Hong Kong Protester Bill. This is a great win for freedom around the world but at the same time could created some massive issues with China Trade. Some people think this was all part of the plan to get things shifted in power with the Chinese. Right now everyone is standing with support even the president, how could anyone be against this type of freedom? Are we messing with foreign politics?
Links on Medium
https://medium.com/@il1usiveman/trump...
Saving the savages is just a christian transposable model.
China is only doing what we taught them to do, using U.S. law enforcement models and tools.
Perhaps few people know that Pietro Beretta arms factory Ltd. (the largest arms industry in the world) and is controlled by the Holding SpA Beretta and the majority shareholder of the Beretta Holding SpA after Gussalli Ugo Beretta, is the IOR (Institute for Works of Religion [commonly known as the Vatican Bank]) private institution founded in 1942 by Pope Pius XII and headquartered in Vatican City.
The story is this, behind this is as follows:
Rome was not built in a day, nor the Vatican, and less its present opulence. Has its roots in the fourth century of the Christian era, when the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and made available to the Pope Sylvester I a colossal Fortunately, it actually turned into the 1st Pope rich history.
The Catholic Church is the only religious organization in the world that has as an independent state headquarters: Vatican City. With its 2 Km2 Vatican is much smaller than many golf courses in the world, and to follow it without haste does not take much more than an hour; Counting his riches, however, take considerably longer.
The modern opulence Vatican relies on the generosity of Benito Mussolini , who thanks to the signing of the Lateran Treaty between his government and the Vatican, gave the Catholic Church a number of safeguards and security measures. The “Holy See” got the recognition as a sovereign state, the benefit of tax exemption of their property for the benefit of their citizens, they had to pay duties so imported from abroad. He was granted diplomatic immunity and its diplomats started to enjoy post-privileges of the profession, as well as foreign diplomats accredited to the Holy See. Mussolini promised to introduce the teaching of the Catholic religion in all schools in the country and let the institution of marriage under the patronage of Canon Law, which did not admit divorce. The benefits were enormous given the Vatican including tax benefits, were predominant.
Teaching christianity always starts with the children
In 1933, the Vatican once again demonstrated its ability to engage in lucrative deals with the fascist governments. The 1929, signed with Mussolini, was followed by another between the Holy See and the 3rd Reich of Hitler. The manager Francesco Pacelli was one of the key figures of the pact with Mussolini, his brother Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII was in charge of negotiating as Vatican Secretary of State, signing a treaty with Hitler’s Germany. Pius XII knew Germany. It was nuncio in Berlin during World War I and then as Secretary of State of Pius XI, had numerous presentations to the course he was taking German politics. As such, intervened decisively in the encyclical of Pius XI, known as “Mit brennender Sorge” (which translates “With Burning Concern”). The initiative of the encyclical left, contrary to popular belief, the German bishops, the first draft was written in Rome by Cardinal Faulhaber. The then Cardinal Pacelli, who speak German, gave definitive form, presented to Pius XI, was signed and publicada.A despite constant pressure and great world, Pope Pius XII always refused to excommunicate Hitler and Mussolini, his pontificate was marked by adopting a false pose of neutrality. When the Nazis invaded Poland, Pius XII refused to condemn the invasion; One of the biggest advantages that the Vatican would very lucrative agreement he had with Hitler was Kirchensteuer confirmation, or a church tax, is a state tax that even now must pay the German believers, and can only escape if they renounce their religion. In practice, very few who renounce it. This tax alone represents between 8 and 10% of total tax collected by the German government.
Statement by the President
FOREIGN POLICY
Issued on: November 27, 2019
Today, I have signed into law S. 1838, the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019” (the “Act”). The Act reaffirms and amends the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, specifies United States policy towards Hong Kong, and directs assessment of the political developments in Hong Kong. Certain provisions of the Act would interfere with the exercise of the President’s constitutional authority to state the foreign policy of the United States. My Administration will treat each of the provisions of the Act consistently with the President’s constitutional authorities with respect to foreign relations.
BILLNGS—The former chairwoman of the Montana Native Women’s Coalition was arraigned today
on charges in a 10-count indictment accusing her, and the Coalition’s ex-treasurer, of stealing federal
grant funds to make unapproved trips to Las Vegas and to receive other unauthorized benefits, U.S.
Attorney Kurt Alme said.
Meredith McConnell, 50, of Busby, pleaded not guilty to seven counts charging her with theft from a
program receiving federal funding, wire fraud, fraudulent travel claims and misprision of felony.
McConnell was the Coalition’s chairwoman and the executive director of Healing Hearts.
Co-defendant Barbara Mary Daychief, 43, of Browning, the Coalition’s former treasurer, pleaded not
guilty on Aug. 13 to six counts.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Cavan presided and released McConnell pending further
proceedings.
If convicted of the most serious crime, McConnell faces a maximum 20 years in prison, a $250,000
fine and three years of supervised release.
The indictment is merely an accusation and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven
guilty.
The indictment accuses McConnell and Daychief of stealing from Lame Deer-based coalition from
about August 2017 until March 2018. The Coalition’s purpose is to help Native American victims of
domestic and sexual violence. In addition, the Coalition brings together Native American leaders
and state representatives who administer state and federal funds for domestic violence and
programming to improve resources for Native women and tribal programs.
The Coalition receives funding from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against
Women, which provides grants for victim services. From October 2017 to September 2018, the OVW
awarded the Coalition $318,008 in federal funds.
In March 2017, the Coalition’s previous executive director, Toni Louise Plummer-Alvernaz, pleaded
guilty to fraud for stealing from the Coalition. Plummer-Alvernaz was sentenced to one year and one
day in federal prison and ordered to pay $246,024 restitution.
Two months later, the First Nations Development Institute held a two-day training for the Coalition
in Billings, where it taught board members, including McConnell and Daychief, about conflicts of
interest, whistleblower policies, code of ethics and financial oversight. The Coalition also received a
special condition about reporting fraud in its September 2017 award package.
The indictment alleges McConnell and Daychief committed travel fraud, received travel payments on
non-approved trips, including to Las Vegas, received and authorized double-payment for “days in
service,” authorized unapproved construction projects and took other benefits they were not entitled
to receive.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ryan Weldon and Bryan Dake are prosecuting the case, which was
investigated by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General.
Pacer case reference. 19-90. The case may be monitored through the U.S. District
Court calendar and the PACER system. To establish a PACER account, please go to,
http://www.pacer.gov/register.html. To access the district court’s calendar, please go to
https://ecf.mtd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/PublicCalendar.pl.
LOS ANGELES – An Arizona man has been sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for breaking federal computer intrusion laws governing the deletion of electronic files after he hacked into computer systems operated by his former employer, an Irvine-based company, and then deleted its website and marketing materials in retaliation for being stripped of some of his job duties.
Nikishna Polequaptewa, 37, of Avondale, Arizona, was sentenced on Monday afternoon by United States District Judge Cormac J. Carney, who also ordered him to pay $53,305 in restitution to his former employer.
Polequaptewa, who was a Garden Grove resident during the criminal conduct, was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2016. After a five-day trial in November 2018, a jury found him guilty of one felony count of unauthorized impairment of the integrity and availability of data, programs, systems, and information.
Beginning in April 2014, Polequaptewa worked at Blue Stone Strategy Group, which provided consulting services to Native American tribal governments throughout the United States. In addition to his consulting responsibilities, Polequaptewa led information technology and marketing at Blue Stone.
After he began falling behind on work, Polequaptewa was relieved of IT and marketing duties in November 2014. Polequaptewa then was assigned to a consulting project in Florida for the Seminole Tribe. While on that project and angry that he had been stripped of his other job duties, Polequaptewa retaliated against Blue Stone by deleted the website and marketing materials that the company had developed over eight years. Polequaptewa’s deletions cost Blue Stone more than $50,000 to restore its system to its state before Polequaptewa’s deletions.
After he resigned from the Florida project in November 2014, Polequaptewa continued to delete Blue Stone files, including client information, Blue Stone work product, and the company’s backup files held by a third-party. Polequaptewa’s final deletion was done by sending a “wipe” command to a Blue Stone desktop computer in Irvine. Polequaptewa’s deletions were first detected when an employee in Irvine saw files being deleted from a Google drive account by Polequaptewa while he was working on the Florida project.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Broward County Sheriff’s Office in Florida and the Irvine Police Department provided assistance.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Vibhav Mittal and Bradley E. Marrett of the Santa Ana Branch Office.
Thank you all for attending this incredible Conference on Crimes Against Women.
Many thanks are owed to Jan Langbein, Becky Park, and all the staff of Genesis Women’s Shelter and Support, thank you for your incredible efforts in hosting this annual conference. Your tireless work to strengthen the systemic responses to crimes against women is inspiring.
Thank you also to the Dallas Police Department for co-hosting this year’s conference, and to Dallas City Mayor Mike Rawlings and Dallas Police Chief Reneé Hall for their support of this important event and their welcoming remarks this morning.
It is an honor to be with you all here today. As you know, successfully combatting violence against women requires that we come together with a coordinated community response. Prosecutors, law enforcement, courts, nurses, advocates, service providers, and everyone here today – you play a crucial part in ending violence against women.
Improving the criminal justice response to domestic violence and sexual violence is the backbone of the Violence Against Women Act. Collaborative work is essential to improving the response to crimes against women. I want to highlight one innovative type of collaboration that I have seen recently.
I am pleased to share that US Attorneys’ offices throughout the country are creating collaborative projects through the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative. The goal of these projects is to reduce violent crime in our communities and the success of these programs are firmly built on their local partnerships. The U.S. Attorneys’ offices are working hand in hand with local law enforcement, the local District Attorney’s office, and some are even partnering with their local Family Justice Center.
An incredible example of this is happening right here in Dallas. The U.S. Attorney for Northern Texas, Erin Nealy Cox, is fighting domestic violence using federal firearms laws through their PSN initiative. Working in tandem with state and local law enforcement partners, U.S. Attorney Nealy Cox has pledged to prosecute domestic violence offenders discovered with guns. As U.S. Attorney Cox recently said in her announcement of this new initiative: “With so many domestic disputes escalating from bruises to bullets and bloodshed, we can and should play a part in ending this senseless violence. We’re hopeful that highlighting this focus will send a message to convicted abusers: Not only can the Justice Department prosecute you for firearm possession, but in the Northern District of Texas, we will.”
If you are not already working with your local Project Safe Neighborhood site and your U.S. Attorney, I urge you to reach out to them to explore ways you can partner to reduce violent crimes in your community.
I also want to highlight the work being done for Native women at this conference. We know that violence against Native American and Alaskan Native women is an urgent problem in the United States. While crimes against women affect every community, tragically, Native American women face higher rates of domestic violence, sexual assault, and domestic violence homicide than almost any other group. A 2016 National Institute for Justice study concluded that more than half of all Native women have experienced sexual violence and physical violence by an intimate partner, and 84 percent have experienced some form of violence in their lifetimes.
In response to these troubling crimes, President Trump has appropriated historic amounts of funds into tribal country to assist Native women. The Department of Justice has also doubled the amount of grant funding devoted to public-safety and victim services in Native American communities.
Furthermore, the Office of Violence Against Women (OVW) has funded several Tribal Special U.S. Attorneys (Tribal SAUSAs) to address one of the primary challenges to attaining justice for Native women: a lack of prosecutors to hold perpetrators accountable. These tribal prosecutors are able to bring cases in both tribal and federal court to ensure that cases do not fall through the cracks. Tribal SAUSAs will be on the frontline of Attorney General Barr’s strategy to reduce violent crime in all American communities.
In our pilot project, Tribal SAUSAs reported a wide range of successes, including bringing to court cases that otherwise would not have been prosecuted, increasing trust and bettering relationships between tribal law enforcement, victim services, victims, and the participating U.S. Attorney’s Office, and strengthening accountability for violence against women-related crimes in Indian country. Tribal SAUSAs have been able to advocate for their tribe’s views and needs, which helps the tribe have even more input into prosecutions.
I am often asked about my priorities for the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). My first priority is to support the agenda of Attorney General Barr and President Trump. Their priorities, such as reducing violent crime and combatting human trafficking, perfectly coincide with the priorities of the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). My other priorities for the office are to include substance abuse professionals in coordinated community responses to VAWA crimes and to increase efforts to combat the crime of stalking.
I am so encouraged to see a specific track at this conference dedicated to the crime of stalking. The seriousness of stalking cases, and the element of stalking in other violent crimes, is often overlooked. Behaviors that might seem harmless are frequently revealed to be part of a pattern of stalking. We all know how tedious yet important it is that we take the time to look for the signs of coercion and control. It is critical that we recognize the often over-looked crime of stalking and bring the stalking case to court to prevent it from becoming a domestic violence, sexual assault, or homicide case.
Lastly, I want to bring your attention to the horrific crime of female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C). FGM/C is a horrific crime of violence against women and girls. This crime can cause extreme and long-term physical and psychological effects on its victims. A CDC study from 2012 estimates that at least 513,000 women and girls in the United States have suffered or are at risk of becoming victims of FGM/C.
At OVW, we are working hard to raise awareness about this violent crime and the danger it presents to girls in our local communities. We must work hard to prevent and stop this crime and to support the survivors. OVW funds nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to do this work in a sensitive, culturally appropriate way as part of their work on domestic violence and sexual assault. I am glad to see a workshop at this conference on FGM/C and I encourage you all to become more informed about this horrific crime.
The work you all are doing on the frontlines in combatting crimes against women every day is making a difference. As I reflect on my 17 years working in the criminal justice system, I see how far our country has come in improving the criminal justice response to violence against women by the work of law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, victim advocates, and other dedicated professionals all represented here today.
Thank you for all you do. You are in our hearts and thoughts always.
Yes, this is a Canadian Child Protective Services video of a new born being Legally Kidnapped moments after birth.
Yes, this is what DACA us all about, but no one wants to talk about it, so that is why we are in shutdown.
This is a multi-trillion dollar, global industry of trafficking tiny humans that funds political campaigns and no one wants to talk about it, which is why we are going to SCOTUS.
If Elizabeth Warren, often referred to by me as Pocahontas, did this commercial from Bighorn or Wounded Knee instead of her kitchen, with her husband dressed in full Indian garb, it would have been a smash! pic.twitter.com/D5KWr8EPan
Two social media videos show a newborn baby girl being taken from the arms of her Indigenous mother by Manitoba social workers and police – an apprehension that First Nations leaders say is all too common in a child-welfare system biased against Aboriginals.
The videos, broadcast live Thursday on Facebook by the woman’s uncle, show her sitting in a hospital bed, cradling her baby and rocking back and forth as social workers and police explain that the baby is being taken into care.
The woman is crying softly and being hugged by relatives, one of whom is wailing in sorrow. Eventually, police place the newborn into a car seat and take her away.
The mother is not told when she might see her baby again.
Statistics from the Manitoba government show newborn apprehensions occur, on average, about once a day in the province.
About 90 per cent of kids in care are Indigenous.
The videos, which had been viewed more than 400,000 times by Friday afternoon, offered a rare glimpse into a normally private matter and quickly led to calls for change.
“The system that we’re subject to is not a system for our people,” Grand Chief Garrison Settee, who represents northern Manitoba First Nations, said Friday at a news conference with the mother, her family and other community leaders.
“We want to take back our babies because they belong to us. They belong … in their own culture, in their own societies, among their own people.”
The woman, her baby, and other family members cannot be identified under Manitoba law.
The child was taken away because of a false accusation that the mother was drunk when she arrived at the hospital to give birth, the woman’s aunt said.
‘Blindsided’
The videos show family members telling social workers the accusation was not true. They ask whether the baby could stay with one of them instead of being taken away. The request is denied.
All the while, the mother is sitting on her hospital bed, cradling her baby. On Friday, she recalled getting strength from her infant daughter.
“I was blindsided … and it’s just astonishing how far this had to go,” she said.
“When I was holding my baby, she was actually the one who was keeping me content and strong and focused. And I’m still holding on to that.”
Cora Morgan, a family advocate for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said the mother may have been targeted for a “birth alert” – a note to social workers that an expectant mother is high risk – because she had another daughter who was temporarily in care several years ago.
The woman had previously sought help for addictions and with parenting from Child and Family Services, Morgan said, but was not intoxicated when she arrived at the hospital to give birth.
“In the system – as a mother, as a father, as a grandparent – they’re always deemed guilty of something, and there’s no mechanism to ever prove you’re innocent.”
The woman is hopeful that she might be reunited with her daughter shortly. The case file has been transferred from Winnipeg to an agency in the woman’s home community.
“I’m very hopeful things are going to work out in a positive way.”
Statements from CFS, Province:
“In Manitoba, when child and family services is involved, parents have the right to choose which Authority they would prefer to work with. Apprehending a child is a very difficult decision, and is done only as a last resort and when required to ensure children are kept safe.
“When a child is brought into care, the agency’s first consideration is always to explore reunification with parents and to place the child with a family member while this is being done. Agencies utilize a variety of practice strategies, such as safety network meetings, to find family members and to create a safe environment for the child. The agency focuses on working with family and community members to collectively create and implement a safety plan for the child.
“As CEO of the General Authority, I have personally reviewed this file in detail and met with the agency staff involved, including the director of the agency. I am confident in the decisions made. We will continue to work with this family, and engage with any collateral or partner agencies the family wishes to involve.
Debbie Besant
CEO, General Child and Family Services Authority
“I am saddened to see a family’s situation result in an apprehension, which is meant to be used as a last resort when there are serious concerns about a child’s safety.
“Our government is focused on strengthening family bonds and reducing apprehensions through child welfare system reform, priorities reinforced by Monday’s announcement of a doula initiative. Over the past year, we have seen a reduction in the number of children in care, an increase in family reunifications and a decrease in apprehensions by more than nine per cent.”
The Celestial Goddess of the Woodshed awaits to be impressed.
Thank you, Tracy, for your kind introduction. I appreciate your devoted service as Director of the Office of Tribal Justice. I first met Tracy more than 20 years ago when we were young attorneys in the Criminal Division. I am grateful to the employees of the Office of Tribal Justice for everything that they do to promote public safety in Indian Country.
I also want to thank everyone throughout the Department who works to improve our relationship with tribes and to further tribal justice, as well as those who worked to create today’s event.
It is my great privilege to join you in celebrating American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month.
The theme for this year’s observance is, “Sovereignty, Trust and Resilience.” It encourages us to reflect on the important contributions of Native Americans and Alaska Natives to the Department, and to our nation’s economic, academic, and cultural institutions.
American Indians and Alaska Natives are an indispensable part of our national fabric. They are business owners, teachers, first responders, law enforcement offices, and community leaders. They serve with honor in our Armed Forces. And they work proudly in the Department of Justice.
President Donald Trump said last month, “Native Americans have fortified our country with their traditions and values, making tremendous contributions to every aspect of our national life. We remain committed to preserving and protecting Native American cultures, languages, and history, while ensuring prosperity and opportunity for all Native Americans.”
Consistent with the President’s words, we recognize the many contributions and sacrifices by members of this community. Today, we recommit ourselves to ensuring opportunities for all Americans. Every American enriches the quality and character of our great nation.
The Department of Justice plays a unique role in the government-to-government relationship between the United States and Tribal Nations.
Our U.S. Attorney’s Offices and law enforcement components, such as the FBI and the DEA, are responsible for investigations, prosecutions, and victim services in 51 judicial districts that include Indian country. Federal prosecutors exercise criminal jurisdiction over 250 distinct regions of Indian country, covering more than 55 million acres of land.
Our offices work together with Tribal law enforcement, state and local law enforcement agencies, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to improve the safety and security of Native American and Alaska Native communities.
The Justice Department also handles a large caseload of civil litigation in Indian country. Our civil cases include matters relating to environmental and natural resources, Tribal treaty rights, and Native Americans’ civil rights.
Our grant making components provided over $259 million to Tribes last year. Those components include the Office of Justice Programs, the Office for Victims of Crime, the Office on Violence Against Women, and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Their grants support police, serve victims, combat domestic violence and sexual abuse, and strengthen tribal justice systems.
We are particularly proud of the Tribal Access Program. That effort is coordinated by the Office of Tribal Justice and the Department’s Chief Information Officer. It provides computer kiosks that allow Tribes to access federal crime databases. The kiosks allow Tribes to protect victims of domestic violence, identify sex offenders, keep guns out of criminals’ hands, and help locate missing people.
There are many success stories involving the kiosks.
Last year, the Gila River Police Department received a report about a sexual assault against a juvenile. Police quickly identified a suspect, and a warrant followed. But the suspect fled.
Using a kiosk, tribal police entered the warrant into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center, which we call NCIC. NCIC is a computerized index of criminal justice information. One of its most important functions is to help police apprehend fugitives.
When police encountered the suspect outside Tribal territory, an NCIC check revealed the tribal warrant. Police took the suspect into custody and transported him to the tribal jail where he was booked using a federal workstation.
Successes likes that would not be possible without the kiosk system. Since the program started in 2015, 47 participating Tribes have entered more than 600 sex offender registrations into the system. Participating Tribes also have entered arrest data that prevents criminals from purchasing firearms. And Tribes have conducted more than 4,500 fingerprint-based record checks for civil purposes, including employment.
The total number of tribes with kiosk access will expand to 114 by the end of 2019.
We are also proud of the Department’s new program to appoint Special Assistant United States Attorneys to work on Tribal issues. The initiative, funded through the Office on Violence Against Women, hires prosecutors to bring cases in both tribal and federal courts. That increases prosecution capacity and helps to prevent criminals from avoiding prosecution because of jurisdiction or sovereignty issues. It will promote the goal of ensuring that every perpetrator of domestic or sexual violence is brought to justice.
These initiatives demonstrate our Department’s steadfast commitment to improving public safety in Indian country by promoting coordination among tribal, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.
As part of our observance today, we are fortunate that John Tahsuda is here as a guest speaker.
Mr. Tahsuda is an enrolled member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Oklahoma State University, and a law degree from Cornell Law School.
Mr. Tahsuda then worked as the acting general counsel of the Oneida Indian Nation of New York. He also taught classes at Cornell Law School about federal Indian law, policy, and history.
Mr. Tahsuda later served as general counsel and legislative director of the National Indian Gaming Association, where he monitored legislation and policy issues affecting the organization’s 180 member tribes and assisted with their lobbying efforts.
In 2002, Mr. Tahsuda joined the staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, first as senior counsel and later as staff director. He handled policy and legislation affecting gaming, federal recognition, self-governance, and Indian health care.
From 2007 through 2017, Mr. Tahsuda worked in the private sector, providing clients with advocacy and counsel services about tribal affairs policy issues.
Last year, Mr. Tahsuda was appointed as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior. Indian Affairs manages Federal trust, treaty, and other responsibilities to 573 federally recognized Indian Tribes. Mr. Tahsuda helps to develop and interpret policies affecting Indian Affairs bureaus, offices, and programs.
He is a strong advocate for Indian country issues, and we are grateful to him for joining us today. Please welcome John Tahsuda.
FUN FACT! The term "Honkey" was given to males who were allowed to purchase and drive automobiles when they were first manufactured and sold abundantly, which was Detroit. These men would drive up to women and little girls of the darker persuasion and honk their horns as a calling card that they were willing to pay for sex, whether the woman or little girl wanted it, or not. It was a tradition for a mother to teach her daughter not to respond to the sound of a honking horn, forcing a man to walk up to the house and knock on the door as a sign of a gentleman. Mothers also taught their daughters no to respond to the term "Hey" because hay was for horses, and the little girl was not a horse, nor a baby, but a lady, and must demand to be treated as such.
But maybe that’s because Tarana Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement that has led to complaints and indictments against dozens of men — and some women — for sexual harassment and assault, is a big, bold, fierce, powerful, outspoken black woman, who is finally being seen.
And in a keynote address at the Facing Race conference that brought more than 3,500 people to Detroit to discuss social justice, Burke brought down the house, defiantly challenging the movement she started a decade before movie producer Harvey Weinstein was outed for his behavior, saying that it better pay attention to the original survivors.
Those are the young black and brown girls in urban and indigenous communities where she has worked since age 14, women whose poverty and powerlessness made them easy prey.
“The No. 1 thing I hear from folks is that the #MeToo movement has forgotten us,” she said of black, Hispanic and Native American women. “Every day, we hear some version of that. But this is what I’m here to tell you: The #MeToo movement is not defined by what the media has told you. We are the movement, and so I need you to not opt out of the #Metoo movement. ... I need you to reframe your work to include sexual violence That’s how we take back the narrative. Stop giving your power away to white folks.
“You know how many people say, ‘The #Metoo movement — well Hollywood’s got it.’ F--k Hollywood. Every time somebody asks me how I feel about them taking my movement, I say, ‘You can’t take s--t that’s mine. This is not about Tarana Burke owning something. This is about a community that I have lived in, worked in, given my blood sweat and tears to. This is our movement. Stop opting out of it.”
Burke said she will not let her movement that she founded in 2006 and that has resulted in her getting death threats and having to challenge black leaders to support it, be co-opted by pretty girls and Hollywood.
“This is not about awareness. It’s about action,” the 45-year-old activist said at Detroit’s convention center. “…With #Metoo being as big and loud as it is, we don’t need more awareness, This is about what happens after the hashtag, after the hoopla This is about the work.”
Burke’s comments comes a year after her #MeToo movement, which she founded in 2006 became a global sensation when Milano used Burke’s #MeToo hashtag on social media to draw attention to widespread sexual harassment and rape. Some began crediting Milano, an actress and activist, with founding the movement that Burke has worked in since she was 14 and crediting Milano with the hashtag that Burke began using in 2006.
Burke said last Saturday that she wants people to change the way they view sexual assault and harassment, to stop working in silos as if sexual misconduct isn’t a part of every social justice effort.
“If you’re working on mass incarceration, you’re not dealing with health care. If you’re working on economic justice, you’re not dealing with racial justice — well you probably are — but not about sexual violence,” she said. “But we’re not seeing where this (issue of sexual violence) fits in everybody else’s work. What you need to say is the #Metoo movement is in my work. The #Metoo movement is in every single thing I said. It’s in our economic justice work. It’s in our mass incarceration work. It’s in our community health work. It’s everywhere.”
She recalled trying to get community attention focused on helping junior high girls whose stories fueled her work.
“I’m at the junior high school and I have sixth, seventh and eighth grade girls and more than half of these girls’ lives have been touched by sexual violence,” she said. “And what we heard back was they need more guidance counselors.
“… If an issue is affecting any segment of our community, it affects our entire community, and we need a community response,” she said to thunderous applause. “It was very difficult to get folk to rally around this issue.”
She said she faced leaders intent on “not tarnishing the legacy of community heroes and activists.”
“We heard every manner of excuse ‘It’s really about white supremacy because our folks don’t have a history of that kind of thing back in Africa’ or ‘the real issue isn’t sexual violence, it’s false accusations against black men’ or my personal favorite ‘This is not a social justice issue; this is a social work issue.’ ”
The most vulnerable victims of sexual violence and harassment do not deserve the silence they endure in their communities outside the larger movement that is at the top of the news, she said.
She cited statistic after statistic about women who aren’t famous but attacked because of their gender identity or economic powerlessness. But the worst, she said, was the fate of indigenous and Native American women “the group we talk about the least,” she said.
She cited a Justice Department study that found that an estimated one in three Native American women will be assaulted in their lifetimes, that 92 percent of Native American girls reported having been forced to have sex against their will — and that nine of 10 Native American women and girls who survived rape or sexual assault were attacked by assailants of a different color, most of them white.
“That’s definitely a racial justice issue,” she said. “And, at the end of the day, it’s a human rights issue.”
In a powerful moment after her speech, Burke talked about life on the front lines, something else she hopes the #MeToo movement does not ignore and something, in the telling, that moved her to tears before the crowd.
“This is hard,” she said. “… These are mostly women of color, queer women of color who are dealing with layers of s—t. I’ve gotten more death threats from black men than anybody else. After Cosby was indicted and R. Kelly took off, I got tons of threats from black men.”
Some of them were death threats, she said.
“Why do we have to die?” she asked. “And I’m not saying people writing on Facebook ‘You should die!’ I’m talking about coming to your house. I’m talking about having to relocate. … This is not a game. We are in the midst of a crisis around that. I’ve got a child. I had to pull my daughter out of school over some bulls—t. I’m sorry to keep cursing, but it’s just not easy.”
Burke is not going to stop, but she wants the movement to be a movement, one that includes all survivors and enlists the aid of all soldiers fighting for justice because every justice fight can help the fight against sexual violence.
“We come to work because we are the work,” she said. “We work in these different fields because it’s our lived experiences and we have survived sexual violence in addition to other things. We watch folks find the intersection of every other issue except sexual violence. Do you know how painful it is to watch people actively not care about your lived experience? We experience it all the time.”
Burke said the movement, which began as her movement, must care as much about the original victims as it does actresses who wanted careers and producers who got away with career murder.
It was her movement that pulled the covers off what has been a way of life in America.
It was her movement that has now seen countless men felled and countless women empowered.
And her message for that crowded throng in a Detroit convention center ballroom where hundreds of people screamed to her “We got your back!” was clear: The #MeToo movement better not forget the survivors for which it was founded, the original survivors whose faces aren’t known and who don’t have agents.
Now, it is time to go after the fraud in ICWA, money laundering and campaign finance.
Department of Justice Expands Tribal Access Program to Additional 25 Tribes This Year, Department of Interior Funds the Expansion of DOJ Tribal Access Program at 31 BIA Social Services and Law Enforcement Locations by 2020
The Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior announced a dramatic expansion of the federal government’s key program that provides tribes with access to national crime information databases, the Justice Department’s Tribal Access Program for National Crime Information (TAP).
By the end of 2019, the Justice Department will expand the number of TAP participating tribes by more than 50 percent—from 47 tribes to 72. The Department of the Interior (DOI) will fund the instillation of TAP Kiosks at three locations where the BIA-Office of Indian Services (BIA-OIS) deliver direct service social services by the end of 2019 and DOI aims to expand TAP access at all 28 BIA-Office of Justice Services (BIA-OJS) operated law enforcement agencies and detention service centers. These BIA locations will provide some degree of access to TAP for services delivered to more than 50 tribal communities that currently do not have any direct access.
“For far too long, a lack of access to federal criminal databases has hurt tribal law enforcement—preventing them from doing their jobs and keeping their communities safe,” said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. “With the Tribal Access Program, participating tribes will be able to protect victims of domestic violence, register sex offenders, keep guns out of dangerous hands, and help locate missing people. This milestone demonstrates our deep commitment to strengthening public safety in Indian country.”
“I am proud to authorize the funding for the expansion of the Tribal Access Program to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to make the future of justice in Indian Country stronger,” said Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney at the 75thNational Congress of American Indians Convention today. “The Bureau of Indian Affairs is proud to grant greater access to these important databases at more locations throughout Indian Country. Performing background checks is a critical step in protecting our precious Native children in foster care, and tribal communities served by the BIA will benefit from access to this extensive public safety tool.”
“Access to information is vital to effective law enforcement,” said Trent Shores, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma and the Chairman of the Attorney General’s Advisory Subcommittee on Native American Issues. “The Tribal Access Program will enhance and improve the ability of tribal law enforcement officers to serve their communities. The Native American Issues Subcommittee is proud to support the continued expansion of this tool throughout Indian Country.
The Native American Issues Subcommittee (NAIS) is comprised of United States Attorneys with Indian Country in their federal districts. They advise the Attorney General regarding the development and implementation of policies pertaining to justice in Indian Country. The NAIS identified ‘increased law enforcement resources’ as one of four priority areas to improve justice services in Indian Country. Support for and increased dissemination of the TAP was unanimously supported by the US Attorneys at a recent NAIS meeting in Indian Country in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“We at the BIA-OJS look forward to having direct access to these vital resources,” said Deputy BIA Director for Office of Justice Services Charles Addington. “We have waited years for the opportunity to streamline how we access these critical databases and the funding authorized by AS-IA Sweeney will allow our law enforcement officers the ability to receive the information they need to do their jobs effectively and keep them safe.”
TAP, offered in two versions, TAP-FULL and TAP-LIGHT, allows tribes to more effectively serve and protect their communities by fostering the exchange of critical data through several national databases through the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) network, including the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), Next Generation Identification (NGI), National Data Exchange (N-DEx), National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP) as well as other national systems such as the International Justice and Public Safety Network (Nlets). TAP enhances tribal efforts to register sex offenders pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA); have orders of protection enforced nationwide; protect children; keep firearms away from persons who are disqualified from receiving them; improve the safety of public housing, and allow tribes to enter their arrests and convictions into national databases.
TAP-FULL consists of a kiosk workstation that provide access to national systems and is capable of processing finger and palm prints, as well as taking mugshots and submitting records to national databases. TAP-LIGHT is software for criminal agencies that include police departments, prosecutors, criminal courts, jails, and probation departments. Both versions provide federally recognized tribes the ability to access and exchange data with national crime information databases for both civil and criminal purpose. TAP is currently available to 47 tribes nationwide with over 220 tribal criminal justice and civil agencies participating.
Now that her claims of being of Indian heritage have turned out to be a scam and a lie, Elizabeth Warren should apologize for perpetrating this fraud against the American Public. Harvard called her “a person of color” (amazing con), and would not have taken her otherwise!
Pocahontas (the bad version), sometimes referred to as Elizabeth Warren, is getting slammed. She took a bogus DNA test and it showed that she may be 1/1024, far less than the average American. Now Cherokee Nation denies her, “DNA test is useless.” Even they don’t want her. Phony!
As the story goes over a few hundred years, of course Elizabeth could never tell you, many of the West African slaves when they first arrived, ran away and went down south to Florida.
Since the cultures were basically the same, they ended up procreating.
The armies came in to reclaim chattel resulting in many deaths and lots of children being sold for the purposes of christian assimilation and other nasty things.
Many left the area through force migration called the Trail of Tears but before they left, they were called out the mountains to register on the rolls.
Many did not and ran over the hills up north for fear of losing their children and being sold into Traite des Blanchesdue to the new chattel law.
The Virginia Racial Integrity Act, some of the anti-amalgamation laws being generated post-Emancipation Proclamation, began to change the chattel registration terms of mullato, quadroon, octroon, into blood quantum, where most of the tribes cut off at one-sixteenth, meaning a great-grandparent has to have been on the registration rolls and many Native Americans were registered into one of these chattel categories as "Negro", being of amalgamated decent.
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the State Registrar of Vital Statistics may as soon as practicable after the taking effect of this act, prepare a form whereon the racial composition of any individual, as Caucasian, negro, Mongolian, American Indian, Asiatic Indian, Malay, or any mixture thereof, or any other non-Caucasic strains, and if there be any mixture, then the racial composition of the parents and other ancestors, in so far as ascertainable, so as to show in what generation such mixture occurred, may be certified by such individual, which form shall be known as a registration certificate. The State Registrar may supply to each local registrar a sufficient number of such forms for the purpose of this act; each local registrar may personally or by deputy, as soon as possible after receiving said forms, have made thereon in duplicate a certificate of the racial composition as aforesaid, of each person resident in his district, who so desires, born before June fourteenth, nineteen hundred and twelve, which certificate shall be made over the signature of said person, or in the case of children under fourteen years of age, over the signature of a parent, guardian, or other person standing in loco parentis. One of said certificates for each person thus registering in every district shall be forwarded to the State Registrar for his files; the other shall be kept on file by the local registrar.
Every local registrar may, as soon as practicable, have such registration certificate made by or for each person in his district who so desires, born before June fourteen, nineteen hundred and twelve, for whom he has not on file a registration certificate, or a birth certificate.
2. It shall be a felony for any person wilfully or knowingly to make a registration certificate false as to color or race. The wilful making of a false registration or birth certificate shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for one year.
3. For each registration certificate properly made and returned to the State Registrar, the local registrar returning the same shall be entitled to a fee of twenty-five cents, to be paid by the registrant. Application for registration and for transcript may be made direct to the State Registrar, who may retain the fee for expenses of his office.
4. No marriage license shall be granted until the clerk or deputy clerk has reasonable assurance that the statements as to color of both man and woman are correct.
If there is reasonable cause to disbelieve that applicants are of pure white race, when that fact is stated, the clerk or deputy clerk shall withhold the granting of the license until satisfactory proof is produced that both applicants are "white persons" as provided for in this act.
The clerk or deputy clerk shall use the same care to assure himself that both applicants are colored, when that fact is claimed.
5. It shall hereafter be unlawful for any white person in this State to marry any save a white person, or a person with no other admixture of blood than white and American Indian. For the purpose of this act, the term "white person" shall apply only to the person who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian; but persons who have one-sixteenth or less of the blood of the American Indian and have no other non-Caucasic blood shall be deemed to be white persons. All laws heretofore passed and now in effect regarding the intermarriage of white and colored persons shall apply to marriages prohibited by this act.
6. For carrying out the purposes of this act and to provide the necessary clerical assistance, postage and other expenses of the State Registrar of Vital Statistics, twenty per cent of the fees received by local registrars under this act shall be paid to the State Bureau of Vital Statistics, which may be expended by the said bureau for the purposes of this act.
7. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act are, to the extent of such inconsistency, hereby repealed.
Appendix (excerpt)
Alexander Francis Chamberlain, A.M., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Clark University...says: "In some regions considerable intermixture between negroes and Indians (Science, New York, Vol. XVII, 1891 pp. 85-90), has occurred, e.g., among the Pamunkeys, Mattoponies, and some other small Virginia and Carolinian tribes." "It is also thought probable that many of the negroes of the whole lower Atlantic coast and Gulf region may have strains of Indian blood." This probably accounts for the increasing number of negroes who are now writing to our Bureau demanding that the color on their birth certificates and marriage licenses be given as "Indian."
"Damn that science & technology!"
Assuming that Elizabeth was aware of all these arcane laws, perhaps, this was her way of calling for the enforcement of the One-Drop Rule, but in this day in age, applied to genotypes and DNA testing.
In essence, if you have one drop of "non-white blood", or, in this instance, one tiny chromosome marker that shows you in the 1/1000th range, you are automatically, by default of that one, contaminated drop of blood, forever associated with that group, or race, or whatever pseudo-scientific labeling system they use for data registration for predictive modeling crap.
Yes, by this same logic, racial purity classification applies to anyone who has one-drop of the Negro blood which is why it is impossible to implement any type of reparations because everyone has had someone in their cookie jar at some point in their U.S. genealogy.
In short, this chattel classification of the one-drop racial purity laws are a joke and begs the question as to why we continue to teach this out dated method of human asset management when we are filing patents left and right on human genomes and protein strands.
That racial horse and buggy is being traumatized by those fandangled motor cars!
And that is why Elizabeth Warren will never be legally recognized, under U.S. Laws as being a registered, card carrying member of any North American Native Tribe, because if she did have a tribal card, she could cross any North American border without a passport.
I bet she cannot even tell one personal story of children being ripped from their parents to be put into Indian boarding schools or of family members living in abject poverty on reservations that have yet to get a casino to launder money for political campaigns or access to sovereign land for special projects.
All I can say is that everyone should keep having babies and check whatever race box you wish for the birth certificate, just to skew the data for their crappy predictive modeling because it is really fun to screw up and invalidate their fake theories and methodologies, based upon horse and buggy methodologies.
WASHINGTON — Senator Elizabeth Warren has released a DNA test that provides “strong evidence’’ she had a Native American in her family tree dating back 6 to 10 generations, an unprecedented move by one of the top possible contenders for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president.
Warren, whose claims to Native American blood have been mocked by President Trump and other Republicans, provided the test results to the Globe on Sunday in an effort to defuse questions about her ancestry that have persisted for years. She planned an elaborate rollout Monday of the results as she aimed for widespread attention.
The analysis of Warren’s DNA was done by Carlos D. Bustamante, a Stanford University professor and expert in the field who won a 2010 MacArthur fellowship, also known as a , for his work on tracking population migration via DNA analysis.He concluded that “the vast majority” of Warren’s ancestry is European, but he added that “the results strongly support the existence of an unadmixed Native American ancestor.”
Bustamante calculated that Warren’s pure Native American ancestor appears in her family tree “in the range of 6-10 generations ago.” That timing fits Warren’s family lore, passed down during her Oklahoma upbringing, that her great-great-great-grandmother, O.C. Sarah Smith, was at least partially Native American.
Smith was born in the late 1700s. She identified as white in historical documents, though at the time Indians faced discrimination, and Smith would have had strong incentives to call herself white if possible.
The inherent imprecision of the six-page DNA analysis could provide fodder for Warren’s critics. If O.C. Sarah Smith were fully Native American, that would make Warren up to 1/32nd native. But the generational range based on the ancestor that the report identified suggests she’s between 1/64th and 1/1,024th Native American. The report notes there could be missed ancestors.
Undergoing the test and releasing the results reveal how seriously Warren is taking the attacks from Trump, who has been able to effectively caricature and diminish his national foes via nicknames and conspiracy theories. Trump pushed then President Barack Obama into releasing the long form of his birth certificate to prove what most knew was already true: He was born in America.
The move is also another indication of how seriously Warren is considering running for president. And while it’s unclear whether the test will convince Trump and his die-hard supporters, Warren will be able to point to it with other, more open-minded voters. Once Obama produced his birth certificate in 2011, the racist “birther’’ movement, which thrived on the Internet and was stoked by Trump, largely evaporated.
Warren is seeking reelection in Massachusetts and is expected to easily win a second term. She has said that she will take a “hard look” at running for the Democratic nomination for president once the midterm elections are over. She’s already released 10 years worth of her tax returns and made her personnel files available to The Boston Globe, showing that ethnicity was not a factor in her rise in law.
By taking a DNA test, Warren is showing that if she runs for president, she plans to be a very different candidate than Hillary Clinton was. The 2016 Democratic nominee for president chafed at releasing personal information and was dogged throughout her campaign by her use of a private server while she was secretary of state.
Warren provided a sample of her DNA to a private lab in Georgia in August, according to one of the senator’s aides. The data from that test was sent to Bustamante and his team for analysis. Warren received the report last week.
Warren didn’t use a commercial service, but Bustamante is on the scientific advisory board for Ancestry, which provides commercial DNA tests. He’s also consulted on a project for 23andMe, another major DNA testing company.
Warren said she was committed to releasing the report regardless of the results. However, Warren’s aides would not say whether she or any of her three siblings had previously done a commercial DNA test that would have provided them with some assurance about Bustamante’s analysis.
There were five parts of Warren’s DNA that signaled she had a Native American ancestor, according to the report. The largest piece of Native American DNA was found on her 10th chromosome, according to the report. Each human has 23 pairs of chromosomes.
“It really stood out,” said Bustamante in an interview. “We found five segments, and that long segment was pretty significant. It tells us about one ancestor, and we can’t rule out more ancestors.”
He added: “We are confident it is not an error.”
Detecting DNA for Native Americans is particularly tricky because there is an absence of Native American DNA available for comparison. This is in part because Native American leaders have asked tribal members not to participate in genetic databases.
“The tribes have felt they have been exploited,” explained Lawrence Brody, a senior investigator with the Medical Genomics and Metabolic Genetics Branch at the National Institutes of Health. “The amount of genetic data that is available from Native Americans is sparse.”
To make up for the dearth of Native American DNA, Bustamante used samples from Mexico, Peru, and Colombia to stand in for Native American. That’s because scientists believe that the groups Americans refer to as Native American came to this land via the Bering Strait about 12,000 years ago and settled in what’s now America but also migrated further south. His report explained that the use of reference populations whose genetic material has been fully sequenced was designed “for maximal accuracy.”
Bustamante said he can tease out the markers that these South Americans would have in common with Native Americans on the North American continent.
Bustamante also compared Warren’s DNA to white populations in Utah and Great Britain to determine if the amounts of Native American markers in Warren’s sample were significant or just background noise.
Warren has 12 times more Native American blood than a white person from Great Britain and 10 times more than a white person from Utah, the report found.
Warren has come under blistering attacks from Trump for making claims of Native American heritage. His taunts of her as “Pocahontas” have become part of his standard rally monologue.
Earlier this month at rally in Iowa, Trump said he hoped Warren would run for president because it would allow him to find out “whether or not she has Indian blood.”
In July, during a rally in Montana, Trump imagined debating Warren during the 2020 presidential election and said that he’d try to make her take a DNA test by throwing it at her onstage. “We have to do it gently, because we’re in the #MeToo generation, so we have to be very gentle,” Trump said.
He also offered to provide $1 million to her charity of choice if she takes the test.
Warren’s Senate campaign has used clips from Trump and his spokeswoman Sarah Sanders attacking her for making the Native American claims in a slickly.
There’s even footage of Warren calling Bustamante to get the results of her DNA test.
“The president likes to call my mom a liar. What do the facts say?” asks Warren, sitting at a desk by behind a Macintosh laptop.
“The facts suggest that you absolutely have Native American ancestry in your pedigree,” replies Bustamante, who was also captured on film by Warren’s team.
Bustamante is considered one of the leading DNA analysts in the world. When several DNA experts were asked by the Globe, earlier this year, how they’d recommend Warren go about taking a DNA test, his name came up repeatedly.
He has never donated to Warren’s campaigns. (A different California professor with the same name donated $200 to Obama in 2008, federal records show.)
Questions over Warren’s ethnicity have dogged her since her 2012 Senate campaign. That’s when GOP operatives found archival stories in the Harvard Crimson of a Harvard Law School spokesman referring to her as a Native American as a way to show the school had a diverse faculty.
During her academic career as a law professor, she had her ethnicity changed from white to Native American at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she taught from 1987 to 1995, and at Harvard University Law School, where she was a tenured faculty member starting in 1995. (She was a visiting professor at Harvard during the 1992-1993 academic year.)
In an interview with the Globe published last month, Warren explained that she identified herself as Native American in the late 1980s and early 1990s as many of the matriarchs of her family were dying and she began to feel that her family stories and history were becoming lost.
Ivy League universities, like the ones where Warren taught, were under great pressure to show they had diverse staffs.
The University of Pennsylvania filled out a document explaining why it hired a white woman over minority candidates — clear evidence it didn’t view her as a Native American addition. And the Globe interviewed 31 Harvard Law School faculty members who voted on her appointment there, and all said her heritage was not a factor.
Correction:
Due to a math error, a story about Elizabeth Warren misstated the ancestry percentage of a potential 6th to 10th generation relative. The generational range based on the ancestor that the report identified suggests she’s between 1/64th and 1/1,024th Native American.
