It seems they have no word in defining themselves, it's the white folks who came up with all sort of classifications. As in this case, where the native Americans have a totally different idea than the said senator.

In the year 2018, it is Cherokee people who define who is and who isn't a Cherokee.

The history behind such definitions is certainly up for discussion, but the fact is that in this area, at least, Cherokee people have autonomy, backward or not.

What! Dissension in the ranks!

Anyway at least Trump has fallen into line that Warren was claiming Indian heritage.

I hope so, although I don't know how much real help they get from their government. As in that article you mentioned here, they have huge issues that are overlooked and taken advantage of (poverty for instance).
What did that senator do for them? Or it's only the glory and romantic aura she was after?

You have already been shown that Ms Warren was claiming more than "Indian heritage" back in the eighties and nineties.

Lost your reading glasses again?

She did nothing. She even refused to meet with native representatives. That's why so many native Americans are pissed off with her.

I have only been shown that Warren ticked the box nearest to the position she wanted to convey.

Or are you claiming there was a box labelled "heritage claims only"

Again, but in English?

As a Senator, she never claimed to represent native Americans. Here is her Senate profile.

The native Americans refused to consider her heritage claims and are now saying "she did not help us"?

Wooosshh (my first woosh, I am so proud )

Some native Americans considered her claims. Her geneology was researched in great detail. Tribal rolls were consulted. The conclusion was that Ms Warren was as white as a Klansman in a snowstorm. It has not stopped Ms Warren from banging on about her Cherokee/Delaware grandmother and "high cheekbones" [sic] at every opportunity, followed up by this risible (and meaningless) DNA test.

You can hardly blame some of them for expecting just a little bit of recognition from a sister in the Senate, can you?

Bit early to be on the sherry, old boy. The perks of retirement, eh?

Now that Warren has demonstarted she isn't a real Indian, and that Trump isn't a real cowboy, what are they going to play instead? Doctors and nurses?

Somehow seemed relevant to games

An interesting take here.

I don't agree with everything this article says, mind you, and there is some tendency to oversimplify, but some interesting perspective nevertheless.

Why White Americans Love To Claim Native Ancestry

I thought they all wanted to be Scottish and Irish.

They love to claim all those things at once.

It means keeping their options open.

Warren is a US Senator.
If they had any sense they would have confirmed her; or at least made her an honorary Cherokee like Sam Houston; now Johnny Depp is a Comanche then the sky is the limit!

Johnny Depp Adopted by the Comanche Nation.

Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth

So she got upset and decided not to raise a finger for improving her people's condition....what is she, 4 y.o. or smth.? Btw, she does look a bit the opportunistic type to me - she was republican till '96 and then switched to the other camp...I don't know about others but I, for one, have a negative opinion of politicians like that.

Wikipedia: Johnny Depp - Claims of Native American ancestry

"In 2013, Depp's genealogy was analyzed by third-party researchers at Ancestry.com, who discovered the ancestors he believed to be Native American were in fact African-American. Despite this discovery, Depp continued to claim or imply he was Native American."

Seems to be in the job description for doin' a politicianing these days.