New England Diary

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'Pocahontas' should take a DNA test

Portrait engraving  done in 1616 of  Pocahontas.

Adapted from Robert Whitcomb's "Digital Diary,'' in GoLocal24.com:

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who’s apparently thinking about running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, has been bedeviled by criticism from President Trump  (who calls her “Pocahontas’’) and other Republicans about her assertion that she has Native American ancestors. Other than referring to family stories,  she hasn’t come up with  indisputable proof. Well, she could take a DNA test. Such tests aren’t perfect, but if it does show she has Indian blood that would end the debate.


Some families have myths about their ancestors that last for many generations.  For example, there was long a story in part of my father's family that there been in-breeding between their English colonist ancestors in eastern Massachusetts and members of the Wampanoag Tribe. And indeed, some members of my father's family, including himself, looked a bit Native American -- reddish brown skin, etc. My father looked like an Indian brave crossed with the Arrow Collar Man.

But my sister did a DNA on herself and found no evidence of Native American (perhaps more accurately called Siberian American) ancestry. Maybe they just looked Welsh....