Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Tuesday apologized for previously identifying as Native American.
Warren, who apologized recently to the Cherokee Nation for taking a DNA test to show that she had Native American ancestry, told The Washington Post that the apology was meant to include identifying herself as Native American while at a professor at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.
{mosads}”I told him I was sorry for furthering confusion about tribal citizenship,” Warren told the Post. “I am also sorry for not being more mindful about this decades ago. We had a good conversation.”
“I can’t go back,” Warren also told the newspaper. “But I am sorry for furthering confusion on tribal sovereignty and tribal citizenship and harm that resulted.”
Her apology comes hours before President Trump will give his State of the Union address.
Julie Hubbard, a spokeswoman for the Cherokee Nation, declined to discuss with the Post the extent of the conversation between Warren and Bill John Baker, the principal chief of the Cherokee nation.
Warren, who is likely running for president, faced criticism in previous campaigns for telling law school administrators at Harvard and Penn that she was Native American. Warren was a law professor at both universities.
The Post reported Tuesday that Warren also identified herself as “American Indian” on her registration card for the State Bar of Texas.
The card is dated April 1986. According to the Post, it is the first document to surface that shows Warren claiming in her own handwriting to be Native American.
Warren filled out the registration card after being admitted to the Texas bar.
Last year, Warren publicly released the results of a DNA test showing the existence of a Native American ancestor.
The test, which showed that the vast majority of her ancestry was European, sparked backlash from some Native American groups. Warren apologized to the Cherokee Nation for the test.