In the better late than never category, The Boston Globe has published the article Warren’s extended family split about heritage with the subhead Some recall, others deny any links to Native Americans. This is the article The Boston Globe should have published instead of initially falling for Scott Brown’s attempt to make this an issue with which to challenge Warren’s credibility. The damage the newspaper did in the beginning may be impossible for it to erase now.

It is an extensive article which you ought to read for yourself, but I have chosen the following excerpt to give you an idea of the conclusion.

The article starts off with a story about Ina Mapes.

Mapes, a mother of four who volunteers in a clothing bank, is a second cousin to US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren. The two women, who have never met, share more DNA than most second cousins: Not only were their grandmothers sisters, their grandfathers were brothers. Those brothers — a team of carpenters named Harry and Everett Reed who plied their trade in the Indian Territory that would become the state of Oklahoma — are believed by some family members to have roots in the Delaware tribe. Mapes, who said she was unaware of her cousin’s candidacy until contacted by a reporter, said she does not doubt her heritage.

Surprisingly, early on in the article it says:

But other cousins, some of whom also do not know Warren, say they know nothing of Native American blood in the family. According to one family biography, on file at the California State University at Fullerton, one of Warren’s relatives once shot at an Indian.

What are they implying? It is not as if one Indain never shot at another Indian, or no Christian ever shot at another Christian, or no Jew ever shot at another Jew, or no European American ever shot at another European American.

Sharon’s great-grandfather wrote in his brief autobiography A Brief Sketch of The Life of a Confederate Soldier AND THE UPS AND DOWNS During Pioneer and Indian Warfare in Texas:

I am American born, aboriginal American by birth. On my fathers side am of Black Hawk and Tecumcie, on my mothers side Grey Horse and Wyandott, of the Tribes and Decendants of Minnini.
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On joining Winfield Scott at Marshall, father, my brothers and myself, I was promoted to Major and hold that rank to this day. I put in six years, nine months and two days under Winfield Scott, Bowie, General Sam Houston, Sickle and Deaf Smith, in the Mexican or Frontier War (what I term the “cut throat war”).
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Lieutenant Cummons and I not only fought together in the War between the States but in the Spanish and American War sixteen months, having come in close contact with each other during the Pioneer or Indian War.
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The Yankees were wanting men to fight Indians. They would come around every day, trying to get us to sign up, offering us $100.00 in real green back if we would desert the Confederacy and go with them and fight the Indians and $25.00 a month for two years, and if the war was not ended and we wanted a discharge at the end of two years we could get it.

My mess mate and myself caught a hole open after we had signed up for our bounty. Of course we became trusties. We were doomed at the time to be Yankee soldiers, being detailed as Quartermaster and Assistant. I played asleep, my pal being on guard. Finally the Captain of the bunch lay down and being sound asleep my pal came to me saying “now is our time to get away.” So that ends our career in the Rock Island prison camp, by an old Confederate soldier.

I infer from these passages that Sharon’s Native American great-grandfather may have shot at other Native Americans or at least worked on the non-Native American side in some wars against them.