"The whole is-she or isn’t-she uproar over U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) is interesting, but not for what you might think at first.

On the surface, the issue seems to be about a politician who may have used her minimal Native American blood status to help her on her way up, but if you look at how the debate has been shaped after that revelation it actually says more about the inroads some have made to erode Native rights.

The reporting first targeted what appeared to be an attempt to defraud the affirmative action system, but soon other stories began appearing that sought to “examine” what constitutes tribal membership and how some tribes have enacted policies to drastically restrict it as a way to preserve not only their culture but the resources from which the tribe benefits."

Get the Story:
Rick Romancito: Tribal sovereignty in the cross hairs (The Taos 6/18)