Members of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes are planning a peaceful protest Saturday at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention in Springfield.
Senate candidate and Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren, who is challenging current Senator Scott Brown, R-Mass., has angered Cherokees for claiming she has Native American ancestry without being able to substantiate those assertions.
"Massachusetts senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has thus far refused to acknowledge that her claims of being Cherokee have been proven false," a call to action statement posted on the website for "Cherokees Demand Truth from Elizabeth Warren" stated.
"She continues to perpetuate myth and stereotype regarding indigenous Peoples," the statement added. "Elizabeth Warren and others like her must understand OUR history belongs to us and no one has the right to try to rewrite it or make up fictitious stories so they can fit in it or take advantage of it."
The controversy began when information became public that Warren was listed as a professor of minority descent when she was a visiting scholar at Harvard University. Warren says she told Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania of her heritage only after she had been hired.
But the Cherokees attending Saturday's rallies have less of an issue with timing and logistics and more with the fact that Warren cannot substantiate her heritage claims.
On the aforementioned website, the group traces her genealogy back three generations, highlighting her mother's family has consistently been listed as "white" on census records. Never was a member of her mother's line listed under the Special Schedule for Indians, present around the turn of the century.
Native American journalists also claim Warren has consistently snubbed them while using her minority status to get ahead academically. But Warren insists her mother's Native American heritage was serious enough to force her parents to elope.
"Growing up, my mother and my grandparents and my aunts and uncles often talked about our family's Native American heritage," Warren said in a statement issued on May 30. "As a kid, I never thought to ask them for documentation - what kid would? - but that doesn't change the fact that it is a part of who I am and part of my family heritage."
"My Native American heritage is part of who I am, I'm proud of it and I have been open about it. The people of Massachusetts are concerned about their jobs, the future for their kids, and the security of retirement. It's past time we moved on to the important issues facing middle class families in Massachusetts," she added.
But Warren admitted Thursday to the Boston Globe she is worried about her campaign, saying she is "concerned" and unable to focus on the important things, like Scott Brown's voting record.
Warren will face Brown in the November Senate elections. Brown won an interim election in 2010 after the passing of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy.
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