But what is Warren’s claim exactly? Her claim is that “These are my family stories. This is what my brothers and I were told by my mom and my dad.” That her mom’s family was part Native American, that her Dad’s family opposed their relationship on those grounds, etc, etc. Could be true, could be a boilerplate star-struck lovers romance story using Native American ancestry as some gloss for something less interesting. Native Americans have been used symbolically in storytelling for centuries, why should family histories be exempt?
So let’s say Warren takes the test, and she’s got no Native American ancestry. It may or may not mean that her parents were liars, it may just mean they were mistaken, or that someone even further back was a liar. I don’t see how it says much about Warren herself other than she believed a story her parents told her, considering (and I disagree with Warb here) that it was pretty plausible. A small amount of ancestry from any source is unlikely to be visible at all.
Let’s say she takes the test, and she’s got Native American ancestry. That’s just time to move the goalposts. Do the tests have an error rate? (yes they do, BTW) Was the percentage detected lower than that required to claim tribal membership? Why did she wait so long to take it? Does she have some sort of embarrassing medical condition that could be detected in her blood? Did she fake the test with someone else’s blood? Benghazi!
I think Warren believes, correctly, that taking the blood test will no more end the story than being thoroughly investigated and cleared by the FBI. There is no upside to being an active part of the story. The only possible outcomes are that she may prove that her parents were mistaken and get called a liar for it, or prove that they weren’t and get called a liar for it.
