Elizabeth Warren's ancestor was a soldier who reportedly fought against the Seminole tribe twice in the past
Despite Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-MA) claim that she was a descendant of a native American tribe, a report suggested that one of her ancestors might actually have been a soldier who fought against the indigenous people of the nation.
According to a report by conservative news medium Breitbart, Warren's great-great-great-grandfather was Jonathan Crawford, a man who served in Major William Lauderdale's Battalion of Tennessee Volunteer Militia from November 1837 to May 1838 — the same battalion which fought two wars against the Seminole tribe in Florida.
On January 24, 1838, Lauderdale's battalion fought against the Seminoles at the Battle of Loxahatchee River. They fought another war against the tribal people called the Battle of Pine Island, in present-day Fort Lauderdale, on March 22, 1838.
A description of the Second Seminole War on the tribe's official page says that the "US government committed almost $40,000,000 to the forced removal of slightly more than 3,000 Maskókî men, women, and children from Florida to Oklahoma. This was the only Indian war in US history in which not only the US army but also the US navy and marine corps participated."
"Unlike the 'Trail of Tears' that took place in a single, dreadful moment in 1838 where several thousand Cherokee people were sent on a death march to the West, the removals of the Seminole people from Florida began earlier and lasted 20 years longer. Just like that other event, however, the toll in human suffering was profound and the stain on the honor of a great nation, the United States, can never be erased," the description added.
The Breitbart Report added that Jonathan Crawford's widow, Neoma O.C. Sarah Smith Crawford, submitted evidence of her husband's service during the 1837-1838 Second Seminole War to the Bledsoe County Commission of Bledsoe County, Tennessee in 1850 and 1851, in order to claim a pension from the US government.
"JONATHAN CRAWFORD was a Private in Capt. Richard Waterhouse's Company in the Florida War and died shortly after his return, from disease contracted there. Is not his widow entitled to a pension?" William Brown, the chairman of the Bledsoe County Court wrote in 1851, an observation later documented in the book 'Sequatchie Valley Revolutionary War Soldiers'.
Neoma was granted her pension request in 1853. For the next six years, she received a pension of $3.50 per month. Jonathan and Neoma were parents of Sen. Warren’s great-great-grandfather Preston H. Crawford.
After President Donald Trump branded her "Pocahontas" over her claims of having a tribal ancestry and she faced considerable backlash from her supporters, the Democratic presidential candidate offered a public apology last month at a forum on Native American issues.
"Like anyone who has been honest with themselves, I know I have made mistakes," she said. "I am sorry for the harm I have caused." Breitbart's report was published just hours before debate night for Democratic candidates in Houston, Texas, on Thursday, September 12, where Warren will be up on the stage.