Elizabeth Warren’s slight Native American roots were used several times by Harvard University in an attempt to show the diversity of their staff during the 1990s, after the school had been criticized for having a predominantly white male faculty. According to the Boston Herald:
Elizabeth Warren’s avowed Native American heritage—which the candidate rarely if ever discusses on the campaign trail—was once touted by embattled Harvard Law School officials who cited her claim as proof of their faculty’s diversity. …
"Of 71 current Law School professors and assistant professors, 11 are women, five are black, one is Native American and one is Hispanic," The Harvard Crimson quotes then-Law School spokesman Mike Chmura as saying in a 1996 article. The Crimson added that 83 percent of the Law School’s students believed the number of minority women on staff was inadequate. …
The Crimson noted Warren’s heritage again in 1998 when Lani Guinier became the first black woman tenured at the law school, mentioning that Warren was "the first woman with a minority background to be tenured."
