Mass. Senate hopeful explains listing of heritage

BRAINTREE, Mass. (AP) -- Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren says she listed herself as having Native American heritage in law school directories because she hoped to meet people with similar roots.

Warren, a Harvard Law School professor, said Wednesday that she never tried to use minority status to get teaching jobs and criticized Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown's campaign for suggesting that may have been the case.

The Boston Herald reported on Warren's remarks, which came during a campaign stop in Braintree.

Warren, who grew up in Oklahoma, has said she's proud of her family ties to Cherokee and Delaware tribes -- a heritage she said she learned through stories passed down to her from older family members.

A genealogist in Massachusetts uncovered evidence that Warren's great-great-great grandmother had listed herself as Cherokee in an 1894 document.