Not to pile on, but regarding being fine, jailed for using the wrong pronoun. I see this fallacy a lot, where people read something, somewhere, and then believe something. I work in research. All information is not equal. When you are writing a paper, you are to quote original sources (say, the government website) rather than a blog that might have a political agenda. A lot of trouble can be avoided, if people just read the original sources rather than what are really opinion pieces. Not that opinion pieces don't have their place and value. but if you are trying to determine a fact (will I get fined if I accidently call someone the wrong pronoun) it is best to look at the original source, such as the law. And as far as well, someone can misinterprete the law, isn't that theoretically true for all laws? Why make something into something it isn't?
Elizabeth Warren claiming to have 1/32 American Indian heritage does not harm anyone. Has she tried to join a tribe? Get American indian discounts or benefits? Why do you all care so much? Republicans by calling her Pocahantas and Fauxahantas, have brought up her heritage many orders of magnitude more than she has, ever. Conservatives have a bigger obsession about it than she does. And the fact is, there are many people in the US who have some fraction of American Indian and/or African American heritage. One of my best friends does. The the longer your family has been in this country, (think mayflower era) the MORE likely you have some of that heritage in your background. She may not be able to prove it. Many census records during those times were whitewashed, usually by the people themselves because it was socially and sometimes even legally impermissible to have those unions. It affected your social and possibly economic standing to advertise it. Maybe read up on history before you make snap judgments.
The relationship between colonists and Native peoples was very complex and changed over time. Here is a snip from wikipedia.
"From 1835-1837 the Cherokees living in what is now Arkansas and Oklahoma were joined by thousands of Cherokees who moved under the terms of the treaty of New Echota, signed on 29 December 1835. The Old Settlers Roll of 1851 and the Drennen Payment Roll of 1851 are the best sources of the names of people who voluntarily moved west. They are both reproduced on the Old Setters Roll (FHL book 970.3 C424wa) and their heirs who received a payment resulting from a decision of the U.S. Court of Claims of 6 June 1893. The payment roll has been microfilmed by the Fort Worth Branch of the National Archives (control number 7RA34) (Family History Library film 830420) and an index to the roll is available as National Archives Microfilm Publication T985 (Family History Library film 830419).
Most Cherokees, however, refused to relocate because to do so would mean the government could confiscate any land in their possession. These Cherokees were forcibly moved by the Federal government in 1838-1839 in what has come to be called the Trail of Tears. There is no consolidated list of all the people on the Trail of Tears (or their descendants), but the national Archives in Washington, D.C. does have numerous muster rolls prepared by the military officers in charge of the removal parties. Robert S. Cotterill's The Southern Indians (Family History Library book 970.1 C828s) is an excellent source of information about the Five Civilized Tribes before removal. Also, the numerious footnotes to the various books by Grant Foreman are a source of valuable information about the tribes both before and after removal. One excellent source by Grant Foreman is The Five Civilized Tribes: Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole (Family History Library book 970.1 F761f)."