Kirkpatrick’s Native Tongue: Sunday’s Comic

Don’t be surprised if when talking to Ann Kirkpatrick she slips from English into Navajo, Apache or Gaelic…

Kirkpatrick Sparks Outrage With Apache As First Language Claim

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s comments about Senator Elizabeth Warren during a ceremony to honor Navajo Code Talkers, former congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick claimed in a Facebook post that Apache was her “first language.” The claim shocked close associates, who know that her native tongue is English.

Related article: Navajo Nation President Declines To Engage In Trump, Warren Feud, Turns Focus To Heroes

Kirkpatrick, like Warren, seems to have appropriated the Native American culture to advance her career, according to friends and family from Northern Arizona. While Kirkpatrick may have spent her early youth on the Apache reservation in northern Arizona, her father, an American of European descent, spoke Apache while running a trading post, according to sources. The trading post served members of the Apache Tribe and catered to mostly White pulp mill workers.

Both of Kirkpatrick’s parents are Americans of European descent. Generally speaking, a person’s “first language” is that language which is spoken at home. According to sources, Kirkpatrick may have had a babysitter, whose first language was Apache, but the language was not the primary language in thehome. When Kirkpatrick was in second grade, her family moved off the reservation to Pinetop-Lakeside. While Kirkpatrick may have uttered the Apache words mááʼ “mother,” or taa “father,” that would likely have been the extent of her “first language” say sources.


Sergio Arellano, a native to southern Arizona and community activist, questioned Kirkpatrick’s motives behind the claim. “This brings back memories of when Fred DuVal, who was running for governor at the time, sprayed himself tan and superimposed his image behind bottles of Dos Equis, trying to look Hispanic,” said Arellano in an interview on the James T. Harris show. “That exposed the fact that these Democrats are not only uncomfortable with their own identities; they lack diversity in their party. They have these Anglos moving in from other districts – coming down – trying to relate to the diverse population in another district – namely CD2. Then she claims that she speaks Apache, and that’s her first language?”

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