I'm no fan of Warren, not by a long shot, but that's not what she did. Here's the story - if we're going to hold this against her, we need to get it right:
She earned her law degree and became a law professor at "lesser tier" law schools like Rutgers, University of Houston, and University of Texas. By all accounts she was a good prof and we can't take that from her.
However, she wanted to up her game and become a prof at a top tier law school.
One of her stratagems, apparently, for doing so, was listing herself as a Native American in the AALS Directory of Law Teachers, which was the "Who's Who" of the law professor world. Whether UPenn picked her up because they wanted to hire a female minority is open to speculation, but it's pretty apparent that Harvard did when they "stole" Warren from UPenn in the mid 1990s. At the time, Harvard Law was under pressure from its students and others for a lack of diversity in the faculty, particularly minority women.
At the time of her hire, Harvard Law touted Warren as a diversity hire. Of course, they won't admit it now, and everyone will say she was hired because of her qualifications, but what would you expect them to say? "Yeah, we hired her because she's a minority woman?"
Warren stopped listing herself as a Native American shortly after she was hired by Harvard.
Of note: When questioned why she self-identified as a Native American in the directory, Warren has stated (and I'm paraphrasing) that it was because she wanted to socialize / meet up with other Native Americans like herself. Which she never did. There are stories out there in the ether from actual Native American students where she taught who say she never participated in clubs, events, or anything of the sort for Native Americans.
She is 100% guilty of cultural appropriation for economic gain, and only gets a pass because she's a progressive darling.
Thank you for that succinct explanation regarding the faux Indian Elizabeth Warren. It should be turned into a meme for everyone to see.