Global Courant 2023-05-06 02:59:18
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An anthropology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, whose identity as a Native American has been questioned for years, apologized this week for falsely identifying as Native, saying she is “a white person” who lived an identity based on family tradition.
Elizabeth Hoover, an associate professor of environmental science, policy and management, apologized posted on its website on Monday that she claimed an identity as a woman of Mohawk and Mi’kmaq descent, but never confirmed that identity with those communities or explored her ancestry until recently.
“I have done damage,” Hoover wrote. “I have hurt Indigenous people who have been my friends, colleagues, students and family, both directly through broken trust and through triggering historical damage. This pain has also interrupted the lives and careers of students and teachers. I recognize that I could have avoided all this pain by researching and confirming my family stories earlier. I am deeply sorry for this.”
Hoover’s alleged Indigenous roots came into question in 2021 after her name appeared on an “Alleged Pretendian List”.
Hoover first expressed doubts about her ethnic identity last year when she said in an October post on her website that she had done genealogical research and found “no tribal citizenship data for any of my relatives in the tribal databases accessed.”
Her statement caused a stir, and some of her former students wrote a letter demanded her resignation in November. The letter was signed by hundreds of students and scientists from UC Berkeley and other universities, along with members of Native American communities. It also called for her to apologise, stop identifying as Indigenous and acknowledge she had caused harm, among other demands.
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“As scholars embedded in the kinship networks of our communities, we find Hoover’s repeated attempts to distinguish herself from settlers with similar stories and her claims that she gained experience as an Indigenous person by dancing to powwows absolutely appalling,” the letter reads.
Janet Gilmore, a spokesperson for UC Berkeley, said in a statement she could not comment on whether Hoover will be subject to disciplinary action.
“However, we are aware of and support the ongoing effort to achieve restorative justice in a way that recognizes and addresses the extent to which this issue has caused harm and distress to members of our community,” Gilmore added.
Hoover is the latest person to apologize for falsely claiming a racial or ethnic identity.
US Senator Elizabeth Warren angered many Indians during her 2018 presidential campaign, when she used the results of a DNA test to try and refute the ridicule of then-President Donald Trump, who had derisively called her “fake Pocahontas.”
Despite the DNA results, which showed some evidence of a Native American in Warren’s lineage, likely six to 10 generations ago, Warren is not a member of any tribe, and DNA tests are not typically used as evidence to determine tribal citizenship.
Warren later issued a public apology at a forum on Native American issues and said she was “sorry for the damage I’ve done”.
2015, Rachel Dolezal was fired as head of the Spokane, Washington, chapter of the NAACP and was kicked out of a police ombudsman commission after her parent told local media that their daughter was born white but presented herself as black. She also lost her job teaching African studies at Eastern Washington University in nearby Cheney.
Hoover said her identity was called into question after she started her first job as an assistant professor. She began teaching at UC Berkeley in Fall 2020.
“At the time, I interpreted inquiries into the validity of my Indigenous identity as petty jealousy or people just wanting to interfere in my life,” she wrote.
Hoover said she grew up in rural upstate New York thinking she was someone of mixed Mohawk, Mi’kmaq, French, English, Irish and German descent, and attended food summits and powwows. Her mother shared stories of her grandmother who was a Mohawk woman who married an abusive French Canadian man and committed suicide, leaving her children to be raised by someone else.
She said she would no longer identify as Indigenous, but would continue to help with food sovereignty and environmental justice movements in Indigenous communities that ask her for her support.
In her apology issued Monday, Hoover acknowledged that she benefited from programs and funding aimed at Indigenous scholars and said she is committed to the restorative justice process taking place on campus, “as well as supporting restorative justice processes in other circles that I have been involved in, where my participation is invited.”
