Academia, Society

University of California Professor Under Fire After Lifelong Claims Of Being Cherokee Are Challenged

2A90845700000578-0-image-a-7_1436998678002SequoyahThe academic world is facing another professor accused of misrepresenting her ethnic background. Andrea Smith, an associate professor at the University of California Riverside has written extensively on Native American subjects and long claimed Cherokee heritage. However, critics have said that Smith is no Cherokee — a scandal reminiscent of Elizabeth Warren scandal after her lifetime claim of being a Native American were debunked. Likewise a former University of Colorado professor and radical “Native American” writer Ward Churchill was found to have phony claims of being Native American. The question is what is the proper response of a school if an academic long claimed such a status, which comes with obvious benefits from schools seeking to diversify their faculties. On one hand, there can be a question of academic honestly while on the other academics can claim that they were acting in good faith on the basis of family accounts or misguided assumptions.

David Cornsilk, a Cherokee genealogist found no evidence of Cherokee bloodlines for Smith and added “Wannabes like Andrea use the myths of Cherokees hiding in the hills, passing for white or being saved by righteous whites, to perpetuate their lies.”

Cornsilk has said that Smith came to him repeatedly to establish Cherokee roots and that each time he told her that no such links existed. Critics say that Smith continued to represent herself as a Native American woman and a minority. Media reports state that various people confronted Smith about her claims to be a Cherokee in the past at academic conferences and appearances and claim that she promised to stop doing so.

Smith has not responded directly to reporters and it is not clear how much of the research on her background is being contested. She issued a somewhat encryptic statement that “I have consistently identified myself based on what I knew to be true” and that her belief was based on “what I knew to be true.” In a statement that drew comparisons to Rachel Dolezal, she added that she “will always be Cherokee.”

She also stated in a blog posting that “I have consistently identified myself based on what I knew to be true. My enrollment status does not impact my Cherokee identity or my continued commitment to organizing justice for Native communities.” It is not clear if Smith is still claiming to be an actual Cherokee and failed to show up on listings to some “enrollment” issue.

Smith received her Ph.D. in History of Consciousness at UC Santa Cruz in 2002 and her J.D. at UC Irvine School of Law in 2013. According to her faculty bio, she is the author of Native Americans and the Christian Right: The Gendered Politics of Unlikely Alliances and Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide. She is also the editor of The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex, and co-editor of The Color of Violence, The Incite! Anthology; Theorizing Native Studies,and Native Studies Keywords.

She is clearly identified as a Cherokee in this videotape:

The University has indicated that it will take no action on the allegation and that Smith remains a faculty member in good standing with the university. It further stated that ethnicity was not considered during her hiring. That later statement remains one of the most difficult issues for academics like Warren who listed herself as a minority for reporting purposes.

Source: Inside Higher Education

198 thoughts on “University of California Professor Under Fire After Lifelong Claims Of Being Cherokee Are Challenged”

  1. JAG, So much is based on intent. I always want to know intent. It can be elusive, the evidence usually circumstantial, but if you dig you’ll almost always find the motivation.

  3. Actually, people lie about being French all the time, as do they lie about being
    English…. Just NOBODY gives a rats butt.

    I think that my daughters sperm donor lied about being Mexican, and said
    that his real father was Italian, but, his step father adopted him, so he had a
    Spanish last name.
    I have NO IDEA if my daughter is half Mexican or Italian.. We joke about it all the time
    in a rather NOT so PC fashion…. 😀

    By the way, my father is funny in that he always likes to tell me that I am of
    all these different nationalities when somebody famous is British…. “Oh, you know Jag, you
    have some British blood in your family..”
    I was moving to Sweden.. “Ohhh you know Punk, your Great Grandmother was Swedish..”
    (my father calls me Punk. 🙂 )

    When I was growing up, I looked VERY Asian… Asians used to think I was
    half Japanese… Or, Part Korean, Thai, etc… etc…
    If I later find out that I am part Asian, does that make me a liar because
    I was NOT told I am part Asian?

    as far as I know, I am French, Hungarian, English, Irish… with Cherokee, in there..
    and Czechoslovakian….

    My Great Grandmother, on my mothers side told me that my cousins are the Gabor Sisters,
    that I am directly related to Zsa Zsa, Eva, and Magda Gabor….
    My Grandmother and Great Grandmother, BOTH resemble them quite a bit, so, I have never questioned this.
    BUT, I have NO IDEA if this is true, I only know what my family has told me.

    What if I take a DNA test and find that I am NOT related to them?
    Does it make
    me a LIAR because I was told that I was related to them, and I was only relaying
    information that was passed down to me.

  4. JAG, I do understand what you are saying about “family stories.” But, anyone w/ wisdom like yourself, knows there are often more lies in family stories than truth. Unless I KNEW I had Cherokee blood I would NEVER even say it. That’s out of respect for those noble people.

  5. I claim to be Pacific Islander on my job application, got me a great government job, half Pacific islander works, just like half black, get my drift?

  7. JAG, There is direct fraud, like worker’s comp., disability fraud, where one gets cash money for lying. Then there is indirect fraud. Warren gained status and probably employment via fraud. Dolezal got status and almost certainly jobs via fraud. Almost certainly this woman got her job by stating she was Cherokee. There is a financial incentive to lying about being certain ethnicities. That’s why no one lies about being Polish, Norwegian, etc.

  8. I am half Chamorro, but I am also half Sicilian. People who meet me think I walked off the set of Goodfella’s, as I was raised in Hell’s Kitchen, but look full blooded Sicilian and live in So Cal, for many years. Women at work think I look exotic and wild, one latina at work calls me the Italian Stallion, a la Rocky. I think I look Pacific Islander, but I have a Roman nose and people only see me as Italian. I’m very proud of my Pacific Island roots…

  9. Nick, I see what you are saying, BUT… Did Warren make money from saying she was Native American?

    The school said she did NOT receive any special treatment, same with Smith, that
    that their family history was NOT used for her employment.

    Why do people feel the NEED to question these people family stories?

    I fully believe my family that I am part Cherokee, and if somebody said I was lying,
    I would be rather upset, as that is the info I was given.

    Dozel is a bit different in that she was NOT told from her family that she was part African American, she just
    decided one day that she would try to pass as this. That is a LOT different than your family
    telling you this as part of your families story.

    Warren in NO WAY tried to PASS as Native American, she just shared that this was part of her families
    story.

    Warren and Smith are in the same boat I am…. Are you going to call me a liar, because
    my family told me that I was part Cherokee?

    (by the way, I never tried to check to see if I am.. I don’t care.)

    Now, if they are receiving Free Medical or some kind of monetary benefit from saying they
    are Native American, then I see a reason to POSSIBLY question them.

    If they are NOT receiving any monetary benefits from saying they are Native American,
    and they are just sharing the information they were given, then I see NO PROBLEM
    with their claims.

  11. JAG, You are sharp enough to see that there are only certain ethnicities that people, like this woman, Warren, Dolezal lie about. When you make certain ethnicities protected classes w/ elevated rights, there will be fraud. Investigating fraud is my biz. When you whittle away all the horseshit, it’s about $$$$!

  13. All I know is that this is just getting to be INSANE… This women has been helping others
    by Identifying as a Cherokee, Why has it become popular to question peoples ethnicity?

    This women has been trying to help shed light on a major problem, and people just want to
    hate on her.

    Maybe the USA needs to STOP focusing on individuals Ethnicity so much.

    Stop with the Italian American, Asian Americans…. Irish Americans…. and people just start
    being AMERICAN.

    In Sweden, if you ask a black person what their Nationality is, they will reply, SWEDISH.
    Not African Swedish, but, just plain old Swedish.

    When I go to fill out Swedish Gov. Documents, they do NOT have a box to check for RACE.
    By the way, they also do NOT take Racial Statistics on ANYTHING, not crime, not births,
    not income. They do NOT focus on race at all.

    as for this issue:
    This is just becoming so old, questioning a persons ancestry. Good god, ENOUGH already.
    If she was told while growing up, that she was Cherokee, and she chose to focus on that
    part of her ancestry, then I have NO PROBLEM with her identifying as a Cherokee.

  17. Growing up I was led to believe that I was a member of the ‘Bullhunk’ tribe. Being called this repeatedly gave me a certain feeling of being special. Then a friend explained it was a ‘nom de gang’ because I was half Ukranian.

    Do you know why Ukranians have flat foreheads and hunched shoulders?

    Because when you ask them a question they hunch their shoulders to say that they don’t know the answer.

    And when you tell them the answer they smack their forehead with the palm of their hand, their right hand.

    This woman is good for a laugh.

  18. I do not think that DNA could be used to say she was a Cherokee or not unless there was a bonafide Cherokee with the same DNA characteristics. People in America used to deny any Indian blood lines. Now, some curry favor with it. We have dogs at the marina who claim to be Labradors but some would question that. Some of these so called “degrees” granted by universities border on Afro American studies and phys ed degrees. In other words, they are beyond the Pale. Not speaking of the Palin politician here.

  19. This is getting SO OLD…..

    I have 3 words for these people…. Deoxyribonucleic acid Test!!!!

    My father constantly told me that I was part Cherokee when I was growing up.
    Of course, this was never used to get a job, or schooling or anything… Just some family story.

    Now days, we have DNA testing, so if it is such an issue, maybe schools should FORCE
    people who make these claims to take DNA tests.

    I know for a FACT that many peoples families told them they had Native American lines in their
    family histories, this was NOT an uncommon thing to claim back in the 1970’s, I knew a few people
    who’s families also told them that they were part Native American. So, now, these people are considered liars because they listened to family stories on their heritage?

  20. Something creepy about someone whose job it is to check bloodlines. I am not saying that lying is correct or appropriate but when benefits are dole out based on bloodlines I sense a problem.

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