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Berkeley professor apologizes for false Indigenous identity
May 5, 2023 at 8:25 pm
In this 2020 image taken from video, Elizabeth Hoover, UC Berkeley
associate professor of environmental science, policy and management,
conducts an interview with Indian Country Today. Hoover whose identity
as Native American had been questioned apologized for falsely
identifying as Indigenous, saying she is “a white person”
who lived an identity based on family lore. Hoover posted her apology
online on Monday, May 1, 2023. (Indian Country Today via AP)

In this 2020 image taken from video, Elizabeth Hoover, UC Berkeley
associate professor of environmental science, policy and management,
conducts an interview with Indian Country Today. Hoover whose identity
as Native American had... (Indian Country Today via AP)More
By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An anthropology professor at the University of
California, Berkeley, whose identity as Native American had been
questioned for years apologized this week for falsely identifying as
Indigenous, saying she is “a white person” who lived an identity based
on family lore.

Elizabeth Hoover, associate professor of environmental science, policy
and management, said in an apology posted Monday on her website that she
claimed an identity as a woman of Mohawk and Mi’kmaq descent but never
confirmed that identity with those communities or researched her
ancestry until recently.

“I caused harm,” Hoover wrote. “I hurt Native people who have been my
friends, colleagues, students, and family, both directly through
fractured trust and through activating historical harms. This hurt has
also interrupted student and faculty life and careers. I acknowledge
that I could have prevented all of this hurt by investigating and
confirming my family stories sooner. For this, I am deeply sorry.”

Hoover’s alleged Indigenous roots came into question in 2021 after her
name appeared on an “Alleged Pretendian List.” The list compiled by
Jacqueline Keeler, a Native American writer and activist, includes more
than 200 names of people Keeler says are falsely claiming Native heritage.

Hoover first addressed doubts about her ethnic identity last year when
she said in an October post on her website that she had conducted
genealogical research and found “no records of tribal citizenship for
any of my family members in the tribal databases that were accessed.”

Her statement caused an uproar, and some of her former students authored
a letter in November demanding her resignation. The letter was signed by
hundreds of students and scholars from UC Berkeley and other
universities along with members of Native American communities. It also
called for her to apologize, stop identifying as Indigenous and
acknowledge she had caused harm, among other demands.

“As scholars embedded in the kinship networks of our communities, we
find Hoover’s repeated attempts to differentiate herself from settlers
with similar stories and her claims of having lived experience as an
Indigenous person by dancing at powwows absolutely appalling,” the
letter reads.

Janet Gilmore, a UC Berkeley spokesperson, said in a statement she
couldn’t comment on whether Hoover faces disciplinary action, saying
discussing it would violate “personnel matters and/or violate privacy
rights, both of which are protected by law.”

“However, we are aware of and support ongoing efforts to achieve
restorative justice in a way that acknowledges and addresses the extent
to which this matter has caused harm and upset among members of our
community,” Gilmore added.

Hoover is the latest person to apologize for falsely claiming a racial
or ethnic identity.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren angered many Native Americans during her
presidential campaign in 2018 when she used the results of a DNA test to
try and rebut the ridicule of then-President Donald Trump, who had
derisively referred to her as “fake Pocahontas.”

Despite the DNA results, which showed some evidence of a Native American
in Warren’s lineage, probably 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 offered a public apology at a forum on Native American
issues, saying she was “sorry for the harm I have caused.”

In 2015, Rachel Dolezal was fired as head of the Spokane, Washington,
chapter of the NAACP and was kicked off a police ombudsman commission
after her parent told local media their daughter was born white but was
presenting herself as Black. She also lost her job teaching African
studies at Eastern Washington University in nearby Cheney.

Hoover said her identity was challenged after she began her first
assistant professor job. She began teaching at UC Berkeley in the Fall
of 2020.

“At the time, I interpreted inquiries into the validity of my Native
identity as petty jealousy or people just looking to interfere in my
life,” she wrote.

Hoover said that she grew up in rural upstate New York thinking she was
someone of mixed Mohawk, Mi’kmaq, French, English, Irish and German
descent, and attending food summits and powwows. Her mother shared
stories about her grandmother being a Mohawk woman who married an
abusive French-Canadian man and who committed suicide, leaving her
children behind 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
Native communities that ask her for her support.

In her apology issued Monday, Hoover acknowledged she benefited from
programs and funding that were geared toward Native scholars and said
she is committed to engaging in the restorative justice process taking
place on campus, “as well as supporting restorative justice processes in
other circles I have been involved with, where my participation is invited.”

OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ
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