After Elizabeth Hoover was worked with as an associate professor by UC Berkeley in 2020, the anthropologist was mentioned in the campus media as one of the small but growing variety of Native American scholars who might assist make the school a more welcoming place for learning and research into Native American history, culture and modern issues.

But that pledge is now stuck in debate, with Hoover confessing she's "a White person" who "improperly" claimed to be Native American for her "entire life." The situation has actually prompted calls for Hoover's resignation and stimulated concerns among her trainees and Native American scholars about UC Berkeley's academic stability and regard for genuine Native identity.

On Monday, Hoover issued an apology that verified what other Native American scholars and activists had actually been saying about her for more than a year-- that the Ivy League-educated expert on environmental health and food justice in Native American communities is a White person who long provided herself as a Native American academic, as she built a high-flying scholastic career and acquired a position at one of America's top public universities.

" I am a White individual who has improperly determined as Native my entire life," Hoover said in a lengthy statement published on her website. In her declaration and in an interview with this news organization, Hoover stated she always presumed she was Native American because that's what she was informed while growing up in upstate New York.

#elizabethhoover #pretendian pic.twitter.com/rbtyvy5l6c

—-- NOTORIOUS-INUK ❄ (@WokeIndigenous) May 2, 2023

Her case comes in the middle of heightened attention and intense conversations in Native American circles about the complex nature of Native identity and follows allegations that another popular Bay Area citizen, the late activist Sacheen Littlefeather, invested the previous half-century incorrectly claiming to be White Mountain Apache and Yaqui.

For much of Hoover's profession, going back to the 2000s, she told individuals she descended from the Mohawk and Mi' kmaq individuals of eastern Canada and the United States. She referenced this ancestry in news accounts and while investigating her doctoral dissertation for Brown University.

She won prestigious tasks, fellowships and grants, published books and documents and became a mover and shaker in the "food sovereignty" movement, according to the news site, Indianz.com. In recent months, she's been identified a "Pretendian," a prominent figure in publishing, entertainment or academia who is implicated of using a false Native American identity for money, popularity or professional chances.

In her statement, Hoover apologized for the "damage" she caused by betraying the trust of associates, collaborators, trainees, colleagues, good friends and members of various Native neighborhoods. "I have adversely impacted individuals emotionally and culturally. For this hurt I have actually triggered, I am deeply sorry."

Hoover said she doesn't plan to resign, in spite of a call for her to do so from more than 360 people, including other Native American scholars and activists, as well as previous and current trainees from UC Berkeley and Brown. UC Berkeley stated in December that it didn't plan to eliminate her from her position.
Scholars at Columbia and UCLA echoed the views of those who say the university is justified in shooting her, with Mohawk scholar Audra Simpson, an anthropology teacher at Columbia, arguing that Hoover's expert history reveals she "does not have the requisite ethical and academic stability to be a teacher or a social researcher.".

The call for Hoover to resign first came in November after she provided an initial statement about her identity. At that time, she discussed however made no apology that her background consisted of household tradition about great-grandmothers who were Mohawk and Mi' kmaq. Her mother likewise took her and her sisters to powwows to connect them with their heritage. However in 2015, Hoover stated she and others concluded that they couldn't confirm any ties to the groups she claimed to come from. She stated this discovery left her and her parents and sis "stunned and baffled about what this info indicates for us.".

At that time, campus representative Janet Gilmore said the campus considers Hoover's identity a "a deeply personal matter," the Daily Californian reported. In a statement Wednesday, Gilmore referred to an action Hoover said she is taking to repair her relationships with students and colleagues. Hoover described that she had been dealing with "restorative justice facilitators to better comprehend how members of the UC Berkeley campus neighborhood have felt damaged and betrayed, and methods I can work to meaningfully make amends for this.".

Gilmore stated the school is "aware of and supports continuous efforts to accomplish restorative justice in such a way that acknowledges and deals with the extent to which this matter has caused damage and upset amongst members of our community.".

Debates about her identity seem to be taking place in the "bubble of academic community," he said, while the genuine difficulties facing Native individuals are being overlooked. He said her book, "The River Is In United States," accurately portrayed the harm from ecological destruction in his community.

Hoover's apology or talk of making amends has not silenced those who believe she needs to resign or be dismissed. "The waves of damage extending from this are hard and immense to even catch," tweeted Adrienne Keene, an assistant professor in American research studies at Brown University, author of the online forum Native Appropriations and former buddy and associate of Hoover. Desi Small-Rodriguez, an assistant teacher in UCLA's Sociology Department and American Indian Studies Program and a member of the Northern Cheyenne people, called Hoover's apology a "cop-out" and a kind of "gaslighting.".

Small-Rodriguez said an average individual might get away with accepting household lore, however Hoover "is PhD from an Ivy League Institution. It's completely undesirable.".

Simpson also had severe words for the idea that Hoover's issue is "personal," stating the debate could might injure Berkeley's scholarly reputation in Native American circles. "This is a matter of misconduct with wide-reaching results," Simpson continued. "Whether intentional or not, she has actually devoted a form of scams (and) she has benefited immensely from doing so.".

It's possible that Hoover eliminated tasks, fellowships or grants that might have gone to genuine individuals of color, Simpson and others say. Hoover stated she wasn't worked with by Berkeley as part of an effort to bring in faculty with competence in Native American problems but instead reacted to an open require scholars on ecological and food justice. She acknowledged that she "received academic fellowships, opportunities, and product advantages that I might not have received had I not been perceived as a Native scholar.".

According to Simpson and Small-Rodriguez, Hoover likewise crossed a line when she misrepresented herself as Native American during her research study tasks, consisting of when she embedded herself in the Akwesasne Mohawk community in upstate New York for her dissertation on locals' views on health and the environment. Hoover acknowledged she incorrectly accessed to ceremonies and other "social areas" that are particularly scheduled for Native people. "People invited me into these spaces with the understanding that I was a Native individual, and I deeply regret the pain I have actually caused to some by getting in those areas," Hoover said.

In response to Hoover's apology for misrepresenting herself to research study subjects, Small-Rodriguez put it another way: "That's an offense of research ethics alone.".