“She positioned herself as Cherokee"
May 31, 2021 2:18 PM Subscribe
A Genealogy of a Lie. Sarah Viren investigates another academic who has claimed an identity that they should not have. (SLNYT; Archive.org snapshot)
Earlier articles from Indian Country Today, Inside Higher Ed.
The Against the Politics of Disposability blog. Smith's blog.
Smith previously.
(Link text is Viren's preferred title for her article)
Earlier articles from Indian Country Today, Inside Higher Ed.
The Against the Politics of Disposability blog. Smith's blog.
Smith previously.
(Link text is Viren's preferred title for her article)
I thought this article was well-done when I read it a few days ago. As a white American, I understand that issues of claiming Native American identity can be complicated and so I haven't wanted to take a strong position on Smith. But it seems like she has no basis at all for doing so, not even reliance on family tales of Native American heritage (which I think can be a good-faith error).
posted by praemunire at 4:34 PM on May 31, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 4:34 PM on May 31, 2021 [4 favorites]
There's a long legacy of the "one drop rule" or blood quantum in how white people reckon with race/ethnicity. It's like ethnicity of the gaps - oh you can't prove I don't have a native ancestor somewhere back there so I can call myself native. Sister - and I feel I can call Smith my sister as my heritage is also Midwestern and some of my folks even come from Norman, Oklahoma - sister, that is white supremacy.
I think what particularly galls me about this story is how they always seem to have a history of tearing down other colleagues & organizations but their work is simply too important to care about their fraud.
posted by muddgirl at 11:09 PM on May 31, 2021 [11 favorites]
I think what particularly galls me about this story is how they always seem to have a history of tearing down other colleagues & organizations but their work is simply too important to care about their fraud.
posted by muddgirl at 11:09 PM on May 31, 2021 [11 favorites]
In the wake of the Michelle Latimer case in Canada, where she is now dragging the entire thing to a federal court over an issue that is purely for the community itself to decide, I question the narratives of innocent mistakes being made. In the cases where it comes out it comes out because these people have made sometimes quite lucrative careers of pretending to be First Nations or another group. No one is faking it to go live on a reserve with no clean water or decent housing.
Such people are an ongoing manifestation of the way settler culture tries to claim everything, including other's oppression if it helps them. And they also contribute to the idea that none of these communities have any record keeping or memory of their own that is worthy of the name.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 4:16 AM on June 1, 2021 [39 favorites]
Such people are an ongoing manifestation of the way settler culture tries to claim everything, including other's oppression if it helps them. And they also contribute to the idea that none of these communities have any record keeping or memory of their own that is worthy of the name.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 4:16 AM on June 1, 2021 [39 favorites]
I question the narratives of innocent mistakes being made.
If you're just some random person, then claiming unverified ancestry, while ridiculous and a little gross, could be an innocent mistake. Or at least as innocent as any mistake a settler can make. She was and is an expert. There can be no innocent mistake here.
posted by atrazine at 4:36 AM on June 1, 2021 [13 favorites]
If you're just some random person, then claiming unverified ancestry, while ridiculous and a little gross, could be an innocent mistake. Or at least as innocent as any mistake a settler can make. She was and is an expert. There can be no innocent mistake here.
posted by atrazine at 4:36 AM on June 1, 2021 [13 favorites]
I mean, in Smith’s case, she hired a researcher who found no evidence of indigenous ancestry, but she still continued to make the claim. There is literally no possibility of an “innocent mistake.”
Furthermore, she’s an academic — dishonesty is a particularly severe transgression for a scholar. She’s built her entire career and body of work on a lie; all of her work is suspect.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:51 AM on June 1, 2021 [21 favorites]
Furthermore, she’s an academic — dishonesty is a particularly severe transgression for a scholar. She’s built her entire career and body of work on a lie; all of her work is suspect.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:51 AM on June 1, 2021 [21 favorites]
In context, though claiming kinship with a Nation in the US and Canada - even as a random person - has been for the past years very problematic. There have been a number of self proclaimed Metis groups in Canada, formed of people with such family narratives, and they have taken it upon themselves to try and claim hunting and other rights in First Nations lands. in Canada, at least, it's been a very public issue for a long time.
I have a Mohawk neighbour from the Tyendinaga reserve originally, and his nation has been in an ongoing sequence of fights over things like these for a long time, made even grosser because it then leaves them less time for dealing with those who were separated from their people as part of the 60s scoop and other such events. And knowing someone who experienced that, I have deep rage for people who try and shove themselves into the middle of already deeply traumatized communities, even if they really think a great great great grandfather had some sort of connection there.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 5:10 AM on June 1, 2021 [14 favorites]
I have a Mohawk neighbour from the Tyendinaga reserve originally, and his nation has been in an ongoing sequence of fights over things like these for a long time, made even grosser because it then leaves them less time for dealing with those who were separated from their people as part of the 60s scoop and other such events. And knowing someone who experienced that, I have deep rage for people who try and shove themselves into the middle of already deeply traumatized communities, even if they really think a great great great grandfather had some sort of connection there.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 5:10 AM on June 1, 2021 [14 favorites]
There can be no innocent mistake here.
I think innocent mistakes are the norm rather than the exception. That's pretty clearly not the story here, though. It's not even worth bringing up.
sister, that is white supremacy.
I actually think this draws a conclusion that's way too pat. I could have told you that as a 10 year old, realizing people were much more impressed thinking I was a Native American kid, and not just another Mexican. The difference being... not much... and at the same time, very complicated.
One of the things that's been driven home to me over the last couple decades is that one's identity is often all one has, you choose a story and stick to it to the very bitter end. And she's been aided by a slew of people who wanted to believe, because believing is part of their cause. What strikes me first and foremost is how truly fucked in the head this person is, that their chosen identity supersedes a duller reality. That she appears to be an otherwise competent academic makes it all that much worse, for the field and for the credibility of all involved.
I'm not an academic. My college stint was laughably brief. What comes across is that :
a) ethnic studies are way too easy to hack
b) it equates authenticity with credibility too much
c) the field can barely police itself.
(watching the tepid reaction play out here, too is... dispiriting.)
What more can be said, though? The links lay it all out pretty well. I think most people have little to add other than express how shitty it all is.
posted by 2N2222 at 5:16 AM on June 1, 2021 [23 favorites]
I think innocent mistakes are the norm rather than the exception. That's pretty clearly not the story here, though. It's not even worth bringing up.
sister, that is white supremacy.
I actually think this draws a conclusion that's way too pat. I could have told you that as a 10 year old, realizing people were much more impressed thinking I was a Native American kid, and not just another Mexican. The difference being... not much... and at the same time, very complicated.
One of the things that's been driven home to me over the last couple decades is that one's identity is often all one has, you choose a story and stick to it to the very bitter end. And she's been aided by a slew of people who wanted to believe, because believing is part of their cause. What strikes me first and foremost is how truly fucked in the head this person is, that their chosen identity supersedes a duller reality. That she appears to be an otherwise competent academic makes it all that much worse, for the field and for the credibility of all involved.
I'm not an academic. My college stint was laughably brief. What comes across is that :
a) ethnic studies are way too easy to hack
b) it equates authenticity with credibility too much
c) the field can barely police itself.
(watching the tepid reaction play out here, too is... dispiriting.)
What more can be said, though? The links lay it all out pretty well. I think most people have little to add other than express how shitty it all is.
posted by 2N2222 at 5:16 AM on June 1, 2021 [23 favorites]
Smith has been called out by the communities and fields she has claimed; it's presses and the academic power structure that has allowed her a public position. Michelle Latimer will now try and use federal courts to prove that she is authentic, although the community she claimed has said repeatedly that she is not connected to them. Joseph Boyden was a novelist and in creative writing and only claimed ancestry after he was fired for issues with students, and it was white people like Margaret Atwood who backed his claim.
I could cite other examples, but these I hope show that it is not a field that is responsible, but rather settler structures that aid in such claims and which are outside ethnic studies power to control.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 5:31 AM on June 1, 2021 [12 favorites]
I could cite other examples, but these I hope show that it is not a field that is responsible, but rather settler structures that aid in such claims and which are outside ethnic studies power to control.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 5:31 AM on June 1, 2021 [12 favorites]
(watching the tepid reaction play out here, too is... dispiriting.)
I think it's just difficult to know what to say. It's clear why she did it-- or at least, why she continues to do it. She stole someone else's identity to give herself an advantage in the academic world. It's terrible, and says something awful about white women and academia. If I were a novelist, there would probably be a story in there about a family myth which she turned into gold while knowing it was a lie.
posted by frumiousb at 5:33 AM on June 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
I think it's just difficult to know what to say. It's clear why she did it-- or at least, why she continues to do it. She stole someone else's identity to give herself an advantage in the academic world. It's terrible, and says something awful about white women and academia. If I were a novelist, there would probably be a story in there about a family myth which she turned into gold while knowing it was a lie.
posted by frumiousb at 5:33 AM on June 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
This is a long read but worthwhile. Such a deep dive into this particular case, but what stuck with me was the long, long list of other white academics exposed for pretending to be POC. If that doesn't enrage you, I don't know what to tell you.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:57 AM on June 1, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:57 AM on June 1, 2021 [8 favorites]
I apologize that my comment was not clear. Her argument in her blog post that she is Cherokee no matter what the tribe says, that is white supremacy. Tribes have a sovereign right to determine membership.
posted by muddgirl at 6:08 AM on June 1, 2021 [13 favorites]
posted by muddgirl at 6:08 AM on June 1, 2021 [13 favorites]
Why does this keep happening?
First instance I heard of was Rachel Dolezal - although I'm pretty positive it must have happened in the past before this, only without the benefits (?) of modern social media.
I mean there is an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to the cases of Racial Misrepresentation, at least four of which were unveiled in 2020/2021.
Andrea Smith is an Academic who was publicly outed by the Cherokee Nation in 1991, and it appears to not have affected her career at all to this day
posted by Faintdreams at 6:35 AM on June 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
First instance I heard of was Rachel Dolezal - although I'm pretty positive it must have happened in the past before this, only without the benefits (?) of modern social media.
I mean there is an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to the cases of Racial Misrepresentation, at least four of which were unveiled in 2020/2021.
Andrea Smith is an Academic who was publicly outed by the Cherokee Nation in 1991, and it appears to not have affected her career at all to this day
posted by Faintdreams at 6:35 AM on June 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
I grew up hearing stories from my mother of her "Indian grandmother": "I remember she had long black hair...." This was from her time growing up in rural west Tennessee.
A couple of decades ago I began working on understanding my family's history. That's when i learned that my "Indian great-grandmother" was the daughter of an Italian immigrant. I learned her name and even her father's anglicized name in the US. Admittedly I don't know much about her mother. My mother was very resistant to this news.
Since then, I've become sensitive to the number of people I meet online and in person who claim "Indian" ancestry. In the southern US, at least, I wonder how often this claim is used to explain dark hair & dark skin that is more likely the result of African-American heritage.
posted by grimjeer at 6:43 AM on June 1, 2021 [24 favorites]
A couple of decades ago I began working on understanding my family's history. That's when i learned that my "Indian great-grandmother" was the daughter of an Italian immigrant. I learned her name and even her father's anglicized name in the US. Admittedly I don't know much about her mother. My mother was very resistant to this news.
Since then, I've become sensitive to the number of people I meet online and in person who claim "Indian" ancestry. In the southern US, at least, I wonder how often this claim is used to explain dark hair & dark skin that is more likely the result of African-American heritage.
posted by grimjeer at 6:43 AM on June 1, 2021 [24 favorites]
There's a long legacy of the "one drop rule" or blood quantum in how white people reckon with race/ethnicity.
My paternal grandfather claimed to have Native American ancestors for the longest time; it wasn't until after he died that we found out that he didn't know who his biological father was, and that my great-grandmother came to America (from Gdansk, then Danzig) pregnant with him and he was adopted by my great-grandfather. I've wondered since finding that out if he simply invented the convenient Native ancestor because he was afraid that someone might look at his relatively dark skin (not really that dark at all) and suspect that he might be part African-American.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:44 AM on June 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
My paternal grandfather claimed to have Native American ancestors for the longest time; it wasn't until after he died that we found out that he didn't know who his biological father was, and that my great-grandmother came to America (from Gdansk, then Danzig) pregnant with him and he was adopted by my great-grandfather. I've wondered since finding that out if he simply invented the convenient Native ancestor because he was afraid that someone might look at his relatively dark skin (not really that dark at all) and suspect that he might be part African-American.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:44 AM on June 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
Another publication babysteps up (updating its review of Smith's latest Duke U Press book), had no idea...:
"Note from the ARB editors, added May 30, 2021:
Since the publication of this piece, we have learned that one of Otherwise Worlds’ editors, Andrea Smith, has built her professional career around a false claim to a Cherokee identity, as detailed in a recent New York Times article and an earlier open letter from eight Indigenous women scholars. While this does not invalidate the worth of Otherwise Worlds or its contributors, we feel this is important context for our readers."
posted by progosk at 7:08 AM on June 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
"Note from the ARB editors, added May 30, 2021:
Since the publication of this piece, we have learned that one of Otherwise Worlds’ editors, Andrea Smith, has built her professional career around a false claim to a Cherokee identity, as detailed in a recent New York Times article and an earlier open letter from eight Indigenous women scholars. While this does not invalidate the worth of Otherwise Worlds or its contributors, we feel this is important context for our readers."
posted by progosk at 7:08 AM on June 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
how they always seem to have a history of tearing down other colleagues & organizations but their work is simply too important to care about their fraud
In the cases of Smith and Krug, the work was genuinely well received in their fields (unlike Dolezal, who seems to be mediocre at everything), but not so much that they had overwhelming institutional power. It's a somewhat different dynamic from, say, what's alleged with Michael Simons at Yale Med, where the malfeasor is deeply entrenched at a powerful institution. They seem to be exploiting the left's reluctance to police claimed identities, and with respect to Native Americans particularly, the awareness that historical contingencies have meant that tribal enrollment doesn't map precisely onto identity (e.g., with certain tribes and the freedmen; there's also an interesting comment on the article from a woman whose grandmother's twin sister enrolled but whose grandmother didn't because she was living off the reservation at the time and didn't think it was worth the trouble), leaving a zone of uncertainty most people feel ill-qualified to dig into. I guess it's fairly canny to cast yourself in the role of authenticity enforcer to try to preempt inquiries into your own.
posted by praemunire at 7:42 AM on June 1, 2021 [20 favorites]
In the cases of Smith and Krug, the work was genuinely well received in their fields (unlike Dolezal, who seems to be mediocre at everything), but not so much that they had overwhelming institutional power. It's a somewhat different dynamic from, say, what's alleged with Michael Simons at Yale Med, where the malfeasor is deeply entrenched at a powerful institution. They seem to be exploiting the left's reluctance to police claimed identities, and with respect to Native Americans particularly, the awareness that historical contingencies have meant that tribal enrollment doesn't map precisely onto identity (e.g., with certain tribes and the freedmen; there's also an interesting comment on the article from a woman whose grandmother's twin sister enrolled but whose grandmother didn't because she was living off the reservation at the time and didn't think it was worth the trouble), leaving a zone of uncertainty most people feel ill-qualified to dig into. I guess it's fairly canny to cast yourself in the role of authenticity enforcer to try to preempt inquiries into your own.
posted by praemunire at 7:42 AM on June 1, 2021 [20 favorites]
I was told my whole life that I had Iroquois ancestry, but it didn't show up when I did DNA testing (which I realize is not definitive). However, for me, it was always an interesting family story that entitled me to exactly nothing, so I don't feel bad for telling a few people in my life about it. That's very different from the people who claim an identity for personal or professional gain.
People do bad things, so that's not surprising in itself, but it just baffles me how these people can think they won't eventually get caught. These are always people who might have had legitimate careers without lying about their identity.
posted by FencingGal at 8:18 AM on June 1, 2021
People do bad things, so that's not surprising in itself, but it just baffles me how these people can think they won't eventually get caught. These are always people who might have had legitimate careers without lying about their identity.
posted by FencingGal at 8:18 AM on June 1, 2021
I think white people may also have a tendency to assume non-white ancestors simply because they cannot process how being white, staying white, marrying white, and surrounding themselves with other white people is baked into the core of their familial identity. The egalitarian melting pot myth assumes that eventually we all become one people, and if you're invested in that myth, you sort of assume there's a mix of some kind in your background. Supposing there's a native American ancestor in there somewhere is a less complex fantasy than thinking about being part Black.
My dad believed bullshit family mythology that we had nonspecific native American ancestors. No one could say from which tribe, but the family loved to say that. Fast forward to the present and 23andme says we're entirely European and something like 99.2% Irish/Welsh/Scottish. Even after the two sides of the family had been in the US for 100-200 years each, still just Gaelic white people soup. Even when we got excited about a new ancestor update from France, they turned out to be from Brittany: more Gaelic white people.
I think it was easier for my Dad to assume our forebears had intermarried at some point with tribal people than it was for him to process that white people from places like Kentucky and Ohio with Irish/Scottish/Welsh backgrounds can manage to go hundreds of years without so much as marrying a different type of white person.
That's a shitty, myopic/racist attitude as well, even if it's a bit more passive. What interests me in this case is that even if you concede that maybe Smith's parents had gone in for this kind of white people bullshit, and maybe that is what got her onto the wrong track, Smith herself researched and found out it could not be true, and then kept holding to the line that she was Cherokee anyway. It says something pretty damning about the sense of white entitlement to native American culture to watch this progression from small scale (though still racist and pernicious) self-delusion to full-on public fraud. And something even worse that being outed multiple times in thirty years hardly slowed her down. It's pretty vile.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:21 AM on June 1, 2021 [28 favorites]
My dad believed bullshit family mythology that we had nonspecific native American ancestors. No one could say from which tribe, but the family loved to say that. Fast forward to the present and 23andme says we're entirely European and something like 99.2% Irish/Welsh/Scottish. Even after the two sides of the family had been in the US for 100-200 years each, still just Gaelic white people soup. Even when we got excited about a new ancestor update from France, they turned out to be from Brittany: more Gaelic white people.
I think it was easier for my Dad to assume our forebears had intermarried at some point with tribal people than it was for him to process that white people from places like Kentucky and Ohio with Irish/Scottish/Welsh backgrounds can manage to go hundreds of years without so much as marrying a different type of white person.
That's a shitty, myopic/racist attitude as well, even if it's a bit more passive. What interests me in this case is that even if you concede that maybe Smith's parents had gone in for this kind of white people bullshit, and maybe that is what got her onto the wrong track, Smith herself researched and found out it could not be true, and then kept holding to the line that she was Cherokee anyway. It says something pretty damning about the sense of white entitlement to native American culture to watch this progression from small scale (though still racist and pernicious) self-delusion to full-on public fraud. And something even worse that being outed multiple times in thirty years hardly slowed her down. It's pretty vile.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:21 AM on June 1, 2021 [28 favorites]
It's also deeply rooted in the idea that if some ancestor 200 years ago can be seen to be native, then the person claiming it is not a settler and doesn't have to feel guilty about the claims of various nations or tribes. You frequently see this in fights over mining and other resource extraction industries, and a lot in Alberta in particular.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 8:35 AM on June 1, 2021 [24 favorites]
posted by lesbiassparrow at 8:35 AM on June 1, 2021 [24 favorites]
a) ethnic studies are way too easy to hack
b) it equates authenticity with credibility too much
c) the field can barely police itself.
Compared to what?
posted by lefty lucky cat at 8:35 AM on June 1, 2021 [9 favorites]
b) it equates authenticity with credibility too much
c) the field can barely police itself.
Compared to what?
posted by lefty lucky cat at 8:35 AM on June 1, 2021 [9 favorites]
This is so deeply gross. I can't pretend to know why white people keep trying to do this, unless it's to play into the romanticized mystique of being Native American or some weird convoluted ancestral claim to the land (i.e. "my family was here first.") I know that many of the First Families of Virginia claimed descent from Pocahontas, for instance, which then got kind of awkward for them under the eugenicist Racial Integrity Act -- which actually carved out a "Pocahontas Exception" specifically because of this. This shit has been going on for a long, long time.
posted by basalganglia at 8:38 AM on June 1, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by basalganglia at 8:38 AM on June 1, 2021 [12 favorites]
A while back, I was part of a community that had a similar issue for a different ethnic background. Many white members of that community immediately seized on disagreements within the ethnic group about what to do and how "bad" the fraud was, and used the disagreements to protect the fraudster.
Seems like similar messaging may have helped keep Andrea Smith in academia. I noticed that her sister had less social capital at the time she was exposed, and she got tossed out in a much clearer, more direct way.
And yeah, that's racism too. Every time.
posted by joyceanmachine at 8:40 AM on June 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
Seems like similar messaging may have helped keep Andrea Smith in academia. I noticed that her sister had less social capital at the time she was exposed, and she got tossed out in a much clearer, more direct way.
And yeah, that's racism too. Every time.
posted by joyceanmachine at 8:40 AM on June 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
We had a similar myth in my family. Something to do with "high cheekbones" if I remember correctly. Sheesh.
posted by JanetLand at 8:42 AM on June 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by JanetLand at 8:42 AM on June 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
Related story about artist in show at Massachusetts museum.
posted by praemunire at 9:00 AM on June 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 9:00 AM on June 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
maybe Smith's parents had gone in for this kind of white people bullshit, and maybe that is what got her onto the wrong track, Smith herself researched and found out it could not be true, and then kept holding to the line that she was Cherokee anyway
BTW, in case it wasn't clear, that's what I meant with my first comment--that some people may be unknowingly repeating a false family story, but not her. She knew.
posted by praemunire at 9:05 AM on June 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
BTW, in case it wasn't clear, that's what I meant with my first comment--that some people may be unknowingly repeating a false family story, but not her. She knew.
posted by praemunire at 9:05 AM on June 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
Mine too. This was attributed to Creek ancestry. When I was a kid, I thought this was fascinating and bragged about it, but not long after that, some Sherman Alexie novels set me straight. I have not attempted to make personal or professional hay out of it, and I for one did not have a "tepid reaction" to this article, for the very reason that it strikes at that part of my family.
The high cheekbones, dark coloring, and aquiline nose were very real. I have seen them in photos and in person. One of my relatives looked like a young pharaoh, although he was more of a knife-wielding drifter type of guy. Another ancestress of mine had this look and claimed that she could remember coming over on the boat from the "old country" as a child, although she didn't say what old country.
Something was being hidden. It might be a use of myth to cover up blackness. Also, it was not out of the question in that part of the South at that time that someone might be part Romany, Italian, or Middle Eastern, thanks to some little-known ethnic movements, but it would not be something you would advertise if you wished to completely assimilate into a white family. Being part Creek would have been close enough to being respectably white and also in the back-country vocabulary of ethnicity, so whether or not it was true, folks went with it.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:06 AM on June 1, 2021 [11 favorites]
The high cheekbones, dark coloring, and aquiline nose were very real. I have seen them in photos and in person. One of my relatives looked like a young pharaoh, although he was more of a knife-wielding drifter type of guy. Another ancestress of mine had this look and claimed that she could remember coming over on the boat from the "old country" as a child, although she didn't say what old country.
Something was being hidden. It might be a use of myth to cover up blackness. Also, it was not out of the question in that part of the South at that time that someone might be part Romany, Italian, or Middle Eastern, thanks to some little-known ethnic movements, but it would not be something you would advertise if you wished to completely assimilate into a white family. Being part Creek would have been close enough to being respectably white and also in the back-country vocabulary of ethnicity, so whether or not it was true, folks went with it.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:06 AM on June 1, 2021 [11 favorites]
This is all so ugly, tied into histories of racism and attempted destruction of indigenous peoples, now mirrored by glamorization of having native backgrounds. While Black people have historically been subject to the "even one drop" measurement, the US federal government pushed for the adoption of "blood quantum" for native peoples. This measuring whether people are native or not based on their blood percentage was an attempt to destroy native peoples: over time, due to people marrying outside of tribes, the number of people who might be eligible for tribal memberships would naturally go down, generation by generation. These guidelines mean that in practice there might be people whole live on tribal lands and have parents who are citizens, but who themselves are not eligible for membership. In 2013, the White Earth nation in Minnesota voted to change from the blood quantum guideline to a lineal descent measurement. These kinds of decisions are important ways in which tribal governments are able to reassert their own sovereignty over their membership.
The flip side of all this is that there are people who have been deliberately removed from connection to their heritage by Native American boarding schools and adoption practices that had deliberately separated children from native families in favor of putting them with white families. I'm a descendent of the latter, and while I recognize that I have been the recipient of white privilege as a result, it also pains me to recognize that I'm also the product of a system of attempted cultural genocide. At the same time, people like this make me self-conscious to even mention that this is the case, because it sounds then like I'm trying to make claim to something that is not mine to claim.
The discussion of how much blood a person has is such a distraction. That identity needs to be something that is the tribes themselves determine, not an "authenticity" that outsiders are trying to claim as determined by tenuous genetic markers.
posted by past unusual at 9:08 AM on June 1, 2021 [20 favorites]
The flip side of all this is that there are people who have been deliberately removed from connection to their heritage by Native American boarding schools and adoption practices that had deliberately separated children from native families in favor of putting them with white families. I'm a descendent of the latter, and while I recognize that I have been the recipient of white privilege as a result, it also pains me to recognize that I'm also the product of a system of attempted cultural genocide. At the same time, people like this make me self-conscious to even mention that this is the case, because it sounds then like I'm trying to make claim to something that is not mine to claim.
The discussion of how much blood a person has is such a distraction. That identity needs to be something that is the tribes themselves determine, not an "authenticity" that outsiders are trying to claim as determined by tenuous genetic markers.
posted by past unusual at 9:08 AM on June 1, 2021 [20 favorites]
Why does this keep happening?
can't pretend to know why white people keep trying to do this,
While, being only a newspaper article, it necessarily can't be comprehensive, the FPP article does give a good start and overview of some of the answers to this question.
posted by eviemath at 9:24 AM on June 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
can't pretend to know why white people keep trying to do this,
While, being only a newspaper article, it necessarily can't be comprehensive, the FPP article does give a good start and overview of some of the answers to this question.
posted by eviemath at 9:24 AM on June 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
I understand intellectually why someone would do this, since there are clear career advantages AND clearly some kind of psychological identity shit going on. But I don't understand it emotionally. I don't, in my gut, understand how someone can build their entire public identity around something they know is a fraud and still look themselves in the mirror every morning. There's no possible way I could pull off this kind of lie, I'd walk around feeling compelled to blurt it out to everyone I met and probably throw up from stress every day. I don't get this person.
posted by bq at 9:29 AM on June 1, 2021 [13 favorites]
posted by bq at 9:29 AM on June 1, 2021 [13 favorites]
Slate ran a good article about this in 2015 that especially touched on the reasons white Southerners especially like this myth:
"The Cherokees resisted state and federal efforts to remove them from their Southeastern homelands during the 1820s and 1830s. During that time, most whites saw them as an inconvenient nuisance, an obstacle to colonial expansion. But after their removal, the tribe came to be viewed more romantically, especially in the antebellum South, where their determination to maintain their rights of self-government against the federal government took on new meaning. Throughout the South in the 1840s and 1850s, large numbers of whites began claiming they were descended from a Cherokee great-grandmother. That great-grandmother was often a “princess,” a not-inconsequential detail in a region obsessed with social status and suspicious of outsiders. By claiming a royal Cherokee ancestor, white Southerners were legitimating the antiquity of their native-born status as sons or daughters of the South, as well as establishing their determination to defend their rights against an aggressive federal government, as they imagined the Cherokees had done. These may have been self-serving historical delusions, but they have proven to be enduring.
The continuing popularity of claiming “Cherokee blood” and the ease with which millions of Americans inhabit a Cherokee identity speaks volumes about the enduring legacy of American colonialism. Shifting one’s identity to claim ownership of an imagined Cherokee past is at once a way to authenticate your American-ness and absolve yourself of complicity in the crimes Americans committed against the tribe across history."
posted by nakedmolerats at 9:58 AM on June 1, 2021 [28 favorites]
And if you want to go even more intersectional, I doubt it's a coincidence that the mythical ancestor is almost always a princess and not a prince. It would be too threatening to white supremacy if it was a white woman with a Cherokee man.
posted by nakedmolerats at 10:06 AM on June 1, 2021 [29 favorites]
posted by nakedmolerats at 10:06 AM on June 1, 2021 [29 favorites]
It would be too threatening to white supremacy if it was a white woman with a Cherokee man.If it helps any, a white lady from Germany with Secwepemc man were the parents of one of my grandfathers. However, since these things get complicated and obscure pretty fast, I should mention that this understanding is only a few years old. Previously we thought he might have had a half or more (to go all blood quantumy) indigenous mother. Then a marriage certificate turned up, and it said his mother was born in Germany. To further complicate matters, he married a woman with a Secwepemc mother and Scottish father.
Anecdotally, I can say that most dominant culture white people that learn about my ancestry have immediately seen it as a ticket to benefits. Leaving me to try to explain why I think that is terribly wrong.
My mother feels the same way. In fact, when her brother got status a few years ago the relatives who made it happen just went ahead and prepared all her papers for her, too. But she didn't feel right with it and, basically, said "I'm honoured, thanks, but no I can't."
posted by house-goblin at 11:49 AM on June 1, 2021 [6 favorites]
Why does this keep happening?
Well, one cynical but straightforward take on the rash of these reveals recently is that in certain venues (like academia) there’s a drive to do something to address historical injustice and advance people from marginalized backgrounds, so of course there are unscrupulous people who will take advantage of those good intentions (sometimes exploiting things like the really messy conception of Latin American identity in the U.S.). Especially since trying to police these boundaries is inevitably a minefield in itself.
But obviously the fake Native thing has a longer history than that, and ties into a bunch of American myths. This guy had a career as a “Native American consultant” after being exposed as a fraud.
posted by atoxyl at 12:47 PM on June 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
Well, one cynical but straightforward take on the rash of these reveals recently is that in certain venues (like academia) there’s a drive to do something to address historical injustice and advance people from marginalized backgrounds, so of course there are unscrupulous people who will take advantage of those good intentions (sometimes exploiting things like the really messy conception of Latin American identity in the U.S.). Especially since trying to police these boundaries is inevitably a minefield in itself.
But obviously the fake Native thing has a longer history than that, and ties into a bunch of American myths. This guy had a career as a “Native American consultant” after being exposed as a fraud.
posted by atoxyl at 12:47 PM on June 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
Please understand that I am explaining and not accepting or excusing when I discuss this, but one of the NYT commenters (of all people) made a good point about why this is happening particularly among white AFAB people. The commenter "L" says:
bq: I'd be unable to do consciously, too, but the thing is, they can't say it's a lie if you believe it. Cognitive dissonance produces a state in which you would absolutely go down with the Titanic of bullshit; see Rachel Dolezal or the Republican party.
posted by Countess Elena at 1:02 PM on June 1, 2021 [9 favorites]
If white women are a constant and socially acceptable object of ridicule in our culture (basic, Karens, etc.), I assure you that the scorn for us in academic circles focused on social justice is often by default scathing. Our real, painful problems are often ridiculed or ignored. We are assumed to be privileged and our identities and experience are afforded no granularity. I’m not sure why there is such contempt for white women and Schadenfreude when one of us acts badly. I do know that I learned not to say when I was treated badly as I would be treated dismissively.So it's easy to imagine a white girl or woman who has been in her bubble for so long that she forgets about her very real white privilege, which is also largely negative and thus invisible to her (not being harassed by the police, not being treated as a second-class citizen in public, not being treated as a threat at work or school). She focuses on the "scathing" reception white women get in academic and social justice circles. Instead of quietly living with the discomfort of whiteness, which is the least we can do, she decides that if white women are such bad people, she can't possibly be one of them. Thus, she dredges up some family story and sticks to it.
bq: I'd be unable to do consciously, too, but the thing is, they can't say it's a lie if you believe it. Cognitive dissonance produces a state in which you would absolutely go down with the Titanic of bullshit; see Rachel Dolezal or the Republican party.
posted by Countess Elena at 1:02 PM on June 1, 2021 [9 favorites]
I don't know. I do not buy the line that we're just poor oppressed white women, constantly subjected to the lethal scathingness of genuinely marginalized people. For one thing, if Smith had wanted to avoid being felled by the scathingness of the marginalized, she could just have decided not to hang out in social justice circles, rather than building her entire career on the theft of other people's identities.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 1:37 PM on June 1, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 1:37 PM on June 1, 2021 [8 favorites]
Why does this keep happening?
Greed and racism. The hypocrisy and cold-eyed cunning of these people is just appalling. They're con artists*, not mentally ill poor souls with good intentions. They have benefited from all of the privileges that come with being white but it's not enough for them, they think they also deserve the few opportunities offered to systemically disadvantaged people. They throw on other racial identities like they're costumes. It's a game for them, just play-acting. They know they won't face many of the roadblocks actual minorities face, and if they do experience racism and discrimination it thrills them. They can use it to seem more authentic, to garner sympathy and attention. It certainly doesn't hurt them -- it's a game! They tricked someone! They can take off the costume whenever they want!
These people take away opportunities, education, scholarships, connections, and employment that should have gone to people who need and deserve them. And what is most disgusting to me is that they then speak for (and over!) minority groups as if they are one of them, as if what they have to say is important. Notice how many of them are in positions of authority or expertise? Some of them even act as gatekeepers.
*This kind of con has parallels with others. See: Tania Head.
posted by Stoof at 5:40 PM on June 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
Greed and racism. The hypocrisy and cold-eyed cunning of these people is just appalling. They're con artists*, not mentally ill poor souls with good intentions. They have benefited from all of the privileges that come with being white but it's not enough for them, they think they also deserve the few opportunities offered to systemically disadvantaged people. They throw on other racial identities like they're costumes. It's a game for them, just play-acting. They know they won't face many of the roadblocks actual minorities face, and if they do experience racism and discrimination it thrills them. They can use it to seem more authentic, to garner sympathy and attention. It certainly doesn't hurt them -- it's a game! They tricked someone! They can take off the costume whenever they want!
These people take away opportunities, education, scholarships, connections, and employment that should have gone to people who need and deserve them. And what is most disgusting to me is that they then speak for (and over!) minority groups as if they are one of them, as if what they have to say is important. Notice how many of them are in positions of authority or expertise? Some of them even act as gatekeepers.
*This kind of con has parallels with others. See: Tania Head.
posted by Stoof at 5:40 PM on June 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
(And just like other con artists, they take advantage of the kindness, trust, and good-hearted nature of their marks.)
posted by Stoof at 5:45 PM on June 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Stoof at 5:45 PM on June 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
They throw on other racial identities like they're costumes. It's a game for them, just play-acting. They know they won't face many of the roadblocks actual minorities face, and if they do experience racism and discrimination it thrills them.
I would never argue for their "good intentions," but the people we're talking about here committed to other racial identities for basically careers on end. And they did good work in their fields. So I don't think this theory quite works for this particular subset of racial imposters. It's got to be a little more complicated a phenomenon, though doubtless still rotten with white supremacy at its core.
posted by praemunire at 7:18 PM on June 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
I would never argue for their "good intentions," but the people we're talking about here committed to other racial identities for basically careers on end. And they did good work in their fields. So I don't think this theory quite works for this particular subset of racial imposters. It's got to be a little more complicated a phenomenon, though doubtless still rotten with white supremacy at its core.
posted by praemunire at 7:18 PM on June 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
My take is that for certain wealthy, white feminists, because their feminist philosophy mandates them to eschew traditional markers of prestige and status, and do so very publicly (ie as an academic), psychologically they need to find another way to feel like they've gained more social capital than their peers. My instinct is that if you grow up from a well-off, white and liberal family, often you're expected and feel entitled to achieve more and have a higher status and more prestige than the people around you.
Even if they fully enmesh themselves in feminist thought "and practice" they don't necessarily get rid of that childish, narcissistic desire to be better than others.
So in a feminist academic community, if you can't gain status by being the richest or most powerful because both of those things are a big no-no, you have to resort to some backwards appropriation of the most marginalized identity, since those communities are ostensibly all about "elevating marginalized voices." The white feminist narcissist's inner child screams "what about me! I should be elevated"
I also think there's an element of a saviour complex that comes part and parcel in these disciplines. And perhaps that too can be traced to that innate narcissism, because what seems more satisfying to the ego than to think of oneself as "saving people" or "saving the world?"
They can simultaneously feel better than white women who choose the corporate career route (capitalist sellouts!) as well as feeling better than the marginalized people they're saving, so it's a double-whammy of an ego boost.
It's the generation of white women that grew up dreaming of "going to Africa to volunteer in an orphanage" as the ultimate class marker...
posted by winterportage at 10:57 PM on June 1, 2021 [6 favorites]
Even if they fully enmesh themselves in feminist thought "and practice" they don't necessarily get rid of that childish, narcissistic desire to be better than others.
So in a feminist academic community, if you can't gain status by being the richest or most powerful because both of those things are a big no-no, you have to resort to some backwards appropriation of the most marginalized identity, since those communities are ostensibly all about "elevating marginalized voices." The white feminist narcissist's inner child screams "what about me! I should be elevated"
I also think there's an element of a saviour complex that comes part and parcel in these disciplines. And perhaps that too can be traced to that innate narcissism, because what seems more satisfying to the ego than to think of oneself as "saving people" or "saving the world?"
They can simultaneously feel better than white women who choose the corporate career route (capitalist sellouts!) as well as feeling better than the marginalized people they're saving, so it's a double-whammy of an ego boost.
It's the generation of white women that grew up dreaming of "going to Africa to volunteer in an orphanage" as the ultimate class marker...
posted by winterportage at 10:57 PM on June 1, 2021 [6 favorites]
As someone who really enjoys the show Finding Your Roots for sincere exploration of family histories....and Dr. Gates is very direct with chattel slavery, consent, people living next door, race, anti-miscegenation history, continental (+Ashkenazi) DNA and more. These three would make an interesting trio for the show -HOWEVER- the show would weave in restorative justice dialogue with leaders that includes the claimed groups...THAT is the deep dialogue that is most interesting to me in this fantastical mash-up. Of course they would discuss scholarship, research and what is actually helpful/life-giving (which includes identifying and addressing harm)...not engaging in Gotcha-tactics.
The reality is that being able to claim tribal, ethnic and racial heritage has value, even if it’s social and not financial. Financial capacity has been violently thwarted as we soberly pass the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa massacre and more to this community reading “Killers of the Flower Moon-the Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI” over the past year is similarly horrific. While there is privilege (and passing to access that privilege) it’s often not sought in the direction of vulnerable identities. I find it interesting that women get pilloried more vigilantly than men, and agree that there is likely some ground truth for white women having a pinch point - as a point of awareness, not excusing behavior.
posted by childofTethys at 7:19 AM on June 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
The reality is that being able to claim tribal, ethnic and racial heritage has value, even if it’s social and not financial. Financial capacity has been violently thwarted as we soberly pass the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa massacre and more to this community reading “Killers of the Flower Moon-the Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI” over the past year is similarly horrific. While there is privilege (and passing to access that privilege) it’s often not sought in the direction of vulnerable identities. I find it interesting that women get pilloried more vigilantly than men, and agree that there is likely some ground truth for white women having a pinch point - as a point of awareness, not excusing behavior.
posted by childofTethys at 7:19 AM on June 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
A couple of points:
1) In terms of why this happens, I agree with those suggesting that it's likely a complex host of reasons that snowball until the lie becomes too entrenched/big to confront. Maybe it starts out of genuine sympathy for the underdog, or a bit of self-deception that "Well, if I'm doing good work, and if claiming this identity will help give authority to that good work, where is the harm?" And then once they get enough knowledge to understand that harm, they're in too deep. But I agree, it's hard to fathom.
2) As for why so many people have only been "caught" or taken to task recently: academia isn't quite an old boys club anymore, but it certainly used to be, and that past still informs codes of behavior. The whisper network of academia is strong, but actual face-to-face confrontation is pretty rare. If someone goes to someone's talk and thinks it's garbage, they're far more likely to say nothing at all but later gossip about it with a colleague. That, and it's a fairly generous place in terms of respecting people's stated identities, including with race. But this is changing, in part because current grad students/early career academics are somewhat more diverse, but also because enough people have just had it and are willing to stick their neck out, risks of not conforming to "the rules" be damned.
posted by coffeecat at 11:31 AM on June 2, 2021
1) In terms of why this happens, I agree with those suggesting that it's likely a complex host of reasons that snowball until the lie becomes too entrenched/big to confront. Maybe it starts out of genuine sympathy for the underdog, or a bit of self-deception that "Well, if I'm doing good work, and if claiming this identity will help give authority to that good work, where is the harm?" And then once they get enough knowledge to understand that harm, they're in too deep. But I agree, it's hard to fathom.
2) As for why so many people have only been "caught" or taken to task recently: academia isn't quite an old boys club anymore, but it certainly used to be, and that past still informs codes of behavior. The whisper network of academia is strong, but actual face-to-face confrontation is pretty rare. If someone goes to someone's talk and thinks it's garbage, they're far more likely to say nothing at all but later gossip about it with a colleague. That, and it's a fairly generous place in terms of respecting people's stated identities, including with race. But this is changing, in part because current grad students/early career academics are somewhat more diverse, but also because enough people have just had it and are willing to stick their neck out, risks of not conforming to "the rules" be damned.
posted by coffeecat at 11:31 AM on June 2, 2021
I've also got to voice some support for the Metis. Though I've read of some territorial disputes, I've never got the impression it was/is the norm. All the Metis I've met have approached the Indigenous/Metis/Inuit situation from, basically, a united front position.
I'm also pretty sure it's not uncommon for there to be strong familial ties between Metis and indigenous families. For example, one Metis guy I know told me about Grand Chief Ovide Mercredi attending his grandmother's funeral because he was related.
More ironically, given the complaint about them originating from a Mohawk, a pair of Metis fellows I met were huge supporters of the Iroquois Confederation and thought the Great Law was pretty much the only viable political system ever devised.
posted by house-goblin at 2:53 PM on June 3, 2021
I'm also pretty sure it's not uncommon for there to be strong familial ties between Metis and indigenous families. For example, one Metis guy I know told me about Grand Chief Ovide Mercredi attending his grandmother's funeral because he was related.
More ironically, given the complaint about them originating from a Mohawk, a pair of Metis fellows I met were huge supporters of the Iroquois Confederation and thought the Great Law was pretty much the only viable political system ever devised.
posted by house-goblin at 2:53 PM on June 3, 2021
For one thing, if Smith had wanted to avoid being felled by the scathingness of the marginalized, she could just have decided not to hang out in social justice circles
I would be genuinely surprised if she or Krug didn't genuinely believe in social justice principles.
I could see it being cynical opportunism. But I could also see it as a white guilt taken to an extreme. Which doesn't excuse the pain caused, obviously.
posted by pelvicsorcery at 4:39 PM on June 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
I would be genuinely surprised if she or Krug didn't genuinely believe in social justice principles.
I could see it being cynical opportunism. But I could also see it as a white guilt taken to an extreme. Which doesn't excuse the pain caused, obviously.
posted by pelvicsorcery at 4:39 PM on June 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
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