Thomas Lifson writes for the American Thinker about a new scandal that ought to remind people about U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Another high-profile female at one of America’s most prestigious universities has been outed for having falsely claimed Native American heritage and thereby illicitly benefitted from affirmative action, as well as deceiving research subjects with her false claims. The controversy has been building for over half a year, after Associate Professor Elizabeth Hoover in October 2022 revealed on her personal website that she had incorrectly claimed Native American heritage.
Via The Daily Californian student newspaper at UC Berkeley November 1, 2022:
“I have always introduced myself as the person my parents had raised me to be—someone of mixed Mohawk, Mi’kmaq, French, English, Irish, and German descent and identity,” Hoover said in the statement. “My identity within the Native community, rooted in the histories of my family, is something that shaped my entire life, even though I was not eligible for tribal enrollment due to blood quantum requirements.”
In her statement, Hoover also noted that she came to the conclusion that she cannot claim Indigenous descent after conducting genealogical research in response to recent questions about her identity, which she said she was first alerted to when a draft of a “pretendian” list circulated about a year ago. …
… Strikingly, her excuse for her false claims echoes that of Senator Elizabeth Warren: family lore, uncritically accepted, to great personal benefit. Her apology did not lead to forgiveness, however. On November 11, 2022, a group of over 350 people with roots in academia and Native American concerns issued a highly critical “collective statement.” …
… Hoover’s entire academic career appears to be built on Native American-related research. …
… For what is worth, Professor Hoover’s scholarship has not been impugned as erroneous, and has won several awards. He crime, such as it is, rests on falsely claiming victim-identity status.
