The Truth Is Whatever We Want It To Be

Fake Indian Prof Doubles Down on Critics

For this progressive professor, identity is fluid and the truth is whatever she feels it is.

As the Daily Caller reports, UC Riverside professor Andrea Smith is doubling down on her insistence that her Cherokee identity is real, despite lack of evidence.

Smith, who has repeatedly claimed Cherokee heritage and allowed herself to be characterized as a "top Cherokee intellectual," is recognized as a major academic in Native American studies - or was until several American Indian journalists pointed out she was not a tribal member and had no evidence to support her claims.

In a blog post late last week, Smith defended herself by simply insisting that

I have always been, and will always be Cherokee. 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 for justice for Native communities.

David Cornsilk, an expert on Cherokee genealogy, told The Daily Beast that Smith approached him twice in the 1990s looking for possible Cherokee heritage. Both times, Cornsilk found none whatsoever.

Unable to prove her case factually, and with no high cheekbones like Elizabeth Warren to claim as physical proof of Native American heritage, Smith naturally resorted to playing the persecution card:

These social media attacks send a chilling message to all Native peoples who are not enrolled, or who are otherwise marginalized, that they should not publicly work for justice for Native peoples out of fear that they too may one day be attacked. It is my hope that more Indigenous peoples will answer the call to work for social justice without fear of being subjected to violent identity-policing.

Cherokee historian Patti Jo King, an academic who confronted Smith in the past, rebutted that Smith is “trying to switch the argument around here. We are not talking about her scholarship here. We are not talking about her commitment to Indian people.”

As the Daily Caller points out,

Smith has been booked at conferences specifically due to her Cherokee identity, and if she isn’t Cherokee at all she was presumably denying those conference slots to actual Indians, contributing to their marginalization.

King further pointed out that by constantly claiming a role as a top Cherokee scholar, Smith was essentially hijacking Cherokee culture and destroying their unique identities.

But hey, for a progressive professor, identity is fluid and the truth is whatever she feels it is. 

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