Berkeley Professor Elizabeth Hoover, who had long claimed she was a Native American, has admitted to falsely claiming her indigenous identity based on incomplete information. Hoover is a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley and has been working with restorative justice facilitators to better understand how members of the community have felt harmed and betrayed by her actions.
Hoover's misrepresented heritage helped her land prestigious jobs, grants, fellowships, and become a high-profile member of the "food sovereignty" movement. This recent confession has sparked outrage among former students and academics alike. Many individuals are now calling for her resignation due to this deception.
Former student Jane Thompson stated: "It's disheartening that someone so respected in our field could lie about their own background." Several other previous students have organized an open letter demanding Hoover's resignation from the university.
In response to the uproar surrounding these revelations, Hoover issued an apology filled with carefully crafted language such as eight uses of "hurt," 14 mentions of “harm,” and even a perplexing reference to "activating historical harms.”
A petition is currently circulating which calls for Elizabeth Hoover’s removal from her position at UC Berkeley. So far it has collected hundreds of signatures from those within academia as well as concerned citizens.
Hoover confessed that she grew up believing she was Mohawk on her mother's side and Mi’kmaq on her father’s side but recently discovered that this information was incorrect. She acknowledged in a statement: “I am truly sorry for any hurt or harm I may have caused by my claims."
She joined UC Berkeley in 2020 where she researched Native American food systems, food sovereignty movements, and environmental health issues related to indigenous communities.
As more voices join together in support or opposition regarding Hoover’s future at UC Berkeley following this revelation about falsely claiming Native American heritage, it remains to be seen how the university and Hoover will address these concerns in both the academic realm and the broader community.