Elizabeth Hoover, an environmental science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, apologized on Monday after she was accused of falsely claiming to have Native American heritage.
The academic released a lengthy “letter of apology and accountability” on her personal website expressing regret for the “hurt, harm, and broken trust” she caused by asserting that she has Mohawk and Mi’kmaq ancestry. She admitted that she had benefited from programs and funding opportunities which were “identity-related or geared towards under-represented people.”
“I hurt Native people who have been my friends, colleagues, students, and family, both directly through fractured trust and through activating historical harms,” Hoover wrote, adding, “I have negatively impacted people emotionally and culturally. For this hurt I have caused, I am deeply sorry.”