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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [First Page] [200], (1) Lines: 0 t ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal P PgEnds: T [200], (1) 12. so you think you hired an “indian” faculty member? The Ethnic Fraud Paradox in Higher Education Cornel D. Pewewardy Marketing the images of Indigenous Peoples of the Americas is an ongoing legacy. 1 Cultural exploitation and appropriation also continue, whether at powwows, mountain man retreats, pioneer and frontier days reenactments, art shows, music festivals, arts and crafts gatherings, sport mascots, Boy Scout summer camps, television commercials and sitcoms, Hollywood movies, in the writing of books, awarding of student college scholarships, or at college or when university faculty check the “race” box in applying for faculty positions in higher education. Cultural exploitation has found its way to American higher education, and the most prominent examples are individuals who self-identify as American Indian2 by checking the appropriate race box. These frauds know that most higher education officials will never verify their tribal membership. This pattern of cultural exploitation and marketing is continuously perpetuated in a truly paradoxical form. I refer to this phenomenon as the Ethnic Fraud Paradox.3 Lévi-Strauss (1995) insisted that a myth could be translated only by another myth, never by a scientific formula. He posited that every myth is driven by the obsessive need to solve a paradox that cannot be solved. The self-identification of fraudulent“Indigenous Peoples”has prompted several organizations such as the American Indian and Alaska Native Professors’ Association to construct a policy statement on ethnic fraud, which they did in 1993. Two public research universities (University of Oklahoma and University of Washington) have formal verification policies implemented by the university administration. It has also caused legitimate Natives to question more aggressively and openly the legitimacy of frauds. The paradox that will never be solved is that most frauds are comfortably ensconced in university positions and in the world of publishing where they are protected by administrators and publishers who you think you hired an “indian” faculty member? 201 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [201], (2) Lines: 42 to 51 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [201], (2) have too much to lose if their frauds are exposed. Even though Native activists and our allies can expose frauds and create hiring guidelines for universities, unless universities are willing to follow those guidelines and unless tribes complain more aggressively when they discover someone pretending to be of their group, fraudulent behavior will continue and even proliferate. Who is an American Indian and who gets to determine this identity has become an ongoing dialogue within the last few decades among legitimate (tribally enrolled) Native peoples. Ethnic fraud involves issues of tribal sovereignty, jurisdictional turf, and internal affairs of the U.S. federal government. It is about the deepest emotional feelings of belonging or not belonging to a tribal group of people.4 Confronting ethnic fraud is also about interrogating the validity of the self-proclaimed definitions of who are Indigenous Peoples. Although the politics of cultural identity and the life experiences of Indigenous Peoples have been addressed more frequently in recent years by scholars,activists,and novelists,there is little discussion about how and why Indigenous Peoples make their identity choices.5 Ethnic fraud is rarely emphasized in scholarly research and writings , and ironically, most of the writers who promote self-identification are not tribally enrolled. They are “honorary” members, close friends with frauds, or relatives by marriage of those people who proclaim the former two. Expressing one’s personal thoughts about sensitive subjects like cultural identity and ethnic fraud is difficult because in the academy, challenging frauds is the same as challenging the administrators who hired them and the grants and contracts offices that support their grants. Ultimately , however, the issue of ethnic fraud in higher education is also about honoring the tribal sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples of theAmericas . Tribes are the official source to define who is and who is not a member of their tribes, and in the academy...

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