University of Milwaukee professor accused of LYING about being Native American posts rambling apology admitting she is of Irish and French-Canadian descent

Former colleagues of a $167,000-a-year assemblage professor of American Indian studies person said they consciousness betrayed aft she admitted having nary grounds of Native American ancestry.

Margaret Noodin, 58, was called a 'con artist' aft leaving her occupation arsenic head of nan Electa Quinney Institute astatine nan University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee past twelvemonth amid increasing suspicion astir her claims to an indigenous identity.

The linguist posted a 'positionality statement' insisting her family told her she had Native American relatives erstwhile she was a child.

But chap world Doug Kiel of Wisconsin's Oneida Nation hauled her submissions from an accumulation of indigenous creation successful Chicago when he publication it and denounced her arsenic a fraud.

'It was really rather rambling babble about, 'I cognize a personification and I was successful a ceremony',' he told nan Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 'And it's like, no, no, no, no, this is not really this useful astatine all.'

Noodin was moving arsenic an Ojibwe connection coach successful Michigan erstwhile she was appointed by nan University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to thatch astatine nan institute successful 2014.

Her practice was called into mobility successful 2021 connected a forum called New Age Fraud. The pursuing year, Noodin brought nan accusations to nan administration's attention. 

She had denied lying astir her heritage, and successful 2021 told nan Journal-Sentinel that she grew up believing she was indigenous because of what her family told her. 

Noodin said she tin not constituent to immoderate tribal federation she has descended from, but has spent years learning nan Ojibwe connection and forging connections successful nan community. 

Dean Scott Gronert apologized to her for 'having to woody pinch these challenges to your identity, which you person truthful openly addressed successful your caller posts and passim your clip astatine UWM.'

That led to Noodin posting a 'personality statement' to a page - but its 1 that drew much questions arsenic it sanction dropped galore group she worked with, those she joined and her commencement sanction of O'Donnell. 

It did not talk her relatives from nan Ojibwe people aliases her connections to nan past. 

'My knowing of my ain title and ethnicity has evolved complete clip and location are galore ancestors I look guardant to gathering erstwhile I time off this world,' she wrote successful nan online post.

'I person been portion of sweetener bush, accepted gardening, wiigwaas harvest, berry processing and chaotic ricing.

'I americium a erstwhile bow-hunter and person caught and cleaned galore food and muskrats,' she continued.

'I person dedicated my clip connected Earth to learning and school nan connection of my ancestors.'

The admittance came arsenic a bombshell to erstwhile students and colleagues, convinced they had been duped.

'I felt betrayed,' said Antonio Doxtator, an Oneida Nation citizen. 'I ne'er would person taken her classes if I'd known she wasn't Native.'

University of Michigan coach Howard Kimewon said Noodin was a 'con artist' who took advantage of him and exploited his knowledge of Ojibwe to further her ain career.

'She did capable harm to me,' he told nan Sentinal. 'I can't hide it.'

Noonan told her readers that 'race-shifting, fraud and indigenous personality are important topics being examined intimately today.'

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has begun an investigation into Noodin but she retains a occupation pinch nan assemblage school part-timer online. She did time off her $167,000-a-year domiciled pinch nan assemblage amid nan scandal. 

Meanwhile she has secured a caller station successful Minnesota arsenic head of a tribal nation's Head Start program.

'Throughout my life I person tried to continually summation my knowledge of my ain family and nan communities wherever I americium invited and included,' she said successful a statement.

'During my life I person listened to relatives, friends and elders who asked that I usage my gifts and productivity to grant each of my ancestors without denial aliases erasure of oral family histories.'

But Assistant Professor Kiel told her she had mislaid her credibility.

'No matter really you portion it, you person made very big, inexcusable mistakes that legitimately telephone into mobility whether you tin beryllium trusted to activity pinch Native group and communities,' he wrote to her successful an email.

'You person years of amends to commencement making.'

She is not nan only personification to travel nether occurrence successful caller years for allegations of deceiving others astir their background. 

Earlier this year, nan main inclusion serviceman astatine a Philadelphia-based Quaker group was 'outed' by her mother, who said she had nary thought why her girl claimed to beryllium of Latin, South Asian and Arab descent.

Colleagues of Raquel Saraswati astatine nan American Friends Service Committee said nan felt 'conned' aft mother Carol Perone revealed her girl was 'white arsenic nan driven snow'.

In 2019 Kay LeClaire of Sussex, Wisconsin, resigned from nan indigenous artists' corporate she had founded erstwhile it was revealed she was a achromatic assemblage student passing disconnected Native American creation bought connected Etsy arsenic her own.

Perhaps nan astir celebrated 'race-faker' of each is Rachel Dolezal who spent 10 years posing arsenic a achromatic female earlier she was outed successful 2015.

Dolezal, 45, was a section president of nan National Association for nan Advancement of Colored People successful Spokane, Washington, and besides a coach of Africana studies astatine East Washington University.