4A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2008
PROFESSOR (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
COMANCHE CLAIMS:
Pierotti has been at the University since 1992. In that time, he has mentored Native students and was named Tribal College/University Mentor of the Year in 1998 by the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science. He is identified as "a member of the Comanche Nation" in his biography for that award.
Pierotti is also identified as a Comanche in the 2004 annual report for the National Science Foundation; a 1997 article in Earth Science magazine; a KU news release about the 2005 Big 12 Native American Student Leadership Conference at KU; in BioHawk, a privately funded annual newsletter produced by the Division of Biological Sciences of KU; and in an article published in the Journal of American Indian Education.
A Web site soliciting nearly $400,000 in funds for a documentary that Pierotti was involved with, "Powwow for the Planet," described him as "a Penatek Band Comanche and one of a very few tenured Native American scientists in U.S. universities." The Web site was taken down after the allegations were raised last semester. It is back up now, but there is no longer any mention of Pierotti's Comanie heritage.
Attempts to reach Pierotti by telephone were unsuccessful. His wife said in an e-mail to The Kansan that after consulting his doctors, her husband would not consent to an interview for this story.
In 1998, Pierotti and his wife, Cynthia Annett, filed a lawsuit against the University claiming that he faced racial discrimination because of his Native ethnicity and that she had been a victim of gender discrimination. The acts of discrimination that he cited included: removing laboratory space from him, revoking his position as chairman of the department of Syntematics and Ecology's Minority Affairs Committee and "denigrating" his award for mentoring minority students.
Ray Pierotti said in an e-mail that allegations by his brother Nicholas were the result of "an ugly family tragedy." David Pierotti echoed that statement. However, complaints that Ray falsely claimed to be Comanche arose long before his brother's e-mail.
Heidi Mehl, a third-year graduate student who has worked with Pierotti, said she didn't believe the allegations when she heard about them.
"I've never had any reason to question it," Mehl said of Periotti's ethnicity. "Anyone who knows him knows the claims don't hold any water. It's really easy to make those claims when you have other motives. That's an easy subject to attack. Identity is a really thorny issue to get into."
WHAT COMANCHES SAY:
The Comanche Nation first complained about Pierotti's claims when Monnarhae Henry, the tribe's enrollment director at the time, sent a letter to the interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 2006 saying that Ray Pierotti was not an enrolled member of the Comanche Nation. Copies of
the letter were sent to Michael Yellow Bird, who was the director of Indigenous Nations Studies at the time, and the Office of the Provost. The University said it did not become aware of allegations against Ray Pierotti until Fall of 2007, nearly a year after the letter was sent, but Yellow Bird said he received the letter.
Wallace Coffey, chairman for the Comanche Nation, said they were first alerted about Ray Pierotti about five years ago by Comanche students from KU and Haskell.
" The y are not the type of individuals who would judge or make any a s u m p tions," Coffey said. He said the students started asking basic kinship questions about Pierotti's famil
"Tribes get to say. It's really not a genetic issue; it's a tribal sovereignty issue."
The tribal leaders asked the University to apologize for failing to acknowledge the first letter and to include a disclaimer that said "Raymond Pieroti is not an enrolled member or citizen of the Comanche Nation" on all University Web sites that identified Pieroti as a Comanche.
Lynn Britz, director of University Communications, said that the KU
Coffey said he had not received any response from the University.
exclusive criterion is tribal enrollment."
LINDA SUE WARNER President of Haskell
"He just couldn't respond," Coffey said. "Our people would say it's just another white man professing to be Native and using what little knowledge he has to try to take advantage of us."
On Jan. 4, 2008, the Comanche Nation Business Committee, made up of elected leaders of the tribe, sent a second letter to the Office of the Provost. The letter, signed by eight tribal leaders, said Ray Pierotti still was not an enrolled member of the Comanche Nation.
The letter stated in part:
"The Comanche Nation is the only entity that can determine Comanche Nation citizenship. Pierotti's self-identification as Comanche and the University of Kansas' lack of effort to substantiate his claims shows disrespect to our tribal sovereignty and is an affront to the legitimate Comanche people. In essence, he is benefiting professionally and financially from unsubstantiated claims of Comanche identity for which the
administration could not discuss matters relating to personnel because of the individual's right to privacy.
Bretz said when the University was first made aware of allegations against Ray Pierotti last fall,
the University reviewed them and discussed them with Pierotti. Bretz said the University took matters of academic integrity and scholarly misconduct seriously. She said the University had a serious review process that included listening to complaints and gathering evidence.
According to University Senate Rules and Regulations, academic misconduct for an instructor includes: "grading student work by criteria other than academic performance, willful neglect in the discharge of teaching duties, falsification of research results, plagiarizing of another's work, violation of regulations or ethical codes for the treatment of human and animal subjects, or otherwise acting dishonestly in research."
The Comanche Nation, a federally recognized tribe, requires that those who enroll for membership must be able to trace their lineage back to the 1887 Dawes Act and must be at least one-eighth Comanche as determined by blood
quantum, which is the calculation of an individual's Indian blood.
To enroll, an ancestor with Comanche heritage must first be enrolled. Pierotti's parents are both deceased and people cannot be enrolled posthumously.
Ray Pierotti said in an e-mail that he wrote to the Comanche Nation and told them that he had never identified himself as an enrolled member of the tribe. However, he declined to discuss the specifics of his Comanche ethnicity.
Others have also expressed concerns about Pierotti's claimed heritage. After Nick Pierotti sent the e-mail with the allegations about his brother Ray, Devon Mihesuah, professor of indigenous nations studies, sent him a reply thanking him. Her e-mail reply was intended only for Nicholas Pierotti, but he posted it online on discussion boards without Mihesuah's consent.
In her response, Mihesuaah said that she had questioned Pierotti's Comanche identity and challenged his ability to teach in the indigenous nations studies department. She said she complained "endlessly" to KU administrators and even asked to be removed from the department. Her husband, Joshua Mihesuah, is an enrolled member of the Comanche tribe. In the message, she said that they had "been aware" of Pierotti's claims for almost 10 years, and that she was "frustrated that KU chose to look the other way".
Devon and Joshua Mihesuah both declined to comment for this story.
TRIBES DETERMINE:
Angelique EagleWoman, visiting assistant professor of law, said that tribal nations are sovereign and thus determine their own members. She said institutions like the University should contact the tribe before they identify faculty or students as American Indian.
The National Native American Bar Association created guidelines about tribal identity for public
institutions in 2007. They encourage institutions of higher education to require individuals who identify as Native American to provide information that will support their claim to ethnicity.
EagleWoman said people who are descendants of a tribe but are not eligible for enrollment should identify themselves as descendants. She said if institutions honored tribal sovereignty, ethnic fraud would not be a problem.
Linda Sue Warner, the president of Haskell Indian Nations University and an enrolled Comanche, said it was important that tribes determined who to include as members.
"Tribes get to say," Warner said. "It's really not a genetic issue; it's a tribal sovereignty issue."
When Warner became president of Haskell, the Comanche Nation had a celebration in Lawrence to honor her achievements. Coffey said that he did not see Pierotti during the celebration.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE
DEBATE:
Ray Pierotti, right, talks to faculty from the University in this photo from October 2000. The Comanche Nation has questioned Pierotti's Native American heritage, but students said he brings an Indigenous approach to the classroom by teaching about respect for nature and the inter-connectedness of all creatures and organisms.
Photo Courtesy of Lawrence Journal-World
Others say that tribal enrollment is an oppressive construction that alienates some
"I think it's whitewash," said Michael Yellow Bird, associate professor of indigenous nations studies. "It's a colonial invention of the U.S. government. I don't believe in it."
Yellow Bird is Sahnish and Hidatsa. His official blood quantum level is 28/32, while several of his brothers and sisters have a perfect blood quantum level of 4/4 even though they have the same parents.
"In my perspective and in my view, Dr. Pierotti is as much Native as I am. His spirit, his heart is truly indigenous."
"A lot of people don't regard tribal enrollment systems with a lot of respect and credibility," he said.
full-blooded Indians cannot register with certain tribes because their blood quantum is so diverse among different tribes, she said.
Abrahamson has worked under Ray Pierotti and taken several of his classes. He is her adviser in the Indigenous Nations Studies department at KU. She said Pierotti inspired her to come to KU for graduate school.
Yellow Bird said what mattered was the performance of a person. He said Pierotti had guided a lot of students through KU and Haskell, many of whom have become successful scientists. Yellow Bird said students gravitated toward Pierotti.
She said what matters is being proud of your heritage and who you are, and Ray Pierotti is.
"I asked him and he said he was," Yellow Bird said of Pierotti. "That was good enough for me."
Abrahamson said she and other students had been made aware of the allegations by an e-mail that
Dustina Abrahamson, a second-year graduate student and one of Ray Pierotti's students, said Native governments were the only ones that required a pedigree for citizenship.
DUSTINA ABRAHAMSON graduate student
"In my perspective and my view, Dr. Pierotti is as much Native as I am," she said. "His spirit, his heart is truly indigenous."
She said that was problematic because many Natives don't have a high enough blood quantum for any one tribe to enroll. Even some
A copy of the letter from the Comanche Nation's enrollment office was sent to Yellow Bird in 2006 when he was director of the indigenous nations studies department. Yellow Bird said he wasn't concerned because many people who are Native are not enrolled members of a tribe and because some people who are enrolled members aren't really Native.
"He was a good mentor." Yellow Bird said. "He showed up to meetings (of the First Nations Student Association) when no other faculty did."
Abrahamson is a full-blooded Shoshone Indian. Shoshones and Comanches are considered cousins.
"He doesn't fit the mold in a stereotypical view of what Native instructors are supposed to be," Abrahamson said.
Abrahamson said a lot of people look at how others look on the outside rather than who they are on the inside.
was sent out to a select group of students and faculty members in the indigenous nations studies department last semester. She said the e-mail was "mean and hurtful and ugly."
WHAT THE FAMILY SAYS:
Nick Pierotti said in a phone interview that his brother decided to create a false Comanche identity many years ago in order to take advantage of affirmative action when he was struggling to get a job. He said Ray chose Comanche because the Comanche Nation didn't keep good records of family history.
David Pierotti said the brothers were not immersed in their Comanche heritage growing up in a middle-class suburban neighborhood, but that he remembered stories his grandmother would tell about animals and growing up in the West.
David Pierotti, Ray's other brother, said their grandmother on their mother's side was Comanche. He said Nick made up the allegations as an act of retaliation.
As an adolescent, David Pierotti said his heroes included Crazy Horse and Tecumseh. He said his family was not interested in gaining tribal membership, which he said was for people who were trying to receive tribal benefits. He said his mother tried to find out more information about their Native ancestry but was unable to.
David Pierotti said he and Ray both worked with Native groups and that they had never sought or received any gain from it. He said he thought it had actually hurt his brother's career, but that Ray got a lot of gratification from helping Native students.
"He and I have both done this kind of thing because we felt a sort
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