Subject: “Paul Edward” Qwo-Li Driskill (born 7-6-75 in Colorado)
(Associate professor of WGSS & Queer Studies at Oregon State University)
Sovereign Nations/identity falsely claimed: Cherokee, Lenape (Delaware), Osage, “Lumbee”
Determination: No American Indian ancestry found: FRAUD
Date: 10-25-23
Paul Edward aka “Qwo-Li” Driskill, hereafter referred to as Professor Driskill, is an associate professor at Oregon State University.
They admit that they are not enrolled as a citizen of any federally recognized tribal nation. Yet they insist that they are Cherokee, Lenape (Delaware) and Osage because they have ancestry from all those tribes. They do not.
The Tribal Alliance Against Frauds has done their genealogy and has proven that they have zero ancestry from any American Indian tribal nation whatsoever. This is supported by hundreds of unimpeachable genealogical documents that trace Driskill in a direct line back several generations on both sides of their family. It is also supported by letters from all the nations they falsely claim ancestry from, who all clearly state that neither they nor their ancestors are citizens of their nations.
The Tribal Alliance Against Frauds is asking Oregon State University to fire Paul Driskill for academic dishonesty and ethnic fraud unless Driskill makes a public statement admitting that they are not American Indian at all and gives a public apology.
The evidence can be seen on our website: https://tribalallianceagainstfrauds.org/
CASE REPORT
Subject: “Paul Edward” Qwo-Li Driskill (born 7-6-75 in Colorado)
(Associate professor of WGSS & Queer Studies at Oregon State University)
Sovereign Nations / identity falsely claimed: Cherokee, Lenape (Delaware), Osage, “Lumbee”
Determination: No American Indian ancestry found: FRAUD
Date: 10-25-23
To Whom it May Concern at Oregon State University,
The Tribal Alliance Against Frauds, or “TAAF”, is an intertribal task force comprised of over 50 American Indian investigators and genealogists from many federally recognized tribes from across the country, and our allies. We are a watchdog group, as well as an educational and whistleblower organization. We are a 501c3 organization located on the Qualla Boundary of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in Cherokee, North Carolina on sovereign unceded Cherokee territory. We serve all of the federally recognized American Indian sovereign nations of what is now known as the United States.
“Paul Edward” aka “Qwo-Li” Driskill, hereafter referred to as Professor Driskill, is an associate professor at Oregon State University.
They admit that they are not enrolled as a citizen of any federally recognized tribal nation. Yet they insist that they are Cherokee, Lenape (Delaware) and Osage because they have ancestry from all those tribes. They do not.
The Tribal Alliance Against Frauds has done their genealogy and has proven that they have zero ancestry from any American Indian tribal nation whatsoever. This is supported by hundreds of unimpeachable genealogical documents that trace Professor Driskill in a direct line back several generations on both sides of their family. It is also supported by letters from all the nations they falsely claim ancestry from, who all clearly state that neither they nor their ancestors are citizens of their nations.
American Indian sovereign nations in the United States have the right to self-determination, which the United States recognizes and honors. The United States did not bestow or grant that sovereignty or right to self-determination. It is inherent. Which is why the United States formally and legally recognizes and honors both. That means that only those federally recognized tribal nations can say who is one of them and who is not. Period. That is what self-determination and sovereignty mean. Literally. And it means we are not just talking about “race”. We are talking about a unique historical, legal, political status for American Indian people in this country, based on hundreds of years of federal treaty law founded on thousands of years of tribal civilization before the United States ever existed.
This is why “self-identification” as an American Indian person is both impossible and highly problematic when people presume to do it anyway. Being an American Indian person is not about who you claim to be, it is about who claims you. It is about an ancestral blood kinship, tribal belonging, tribal identity, cultural connection, and the centuries of intergenerational grief, trauma and oppression that our families have inherited and resiliently endured that settler families have not.
All peoples suffer and endure hardship. But there is zero comparison between the hardships endured by settler families in this country and the genocide suffered by American Indian families in this country. And Pretendian frauds like Professor Driskill are fetishizing and monetizing our suffering for their own gain, as if they could even imagine it.
Consider, for example, the fact that American Indians, in living memory, served in the United States military, and were awarded more military honors than most by comparison, yet they were not even allowed to vote until 1924. That included my own relatives. Consider that there were thousands of hippies in the 1960s playing at things like their distorted versions of “sweat lodges” and “vision quests” when it was still ILLEGAL for us to perform those genuine sacred ceremonies until 1978. While our children were kidnapped and sent off to boarding schools where they were stripped of anything Indian, including their languages and clothing, it has always been popular for non-Indian children to play “cowboys and Indians” and to dress up like Indians at Halloween. While Indian children were beaten for being Indian, settler children got candy for dressing up like Indians.
So when people of European ancestry, like Professor Driskill, put on Indian-looking jewelry or clothing, make up Indian-sounding names like “Qwo-Li”, and teach Indian languages that they barely know, like Cherokee, referring to themselves as “Cherokee” or “Osage” descendants, it is beyond offensive. It is anti-American Indian. It is toxic. It is RACIST. It is genocidal.
Why “genocidal”? Because frauds like Professor Driskill are literally erasing us by replacing us. Did you know that between 2010 and 2020 there was supposedly an 86% increase in the American Indian population in the United States according to the United States census? 86%!! That was certainly not due to immigration…. Nor was it the result of a sudden enormous baby boom in Indian country. It was due to non-Indian people falsely self-identifying as “American Indians” on the census. And no one checks. Anyone can claim that their relative was anything on a birth or death certificate too. No one checks. Anyone can claim to be anything when applying for a job at most universities too. No one checks. Very few know how to vet those claims. Most are afraid to ask, because they think it’s “racist”. But remember, we are not talking about “race” here. We are talking about political citizenship within a sovereign nation. And, we are talking about vetted ancestry from those nations, enrolled or not. We are talking about authenticity. Credibility. Integrity.
Non-American Indian people who pretend to be Indians are usurping spaces that should be occupied by legitimately American Indian people. They are usurping our voices. Thus they are contributing to our erasure, and replacing us because they have privilege we do not. So when they use their privilege to get into these spaces, like getting tenure at a university, they often favor fellow pretendians and block the inclusion or advancement of actual American Indians, thus ensuring their protection and contributing to our erasure. We can quote many notable instances of this happening.
Professor Driskill is an academic fraud with regard to anything they have taught or written as if they were teaching or writing from an American Indian perspective. Everything they have done in that vein was done on a foundational lie. And I say “lie” rather than “mistake” because they have been aware for years that we are all aware that they are not Indian. And there remains a standing invitation to them to prove us wrong.
It is not incumbent upon American Indian people to prove a negative, even though we have gone to the trouble to do so. As the Cherokee Scholars wrote in their paper titled “Cherokee Scholars’ Statement on Sovereignty and Identity”: “Any person who publicly identifies as Cherokee has initiated a public discussion about their identity. It is appropriate to ask such persons to explain the verifiable basis upon which they are claiming a Cherokee identity. If they cannot substantiate that they are a Cherokee citizen, they should be clearly and directly asked to cease identifying as Cherokee.”
Read more from that paper on the issue of identity here: https://www.thinktsalagi.org/blog/2020/2/13/-cherokee-scholars-statement-on-sovereignty-and-identitynbsp
Professor Driskill wrote “Asegi Stories: Cherokee Queer and Two-Spirit Memory”. How does someone write about Cherokee memories when they can’t possibly have any as a non-Cherokee person?
They also presume to “teach” the Cherokee language (which they do not speak fluently by any stretch of the imagination and have no credentials or authority to teach) and Cherokee basket weaving. They teach all the queer Indigenous courses at OSU as a “Cherokee 2-Spirit” person, which is something they have zero experience of being.
Professor Driskill is defrauding every American Indian student who looked up to them and thought they were learning from an American Indian professor only to discover they were betrayed by a fraud. It adds more lies, betrayal and distrust on top of hundreds of years of lies, betrayal and distrust that result in the intergenerational grief and trauma that most of us have not managed to heal from, and this is very harmful.
You can see further evidence on our website and on the TAAF FB page that exposes his fraud there as well.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550909816574
https://tribalallianceagainstfrauds.org/
All of us at TAAF would like to see Professor Driskill either fired from your university for academic fraud, or at the very least, a public acknowledgement by Professor Driskill that they are not American Indian AT ALL, and an apology for falsely claiming to be American Indian.
If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to reach out and ask. We will be happy to oblige.
Respectfully submitted,
Lianna Costantino, Director
Tribal Alliance Against Frauds
828-331-8688
