Prominent ethnic studies professor Andrea Smith, who has long faced accusations of falsely claiming Native American heritage, has agreed to retire from her position at the University of California, Riverside, following a separation agreement. Thirteen faculty members filed a complaint in August 2022, alleging that Smith had lied about her Cherokee identity and violated academic integrity. As part of the agreement, the university will not investigate the faculty complaint and will provide financial support of up to $5,000 for any legal costs related to resolving the complaint. Although the university did not conduct a formal inquiry, they did have informal discussions with Smith. The retirement will take effect in August 2024, allowing Smith to continue teaching until then and retain her retirement benefits. However, her honorary emeritus status will not be listed in the university's directory.

Smith's claims of Native American heritage have been under scrutiny for at least 15 years. While she had based her scholarship on her purported Cherokee identity, she had never offered a detailed explanation for her claims. The recent faculty complaint accused her of false claims that violated academic integrity. The separation agreement allows the university to avoid legal battles that typically arise from firing tenured professors. Some Native scholars expressed satisfaction with Smith's retirement but were disappointed that the university did not investigate the accusations against her. Professor Philip Deloria, who worked with Smith at the University of Michigan, criticized her for deflecting and avoiding accountability. Smith had previously written critically about white feminists who appropriated Native identities, accusing them of evading responsibility for white racism.

Smith's identity claims attracted attention in 2008 when she was denied tenure at the University of Michigan. She later secured a position at the University of California, Riverside. The recent faculty complaint arose after a 2021 article in The New York Times Magazine reignited interest in Smith's claims. Chancellor Kim Wilcox subsequently emphasized the importance of transparency and integrity in matters of indigenous affiliation and identity. Professor Gerald Clarke, who filed the complaint, stated that false claims of identity harm tribal communities and compelled him to raise the issue.

While some Native scholars viewed the separation agreement as a form of accountability, they lamented the lack of acknowledgment from Smith regarding her deceptive claims. They believed the university's decision not to investigate allowed Smith to evade responsibility once again. Andrew J. Jolivette, chair of the ethnic studies department at the University of California, San Diego, argued that the focus should be on caring for indigenous communities rather than individual cases of identity. Supporters of Smith previously held a conference in her honor, with Angela Davis, her dissertation advisor, as a guest speaker. Smith was described as one of the greatest Indigenous feminist intellectuals of our time.