First was Ward Churchill, who (falsely) claimed to be Creek and Cherokee; next came Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who (falsely) claimed to be Cherokee; followed by Rachel Dolezal, who (falsely) claimed to be African-American, and now we have Andrea Smith who (falsely) claims to be Cherokee.
What do they all have in common? Lying on their resumes about their qualifications, in itself no rare thing.
What is unusual about the group is the qualification they all lie about - their membership in one of the protected classes. This is done in order to obtain employment largely reserved for members of such classes. It is another unintended consequence of affirmative action.
Inescapably these folks remind me of the Duke and the King, two four-flushing mountebanks in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The pair claim titles both spurious and far-fetched. Given our society's reward matrix, I expect we'll see more of the same.
