Lizzy loves to skirt the rules. She thinks that because her mom or grandma once mentioned having Cherokee ancestry, that that is sufficient to apply for a special status as a protected minority and to get a position in a prestigious university under affirmative action rules.
One more thing - disclosure. I am an avid genealogist One of my grandfather’s cousins married a man with an Irish name, and their family moved from Minnesota to Madison Wisconsin. A few years ago I decided to look further for them as I had lost the trail of the family.
On Ancestry.com I re-entered my data and now I was able to gather lots of info including tracking them from Grand Rapids, Minnesota to Madison, Wisconsin. This gave me more info including a middle initial on the husband, and the names of four of their children. After adding that info into my search, I clicked on the search button and Voila!!!! Up came Indian census records for the family. It turned out my cousin’s husband was 1/8 Chippewa/Ojibway Indian.
So, it is possible to have Indian blood and not know it, and - or lose the trail. OTOH, it is also a common thing for people to think they have Indian ancestry and it is totally imaginary. It can be deliberate or be innocently passed down as a myth.
In Feaucahontas’s case, it appears to be a case of deliberate use of a rule to take advantage of a law to obtain prestigious employment.