Deletion of List of people of self-identified Cherokee ancestry

Comment: Clear  that fails to establish the importance of the list
Stance: delete
Cited policy: Wikipedia:Listcruft (WP:LISTCRUFT)

Comment: The whole point of this list is that these are people who are *not* members of Cherokee tribes; so it has no overlap with the Cherokee, Cherokee Nation, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, or United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians. Yet they claim Cherokee descent, which is widely written about in books and newspapers. The phenomenon of non-tribal members claiming Cherokee descent (specifically Cherokee among all tribes in the United States) is ubiquitous and widely written about as well (the external links are just a sampling of the larger conversation). The majority of the entries are, in fact, sourced, and one could simply request citations for the remaining entries, instead demanding deletion of a highly active article with innumerable links feeding into it. The subject is specifically framed to acknowledge the grey area—that these are notable individuals who have publicly '''claimed''' Cherokee descent (that they made these claims is completely verifible). I notice that this deletion notice wasn't announced on ikiproject Indigenous peoples of North America and editors who actually contribute to the article, such as myself have not been properly alerted
Stance: keep
Cited policy: Help:Watchlist (WP:W)

Comment: It's |reliably sourced and it's a |notable topic. There's a WP article on the topic – Native American identity in the United States with a section that discusses Native_American_identity_in_the_United_States#Self-identification|self-identification. In fact, Cherokee should probably be dropped from the title and expand it to ''self-identified Native American ancestry'' instead. There are a lot of notable people who don't meet the criteria to be ''legally'' defined as having Cherokee ancestry, but choose to self-identify instead. There is academic research on the topic of https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4207217/ the right to racial self-definition, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1185964?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents perspectives on racial and ethnic identity labels, and independent sources that discuss the topic in detail, https://diverseeducation.com/article/79507/ Native American Self-Identification. Some universities allow their faculty and staff to http://www.umt.edu/aig/people/default.php self-identify, with a detailed definition for self-identification. It makes perfect sense to have a list of notable people who fit that category of self-identification. I don't see how this list is any different from the other dozens and dozens of these sort of lists in – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lists_of_people_by_ethnicity Category:Lists of people by ethnicity – that require self-identification for inclusion
Stance: keep
Cited policy: Wikipedia:Reliable sources (WP:RS||WP:GNG)

Comment: Most of these claims are not "false," much less "verifiable false." Someone who states that they have some percentage of Cherokee heritage is not the same as that person stating that they are eligible for tribal membership. I recognize and respect your POV on this issue, and on a ''personal level'' I substantively agree with much of what you said, but your POV doesn't get to override |our requirement to adhere to a neutral POV. The broader point is, listicles are not appropriate places for us to write nuanced discussions of a person's family or cultural heritage
Stance: comment
Cited policy: Wikipedia:Neutral point of view (WP:NPOV)