But questions have arisen about her background and her numerous complaints to police of harassment. Members of her family are challenging her very identity, saying she has misrepresented major portions of her life.
Dolezals mother, Ruthanne Dolezal, said Thursday by phone from her home in Northwest Montana that she has had no contact with her daughter in years. She said her daughter began to disguise herself in 2006 or 2007, after the family had adopted four African-American children and Rachel Dolezal had shown an interest in portrait art.
Ruthanne Dolezal said the familys ancestry is Czech, Swedish and German. She said the family does have some faint traces of Native American heritage as well. She provided a copy of her daughters Montana birth certificate listing herself and Larry Dolezal as Rachels parents.
