This is, objectively, what is happening right now in this thread, with regard to this product.
Hard facts. Cold and icy.
As said earlier, the intention of Connors words are to be inclusive and empowering to indigenous players that may want to represent their own cultures in a way that just isn't anywhere else outside of their culture, and indeed, to provide a meaningful buffer against people bringing in stereotypes and ignorance.
Some may think they're being accused of not being trustworthy with these cultures they're being asked to not pretend to be.
And they're right.
If you were trustworthy to roleplay as an Indigenous person, you
wouldn't be making a stink over this.
This, incidentally, is exactly why my first reaction to seeing this controversy (much more prevalent on Reddit than here, but even so) was to say that the game is going a great job of outing a bunch of That Guys.
Case in point, Coyote and Crow isn't exactly some big splash in the hobby. It isn't the first game of its sort, and not many will have heard of it in the aggregate to begin with.
That theres hundreds of people on Reddit and the two here making a stink, compared to basically no one talking about the game on its own merits, illustrates that the people making a stink are forcing it.
I would actually argue that most of these people haven't even bought the game and are just piling on to the dogpile. At least one person here almost assurredly hasn't actually read the game, and theres plenty of Redditors that outright admitted they didn't, and many more who clearly didn't.
Sad to say, as much as I may have had my own issues with Shadowdark as a game, it seems to me to be a repeat of the same types of people making a huge stink because of the identity politics involved and not because they actually care about the game.
Which is ironic given how many in the hobby consistently complain about keeping "politics" out of their gaming.