Saying she "never felt authentic in my role," Rhonda McBride resigned Monday as Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's rural adviser, the Associated Press reports. McBride is not an Alaska Native. She wrote several Native leaders saying, "I definitely think it would help to have an Alaska native in this position."

McBride's appointment as Palin's rural adviser was controversial in Alaska. Palin left the position unfilled in her first year in office and then appointed McBride, a white woman. (She had been a reporter covering rural issues.) "We were really disappointed when an Alaska Native wasn't appointed," said Al Kookesh, a Tlingit Indian who held the job in a previous administration.