"Pretendian" is apejorativecolloquialism for a person who engages inIndigenous identity fraud. A pretendian is a non-Indigenous person who falsely and publicly claims anIndigenous identity. The word "pretendian" is aportmanteau of the words "pretend" and "Indian".[1][2][3]
In the United States, Indigenous identity fraud often involves an individual falsely and publicly claiming to beNative American. In Canada, indigenous identity fraud can involve a person falsely and publicly claiming to be aFirst Nations person, to beMétis, or to beInuit.[4] Indigenous identity fraud is considered an extreme form ofcultural appropriation,[5] especially if a pretendian asserts that they can represent and speak for communities from which they do not originate.[3][6]
In April 2018,APTN National News in Canada investigated how pretendians – in the film industry and in real life – promote "stereotypes, typecasting, and even, what is known as 'redface'."[7] In 2019,Rebecca Nagle (Cherokee Nation) wrote the following forHigh Country News:
Pretendians perpetuate the myth that Native identity is determined by the individual, not the tribe or community, directly undermining tribal sovereignty and Native self-determination. To protect the rights of Indigenous people, pretendians...must be challenged and the retelling of their false narratives must be stopped.[8]
In 2020,United States Poet LaureateJoy Harjo (Mvskoke) wrote:
We ... have had to contend with an onslaught of what we call 'Pretendians', that is, non-Indigenous people assuming a Native identity. DNA tests are setting up other problems involving those who discover Native DNA [sic] in their bloodline. When individuals assert themselves as Native when they are not culturally Indigenous, and if they do not understand their tribal nation's history or participate in their tribal nation's society, who benefits? Not the people or communities of the identity being claimed. It is hard to see this as anything other than an individual's capitalist claim, just another version of a colonial offense.[9]
Additional slang terms have emerged from the term "pretendian". A "defendian" is a person who defends pretendians, while a "Karendian" is a person who calls out pretendians.[10] A "descendian" is a person with distant Indigenous ancestry who is not a member of the Indigenous nation which they claim to be affiliated with.[11]
In January 2021,Navajo journalistJacqueline Keeler began investigating the problem of settler self-indigenization in academia.[12] Working with other Natives in tribal enrollment departments, genealogists and historians, she began following up on the names many had been hearing for years in tribal circles were not actually Native, asking about current community connections as well as researching family histories "as far back as the 1600s" to see if they had any ancestors who were Native or had ever lived in a tribal community.[12] This research resulted in the creation of the "Alleged Pretendians List"[13] of about 200 public figures in academia and entertainment, which Keeler self-published as a Google spreadsheet in 2021.[14]
ArtistNadema Agard, who is named on the Alleged Pretendians List, has criticized Keeler for allegedly conducting a 'witch hunt".[15] However, Native leaders interviewed byVoice of America, such as ChiefBen Barnes of theShawnee Tribe, have said that Keeler has strong support in Native circles.[12] AcademicDina Gilio-Whitaker, who reviewed Keeler's documentation onSacheen Littlefeather before it was published, found Keeler's research to be sound.[16] Keeler has stressed that the Alleged Pretendians List does not include private citizens who are "merely wannabes", but only those public figures who are monetizing and profiting from their claims to tribal identity and who claim to speak for Native American tribes.[14] She has said that the list is the product of decades of Native peoples' efforts at accountability.[12]
AcademicKim TallBear writes that the Alleged Pretendians List documents the fact that the overwhelming majority of those who benefit financially from pretendianism are white, and that these false claims relate to white supremacy and Indigenous erasure. Tallbear stresses that pretendians are in no way the same as disconnected and reconnecting descendants who have real heritage, such as victims of government programs thatscooped Indigenous children from their families.[17]
Skeptics of the Alleged Pretendians List have challenged its reliability and questioned the methodology and motivations of Keeler. Some skeptics released a signed statement viaLast Real Indians accusing Keeler of exploiting the issue of Indigenous fraud—which they acknowledged "had long been a problem inIndian Country"—to further her own personal agenda. Signees argued that Keeler was weaponizing "lateral violence, colonial trauma, and colonial recognition" against people she disagreed with or had prior disputes with. Keeler was also accused of promoting herself as a "self-appointed arbiter of Indian identity", with the statement eventually requesting that Keeler "respect the rights of every tribe, and urban inter-tribal communities to determine their own people, kin and citizenship".[18]
In "Who made the Pretendian?", Lakota journalist Alexandra Watson wrote that an article she had written was used for reference in the Alleged Pretendians List without her consent. Watson asserted that her writing should not be construed as an endorsement of the list and questioned the list's methodology and usefulness.[19]
In an op-ed forPowwows.com,Northern Cheyenne journalist Angelina Newsom wrote that Keeler had questioned the tribal enrollment of the Native politicianBen Nighthorse Campbell and included him in her research despite the fact that Campbell was a member of a federally recognized tribe. Newsom accused Keeler of lacking proper documentation as well as usingAncestry.com records in part of her research. She added that the publication of private information could also "negatively impact the actual Native folks listed as relatives and in-laws". Newsom argued that tribes should be in charge of investigating citizenship claims, claiming that Keeler's method--which Newsom believed implicated people who were verifiably Native--wasn't "safe for Indian Country".[20]
'pretendians' (short for 'pretend Indians')... Ms. TallBear said, there is no excuse for outright lies. 'If they're lying and they've gotten job benefits or scholarship benefits, they should be required to figure out how to make restitution,' she said, likening fake identity claims to falsifying academic credentials. 'It's fraud.'
the 1990s saw the beginning of what would eventually be significant pushback by Native Americans against so-called Pretendians or Pretend Indians
[The] phenomenon of what I and many other Indigenous people have for some time called Pretendians, as well as the related, and very often overlapping, phenomenon ofFétis*. This not-new phenomenon, to put it perhaps overly simply, is the practice of settler individuals (and sometimes others, but primarily settlers) putting forth a false Indigenous identity, and placing themselves out in front of the world as Indigenous people, and sometimes even attempting to assert themselves in some way as a kind of voice of their supposed peoples. *Portmanteaus of "Pretend" and "Indian" and "Fake" and "Métis", respectively. Pretendian, as a descriptive term, has been around most of my life, to the extent that I am not sure that placing its origin on the timeline is readily possible.
We have been so heavily affected by stolen identities that the word "pretendian" has become a colloquially used term.
Actors who do this are sometimes called "pretendians" but that term is also used for people who play at being Indigenous in their real life.
