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Pretendian - Wikipedia Jump to content

Pretendian

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Pretendian" is a pejorative colloquialism for a person who engages in Indigenous identity fraud. A pretendian is a non-Indigenous person who falsely and publicly claims an Indigenous identity. The word "pretendian" is a portmanteau of the words "pretend" and "Indian".[1][2][3]

Background

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In the United States, Indigenous identity fraud often involves an individual falsely and publicly claiming to be Native American. In Canada, indigenous identity fraud can involve a person falsely and publicly claiming to be a First Nations person, to be Métis, or to be Inuit.[4] Indigenous identity fraud is considered an extreme form of cultural 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 for High 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 Laureate Joy 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]

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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, trace Indigenous ancestry who is not a member of the Indigenous nation with which he or she claims to be affiliated.[11]

The "Alleged Pretendians List"

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In January 2021, Navajo journalist Jacqueline 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]

Artist Nadema Agard, who is named on the Alleged Pretendians List, has criticized Keeler for allegedly conducting a 'witch hunt".[15] However, Native leaders interviewed by VOA, such as Chief Ben Barnes of the Shawnee Tribe, have said that Keeler has strong support in Native circles.[12] Academic Dina Gilio-Whitaker, who reviewed Keeler's documentation on Sacheen 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]

Academic Kim 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 that scooped 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 via Last Real Indians accusing Keeler of exploiting the issue of Indigenous fraud--which they acknowledged "had long been a problem in Indian 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 for Powwows.com, Northern Cheyenne journalist Angelina Newsom wrote that Keeler had questioned the tribal enrollment of the Native politician Ben 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 using Ancestry.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]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Isai, Vjosa (October 15, 2022). "Doubts Over Indigenous Identity in Academia Spark 'Pretendian' Claims – Some Canadian universities now require additional proof to back up Indigenous heritage, replacing self-declaration policies". The New York Times. Retrieved October 28, 2022. '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.'
  2. ^ Viren, Sarah (May 25, 2021). "The Native Scholar Who Wasn't". The New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on May 27, 2021. Retrieved December 27, 2021. the 1990s saw the beginning of what would eventually be significant pushback by Native Americans against so-called Pretendians or Pretend Indians
  3. ^ a b Robinson, Rowland (2020). "4. Interlude: Community, Pretendians, & Heartbreak". Settler Colonialism + Native Ghosts: An Autoethnographic Account of the Imaginarium of Late Capitalist/Colonialist Storytelling (Ph.D.). [Waterloo, Ontario]: University of Waterloo. p. 235. OCLC 1263615440. [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 of Fétis*. 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.
  4. ^ Multiple sources:
  5. ^ "NAISA Council Statement on Indigenous Identity Fraud · Native American and Indigenous Studies Association". Native American and Indigenous Studies Association. Retrieved September 22, 2025.
  6. ^ Brings Plenty, Trevino (December 30, 2018). "Pretend Indian Exegesis: The Pretend Indian Uncanny Valley Hypothesis in Literature and Beyond". Transmotion. 4 (2): 142–52. doi:10.22024/UniKent/03/tm.648. Archived from the original on November 25, 2021. Retrieved November 25, 2021.
  7. ^ Murray, John (April 20, 2018). "APTN Investigates: Cowboys and Pretendians". Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. Archived from the original on October 7, 2021. Retrieved July 8, 2021. 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.
  8. ^ Nagle, Rebecca (April 2, 2019). "How 'pretendians' undermine the rights of Indigenous people - We must guard against harmful public discourse about Native identity as much as we guard against harmful policy". High Country News. Archived from the original on June 19, 2019. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
  9. ^ Harjo, Joy (2020). "Introduction". In Harjo, Joy; Howe, Leanne; Foerster, Jennifer (eds.). When the Light of the World Was Subdued Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 4. ISBN 9780393356816. Archived from the original on March 22, 2022. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
  10. ^ Capriccioso, Rob. "In Pretendian/Karendian/Defendian controversy, did New York Post photoshop Native activist?". Indigenous Wire. Retrieved August 9, 2025.
  11. ^ "Should we distinguish between 'pretendians' and 'descendians'? (ep 317)". Goodpods. Media Indigena. March 10, 2023. Retrieved August 9, 2025.
  12. ^ a b c d Hilleary, Cecily (April 3, 2022). "Across North America, academics have allegedly manufactured indigenous identity for personal, professional and financial gain". Voice of America. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  13. ^ Cyca, Michelle (September 6, 2022). "The Curious Case of Gina Adams: A 'Pretendian' investigation". Maclean's. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
  14. ^ a b Keeler, Jacqueline (May 5, 2020). "The Alleged Pretendians List". Pollen Nation Magazine. Archived from the original on June 8, 2021.
  15. ^ Woodward, Alex (October 23, 2022). "Claims that Sacheen Littlefeather lied about Native ancestry spark controversy, pain and anger". The Independent.
  16. ^ Gilio Whitaker, Dina (October 28, 2022). "Sacheen Littlefeather and ethnic fraud – why the truth is crucial, even if it means losing an American Indian hero". The Conversation. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  17. ^ TallBear, Kim (May 10, 2021). "Playing Indian Constitutes a Structural Form of Colonial Theft, and It Must be Tackled". Unsettle. Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  18. ^ "Community Members Speak out Against the "Alleged Pretendians List"". Last Real Indians. May 27, 2021. Retrieved January 3, 2025.
  19. ^ Watson, Ali (June 14, 2021). "Who Made the Pretendian". NtvTwt.com. Archived from the original on September 24, 2023. Retrieved May 27, 2025.
  20. ^ Newsom, Angelina (May 14, 2021). "Opinion: The Real Problem With Jacqueline Keeler's 'Alleged Pretendian' List". Powwows.com. Archived from the original on May 20, 2021. Retrieved January 3, 2025. Alt URL

Further reading

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Look up pretendian in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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