{{Short description|Pejorative term for Indigenous identity frauds}} {{about|pejorative term|the practice of falsely identifying as Native|Indigenous identity fraud in Canada and the United States}} {{Use American English|date=July 2021}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}} "'''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".<ref name=PretendianNYT>{{cite news|author=Isai, Vjosa |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/15/world/canada/canada-indigenous-identity-pretendians.html |title=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 |work=The New York Times |date=October 15, 2022|access-date=October 28, 2022|quote='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.'}}</ref><ref name=NYTdef>{{cite news |last1=Viren |first1=Sarah |title=The Native Scholar Who Wasn't |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/25/magazine/cherokee-native-american-andrea-smith.html |date=May 25, 2021 |access-date=December 27, 2021 |magazine=The New York Times Magazine |quote=the 1990s saw the beginning of what would eventually be significant pushback by Native Americans against so-called Pretendians or Pretend Indians |archive-date=May 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210527014040/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/25/magazine/cherokee-native-american-andrea-smith.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Robinson235"/>
==Background== 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.<ref>Multiple sources: *{{cite news|author-last=Leo |author-first=Geoff |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/algonquin-ancestry-lagarde-letter-follow-1.6171830 |title=Push to remove 'pretendians' from Algonquin membership rekindled after CBC investigation – Analysis revealed letter linked to 1,000 Indigenous ancestry claims is likely fake |work=CBC News |date=13 September 2021 |access-date=26 December 2021 |archive-date=26 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211226224737/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/algonquin-ancestry-lagarde-letter-follow-1.6171830 |url-status=live}} *{{cite news |last1=McCusker |first1=K.J. |title=The violence of pretending to be Indigenous - The recent call for organizing a Canada-wide dialogue about Indigenous identity by the First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) is a solid step toward recognizing this as an ongoing problem. We must proactively address the issue of fraudulent proclamations |url=https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2021/11/30/the-violence-of-pretending-to-be-indigenous.html |date=30 Nov 2021 |access-date=27 Dec 2021 |work=Toronto Star |quote=We have been so heavily affected by stolen identities that the word “pretendian” has become a colloquially used term. |archive-date=December 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211224190907/https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2021/11/30/the-violence-of-pretending-to-be-indigenous.html |url-status=live }} *{{cite web |url=https://eu.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2017/11/30/senator-elizabeth-warren-not-alone-making-questionable-claim-native-american-indian-heritage/903573001/ |first=Maria |last=Polleta |title='Pretendians': Elizabeth Warren not alone in making questionable claim to Native American heritage |work=The Arizona Republic |via=AZCentral |date=November 30, 2017 |access-date=November 11, 2021 |archive-date=March 22, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220322025959/https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2017/11/30/senator-elizabeth-warren-not-alone-making-questionable-claim-native-american-indian-heritage/903573001/ |url-status=live }} *{{cite news|author=Irwin, Nigel |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/joseph-boydens-apology-and-the-strange-history-of-pretendians/|title=Joseph Boyden's Apology and the Strange History of 'Pretendians' – Boyden is hardly the first person to be alleged to have faked Indigenous roots for material or spiritual gain |work=Vice Media |date=January 12, 2017 |access-date=July 8, 2021|archive-date=June 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608124447/https://www.vice.com/en/article/yppmdv/joseph-boydens-apology-and-the-strange-history-of-pretendians|url-status=live}} </ref> Indigenous identity fraud is considered an extreme form of cultural appropriation,<ref>{{cite web |title=NAISA Council Statement on Indigenous Identity Fraud · Native American and Indigenous Studies Association |url=https://naisa.org/about/council-statements/naisa-council-statement-on-indigenous-identity-fraud/ |website=Native American and Indigenous Studies Association |access-date=22 September 2025}}</ref> especially if a pretendian asserts that they can represent and speak for communities from which they do not originate.<ref name="Robinson235">{{cite thesis |last= Robinson|first= Rowland|date= 2020|title= Settler Colonialism + Native Ghosts: An Autoethnographic Account of the Imaginarium of Late Capitalist/Colonialist Storytelling|type= Ph.D. |publisher= [Waterloo, Ontario]: University of Waterloo |oclc= 1263615440|chapter= 4. Interlude: Community, Pretendians, & Heartbreak|page= 235|quote= [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.}}</ref><ref name=BringsPlenty>{{cite journal|last1= Brings Plenty|first1= Trevino|authorlink=Trevino Brings Plenty |date=30 December 2018 |title= Pretend Indian Exegesis: The Pretend Indian Uncanny Valley Hypothesis in Literature and Beyond |url= https://journals.kent.ac.uk/index.php/transmotion/article/view/648/1356 |journal= Transmotion |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages= 142–52 |doi= 10.22024/UniKent/03/tm.648 |access-date=25 November 2021 |archive-date=25 November 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211125082654/https://journals.kent.ac.uk/index.php/transmotion/article/view/648/1356 |url-status=live}}</ref>
In April 2018, APTN National News in Canada investigated how pretendians{{snd}}in the film industry and in real life{{snd}}promote "stereotypes, typecasting, and even, what is known as 'redface'."<ref name=APTN-C&P>{{cite news |last=Murray |first=John |url=https://www.aptnnews.ca/investigates/cowboys-and-pretendians/ |title=APTN Investigates: Cowboys and Pretendians |work=Aboriginal Peoples Television Network |date=April 20, 2018 |access-date=July 8, 2021 |quote=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. |archive-date=October 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211007175631/https://www.aptnnews.ca/investigates/cowboys-and-pretendians/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2019, Rebecca Nagle (Cherokee Nation) wrote the following for ''High Country News'': {{blockquote|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.<ref name=HCN-RN>{{cite news|last1=Nagle|first1=Rebecca |authorlink=Rebecca Nagle |title=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. |url=https://www.hcn.org/articles/tribal-affairs-how-pretendians-undermine-the-rights-of-indigenous-people |accessdate=26 Dec 2021 |work=High Country News|date=2 April 2019|archive-date=June 19, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190619151448/https://www.hcn.org/articles/tribal-affairs-how-pretendians-undermine-the-rights-of-indigenous-people/|url-status=live}}</ref>}}
In 2020, United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo (Mvskoke) wrote: {{blockquote|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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Harjo |first1=Joy |authorlink=Joy Harjo |editor1-last=Harjo |editor1-first=Joy |editor2-last=Howe |editor2-first=Leanne |editor3-last=Foerster |editor3-first=Jennifer |title=When the Light of the World Was Subdued Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry |date=2020 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |location=New York |isbn=9780393356816 |page=4 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Z-6DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22When+individuals+assert%22&pg=PT20 |chapter=Introduction |access-date=December 30, 2021 |archive-date=March 22, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220322025959/https://books.google.com/books?id=5Z-6DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22When+individuals+assert%22&pg=PT20 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}
Jordan Molot of Concordia University, citing the sociologist Megan Scribe, has written that "settler moves to indigeneity" are common in multiple settler-colonial societies, perceiving a link between "the “Pretendian” phenomenon seen in North America" and "Zionist claims of indigeneity in Israel".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/arc/2023-v51-arc010036/1117999ar.pdf |title=Decolonizing Judeans: “Jewish-Indigeneity” and the (Re)Articulation of Decolonial Language |publisher=Érudit |accessdate=2026-05-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://yellowheadinstitute.org/2023/settler-moves-to-indigeneity-canada-israel/ |title=Settler Moves to Indigeneity: From Canada to Israel |publisher=Yellowhead Institute |accessdate=2026-05-10}}</ref>
== Related terms == 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.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Capriccioso |first1=Rob |title=In Pretendian/Karendian/Defendian controversy, did New York Post photoshop Native activist? |url=https://www.indigenouswire.com/p/in-pretendiankarendiandefendian-controversy |website=Indigenous Wire |access-date=9 August 2025}}</ref> A "descendian" is a person with distant Indigenous ancestry who is not a member of the Indigenous nation with which he or she claims to be affiliated.<ref>{{cite web |title=Should we distinguish between 'pretendians' and 'descendians'? (ep 317) |url=https://goodpods.com/podcasts/media-indigena-indigenous-current-affairs-49648/should-we-distinguish-between-pretendians-and-descendians-ep-317-28649412 |website=Goodpods |publisher=Media Indigena |access-date=9 August 2025 |date=10 March 2023}}</ref>
=="Alleged Pretendians List"== In January 2021, Navajo journalist Jacqueline Keeler began investigating the problem of settler self-indigenization in academia.<ref name=HillearyVOA>{{cite web |last1=Hilleary |first1=Cecily |title=Across North America, academics have allegedly manufactured indigenous identity for personal, professional and financial gain |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/native-first-nations-scholars-fake-indians-prevalent-in-higher-education-/6511681.html |website=Voice of America |access-date=October 27, 2022 |date=April 3, 2022}}</ref> 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.<ref name=HillearyVOA/> This research resulted in the creation of the "Alleged Pretendians List"<ref name=MacLeansCyca>{{cite web |last1=Cyca |first1=Michelle |title=The Curious Case of Gina Adams: A 'Pretendian' investigation |url=https://macleans.ca/culture/the-curious-case-of-gina-adams-a-pretendian-investigation/ |website=Maclean's |access-date=October 23, 2022 |date=September 6, 2022}}</ref> of about 200 public figures in academia and entertainment, which Keeler self-published as a Google spreadsheet in 2021.<ref name=PollenNationAPL>{{cite web |first=Jacqueline |last=Keeler |author-link=Jacqueline Keeler |url=https://www.pollennationmagazine.com/pollen-nation/2020/5/5/the-alleged-pretendians |title=The Alleged Pretendians List |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608063411/https://www.pollennationmagazine.com/pollen-nation/2020/5/5/the-alleged-pretendians |archive-date=June 8, 2021 |date=May 5, 2020 |work=Pollen Nation Magazine}}</ref>
Artist Nadema Agard, who is named on the Alleged Pretendians List, has criticized Keeler for allegedly conducting a "witch hunt".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/sacheen-littlefeather-jacqueline-keeler-controversy-b2208587.html|title=Claims that Sacheen Littlefeather lied about Native ancestry spark controversy, pain and anger |website=The Independent| last=Woodward|first=Alex|date=October 23, 2022}}</ref> However, Native leaders interviewed by Voice of America, such as Chief Ben Barnes of the Shawnee Tribe, have said that Keeler has strong support in Native circles.<ref name="HillearyVOA" /> Academic Dina Gilio-Whitaker, who reviewed Keeler's documentation on Sacheen Littlefeather before it was published, found Keeler's research to be sound.<ref name=DGW>{{cite web |url=https://theconversation.com/sacheen-littlefeather-and-ethnic-fraud-why-the-truth-is-crucial-even-it-it-means-losing-an-american-indian-hero-193263 |title=Sacheen Littlefeather and ethnic fraud – why the truth is crucial, even if it means losing an American Indian hero|first=Dina |last=Gilio Whitaker |author-link=Dina Gilio-Whitaker |work=The Conversation |date= October 28, 2022 |access-date=October 29, 2022}}</ref> 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.<ref name="PollenNationAPL" /> She has said that the list is the product of decades of Native peoples' efforts at accountability.<ref name="HillearyVOA" />
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.<ref name="TallBear-PI">{{cite web |last1=TallBear |first1=Kim |author-link=Kim TallBear|title=Playing Indian Constitutes a Structural Form of Colonial Theft, and It Must be Tackled |url=https://kimtallbear.substack.com/p/playing-indian-constitutes-a-structural |website=Unsettle |access-date=May 30, 2021 |date=May 10, 2021}}</ref>
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".<ref>{{cite web |title=Community Members Speak out Against the "Alleged Pretendians List" |date= May 27, 2021 |url=https://lastrealindians.com/news/2021/5/9/cp3jcylawd83oe095y8npx67n6jng0 |website=Last Real Indians |access-date=January 3, 2025 }}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite news|author-last=Watson|author-first=Ali| url=https://ntvtwt.com/2021/06/13/who-made-the-pretendian/ |title=Who Made the Pretendian| website=NtvTwt.com |date=June 14, 2021|access-date=May 27, 2025|archive-date=September 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924002814/https://ntvtwt.com/2021/06/13/who-made-the-pretendian/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
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".<ref>{{cite news|author-last=Newsom|author-first=Angelina| url=https://www.powwows.com/the-problem-with-jacqueline-keelers-pretendian-list |title=Opinion: The Real Problem With Jacqueline Keeler's 'Alleged Pretendian' List| website=Powwows.com |date=May 14, 2021|access-date=January 3, 2025|archive-date=May 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520000000/https://www.powwows.com/the-problem-with-jacqueline-keelers-pretendian-list |url-status=dead}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20210520032149/https://www.powwows.com/the-problem-with-jacqueline-keelers-pretendian-list/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=onsignal Alt URL]</ref>
==Heritage groups and state-recognized tribes== {{Seealso|List of organizations that self-identify as Native American tribes|State-recognized tribes in the United States}}
In a 2023 report, the federally recognized Delaware Nation referred to state-recognized Lenape tribes and Lenape heritage groups as CPAINs (Corporations Posing as Indigenous Nations), stating that "If a “pretendian” is an individual who falsely claims indigenous lineage, then CPAIN is what happens when a group of “pretendians” decide to form a corporation, usually a non-profit, and pass it off to the public as a tribe."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.delawarenation-nsn.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2023_Annual_Report_Inside_Pages_WEB.pdf |title=2023 Annual Report |publisher=Delaware Nation |accessdate=2026-04-09}}</ref>
==See also== * 1896 Applications for Enrollment, Five Tribes (Overturned) * Cherokee Nation Truth in Advertising for Native Art, a law passed by the Cherokee Nation about marketing products as Indian-made * Ghost Warrior Society * ''Eatock v Bolt'', an Australian case involving writings that suggested false claims of Aboriginal descent * Indigenous identity fraud * Racial misrepresentation
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * Foster, John Wilson. "Pretendians and the Crisis of the Self". ''The Critic'', June 4, 2023. * Robinson, Rowland. ''[https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/handle/10012/15632/Robinson_Rowland.pdf Settler Colonialism + Native Ghosts: An Autoethnographic Account of the Imaginarium of Late Capitalist/Colonialist Storytelling]'', "Chapter 4. Interlude: Community, Pretendians, & Heartbreak". [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1263615440 Waterloo, Ontario: University of Waterloo], 2020.
== External links == {{Wiktionary}} * [https://www.aptnnews.ca/investigates/cowboys-and-pretendians/ APTN Investigates: Cowboys and Pretendians] APTN National News television report featuring many of the examples in this article, notably those in film * [https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/359-the-convenient-pretendian/ The Convenient "Pretendian"], ''Canada Land'' podcast * [https://www.ghostwarriorsociety.com/ Ghost Warrior Society], an anti-Pretendian task force based in Canada * [https://kimtallbear.substack.com/p/indigenous-race-shifting-red-flags "Indigenous 'Race Shifting' Red Flags: A Quick Primer for Reporters and Others"], by Kim TallBear (Sisseton-Wahpeton) * [https://www.npr.org/2022/01/19/1074258028/playing-pretendian "Playing Pretendian"], Code Switch, NPR * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GojYBpiMXdM Pretendians and Their Impact on Métis Identity in the Academy] - University of Saskatchewan panel discussion including Maria Campbell (Métis) - December 10, 2021 * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFMJ86s2xlk&t=372s The Pretendian Problem] - Indian Country Today video report on pretendians and fake Métis - January 28, 2021 * [https://www.raceshifting.com/ Raceshifting], resource on Eastern Euro-Canadians and Euro-Americans posting as Indigenous peoples * [https://web.archive.org/web/20220415092626/https://henryg.msu.domains/projects/unsettling-genealogies-conference/ Unsettling Genealogies Conference], A Forum on Pseudo Indians, Race-Shifting, Pretendians, and Self-Indigenization in Media, Arts, Politics and the Academy], eight panel presentations at Michigan State University, 2022 **[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyY0egN0cd4 Unmasking Pseudo Indians]: Opening Remarks by George Cornell (Ojibwe), Ben Barnes (Shawnee), Kim TallBear (Sisseton-Wahpeton), 2022 * [https://leadership.usask.ca/documents/about/reporting/jean-teillet-report.pdf Teillet Report on Indigenous Identity Fraud], report for the University of Saskatchewan, 2022 * [https://tribalallianceagainstfrauds.org/ Tribal Alliance Against Frauds], an intertribal anti-fraud task force
Category:English words Category:Literary forgeries Category:Multiracial affairs in the United States Category:Native American-related controversies Category:Indigenous cultural appropriation Category:Native American cultural appropriation Category:Race in Canada Category:Genealogical fraud Category:Self-identification as Indigenous in Canada Category:Self-identification as Indigenous in the United States Category:Ethnic and religious slurs