The Pretendians: Who's Native, Who Decides, and What Are the Consequences 

Looks like you're not Native, but you're enrolled in a tribe through adoption. Seems like a special circumstance, but not too hard to explain if anyone wonders why you're participating in Native cultural functions. It sounds like Anton is encouraging people to represents themselves honestly, and all you have to say is "I'm not Native, but I'm enrolled through adoption."

Yours is a less common circumstance. It's much more common for someone to have Native blood but not be enrolled. The rules for cultural gatekeeping vary a bit from one community to another. I think the main thing is to be transparent about your circumstance-both your blood and tribal enrollment status and let the folks officiating at the ceremonies you want to attend determine how to handle that. And on a personal level, if you know who you are you and you're not misrepresenting, you should be able to navigate just fine.

@@anton.treuer I’m reading your cultural toolbox, and am curious about the different human perspectives on what it means to be alive as a bipedal sentient being. So far as I know, I don’t have a drop of Native blood in me, although I know I am mostly of European ancestry consisting of mainly Irish, Polish and English although I do have some Ethiopian blood. At any rate, I know Irish people suffered cultural genocide at the hands of the English, losing their language and having land and food taken from them. Western Colonization and subjugation into an economic system based on exploitation of labor using money as a cloak for true slavery has been a curse to humanity in my opinion. Studying Native cultures shows an alternative way of living. Are we not truly Spirits having a human experience? Giga-waabamin

@@zacharykeenan5020 yes at the end of the day every one on the planet are people or spirits having a human experience or what have you. However that grossly oversimplifies and negates the daily struggles of what it is to be an Indigenous presenting person in modern day society. Furthermore it leaves out the ancestral trauma in which has been cause by genocide. Irish people might have some similarities in their history however it isn’t the same as Native Americans in North America. Indigenous people have a vastly different culture, language(s), spirituality, and even relationship to their lands than the Irish do. Take pride in your people and learn about your peoples culture history and language .

He just wants casino money. Lol

I’m glad you do. I believe in accountability and holding those who misrepresent themselves to account. I’ve never said anything to the contrary. I never said “be nice to pretendians”-I said “be nice to authentic Natives who are trying to reconnect”. There’s a big difference.

@AT Thank you for clarifying; it seemed like you were suggesting that we be kind to the pretendians. Please, do not give the pretendians an inch.

Good call by those who made it. He abuses and misuses much. Miigwich!

Ain't this guy jewish right?

Such great questions. I think the answers to each of them are being actively debated now by many Native people. It’s a lot to tackle in a comment thread but I’ll do another piece on these in the future. Thanks.

Can s black person who is thirty percent european go and claim they are native European? Can a mixed Latino go and claim they are native Spaniard? So why do people who are more non native than native get to claim to be native Americans? That should be left for those who've kept their lineage pure or worse case scenario, half native roots and half something else.

​@@mikecarlton9000so why are you mad at Latinos, a lot have a great proportion with a lot having at least 50% native American DNA but just speak Spanish. Is it more to do with the language and the indifferent to their own copy and pasta mentality?

​@@mikecarlton9000If you are what you are, what difference does it make?

​​​​​@@mikecarlton9000because european culture is not subject to systemic violence and intentional destruction of communities culture land and ancestry. Killing us by diluting us is esp in canada one of the top tactics because its what is used to deny people access to their land and family by legally defining them and their blood as "too dilute" even with NO scientific basis for this idea of blood quantum. For large nations, this is not as much of a threat as pretendians coming in to try and destroy their people from the inside. For a small culture, the main tactic is usinh blood quantum. Im someone with very mixed dilute ancestry from 3 different cultures and it happened because of genocide tactics. Im not claiming to be the same as someone who is fully connected indigenous to one group who still have a homeland. But my family literally did everything they could to both stay alive and together, and maintain some aspect of their culture. The other option if they had ig "tried more" to maintain a culture would probably have been that i wouldnt exist. Its undeniable that we were able to fit in and become assimilated due to having european ancestry and many ancestors being taken by catholic missionaries and taught the "right" way to be. Sorry for the ramble ! Im just saying that there are many silenced and strinking indgenous communities who rely on reconnectors to some extent to keep it growing and so they might allow people with very little blood quantum. Which of course leaves them vulnerable to attacks and pretendians invading their land because they are fewer and less powerful in general than larger nations. Im just saying idk how logical the idea is that culture has to do with how "pure" ur blood is, like it is quite literally the ramblings of lunatic colonizers making up crap as they went .

haha while I don't subscribe to this way of thought, I love it!

Colonialism gave you the computer and internet. Return what is ours.

@@dansmith1661 I love how the lowliest White people desperately attempt to tie themselves to the accolades of single individuals just because their ancestors lived on the same continent🤣🤣🤣 Rich! It's giving disability trailer trash😉😉😊😊 The same people whose ancestors were part of the serfdom. The same people whose ancestors were only allowed to stand on the porch of the big plantation houses

Being recognized by NC has little meaning. They can't meet the BIA criteria to be Federally recognized.

@@nancydriver8850 You do know that they got their state recognition by exchanging votes from their large pool of voters? Put NOTHING past politicians. TBH... I think that a few of the newly recognized Virginia tribes managed to sneak by without close inspection. I've seen a lot of their DNA results as well. Some are in the same boat as Lumbee, Haliwa, and Occaneechi

Amazon had electronic versions that can read in large print and Audible versions of many.

As a visible looking Indigenous woman- i think it’s important for white passing people to acknowledge and even own that they or you benefit from white privilege because you don’t experience the same issues that indigenous looking people face. To be real, Indigenous looking people DO move through the world differently therefore they are perceived and treated differently. No one can argue that. It’s great that you have pride in your people and such however it’s also important to give space to the ones who have had to endure the daily struggles of being Indigenous. Your voice does matter in terms of interacting with non Indigenous people- when you encounter racism call it out and stand up against it. Educate them on our history- however in terms of occupying Indigenous spaces be humble and observant- and know because of your features light skin light eyes that part of you resembles the same people who conquered your Indigenous brothers and sisters. That in itself can be traumatizing to them. I know this is a sensitive subject and I have friends and some family who are white passing and they tell me their struggles of @not feeling enough” and that’s understandable which is why it’s just as important to acknowledge your own privileges as a white presenting person. That goes a long way- You are not alone. Please understand I’m not saying you aren’t Métis or whatnot or you don’t belong - that’s not it at all- Just try and understand that looking Indigenous and being Indigenous can be independent of one another. With the former often experiencing - racism through micro aggressions- macro aggressions-regularly

@@rockymountainfoothills Thanks for your kind words and sage advice. As someone who works with many cultures in my daily life, I understand my unearned privilege and try to level it by helping others rise. Miigwech.

@@rockymountainfoothills My mom looks full blooded Native American she has the face of her ancestors. Wide face high cheekbones, big forehead, long nose, skin that doesn't burn but gets dark with a little sun and has the red undertones. She doesn't look to people like a Native American due to the fact most people get there facts from TV and movies shows and think all Native American have thinner faces and straight dark hair. Every time anyone looks up native American they always bring a picture of someone who looks like my mom's twin. Half of our family walked the trail of tears that's grandma side of the family and the other half left before the trouble changed there names constantly and looked for a place to live in peace. But that when there relatives where put in Oklahoma territory they settled nearby to help get food and supplies to them. there is more to the story but my mom said that some people resented the fact that grandfather side didn't get counted and are free. There are to many stories that I know about my family because we have an oral history tradition. people get confused because I know the storys of my family even the Mexican side and German sides that I barely got to meet but my mom the storyteller she is got the history and stories from them when she meet them. Because it's important to her.

@@loribarkley7283 Let me guess, about 3% ?

@@mycinnamongirl FACTS 101

Search how to turn a native white and how it came from Virginia area and how they have connections from the Georgia. It's an old book during the 1900s or 1800s. Theirs a reason Comanche said they got extorted to such a business functions. And yes that includes slavery just to blame them for such. And oddly enough, it is still used when the fact of the matter is only small percent of native in the north America nations was involved in slavery like that. Trust me brother, they trying to deny Lakota was apart of Comanche under communion during the 1800s. Doesn't mean direct function wise but they were definitely but why are they getting blamed for stuff that they didn't do or such rhetoric when it clearly wasn't the case. And there's the Mormons and new Mormon like groups trying to make new stories to get people in. It's weird. And what's ironic about it is they act like Cherokee was a south east native group originally wasn't pushed out to the south east from the north east. Love them but don't come here trying to make me blind to reality.

It’s unwise, unnecessary and painful to exclude our own people. Sorry you e had that experience.

@@anton.treuer Miigwech but you don't have to be sorry for someone else actions. I see the divide between nations and people and know there will be the devision for some time to come. I know all I can do is to try and live the good life and try to teach my son the same

If your ancestors are Indigenous and it’s been proven- take pride in that. No one can take that from you. You are who you are despite what anyone says. I hear your pain from feeling rejected and that isn’t right to go through. I have white passing friends and some family members and they tell me what it is to “not feel enough” and that must be hard. However just know that Indigenous looking people know a struggle in which you will never face in terms of micro and macro aggressions from the general public. Our people have experienced inter generational trauma and that is going to take time to work through let alone the acknowledgment and acceptance of white presenting folks. Try and understand the larger picture - instead of your own limited experience. You are who you are and take pride in that- it would be sad if you let your experience to leave you bitter

The government is right. 2 generations mean 6 ancestors. Meaning 16% ancestry at least. 3 generations mean 14 ancestors. You could have one native ancestor and 13 european meaning 7% native ancestry. Why should you benefit the same as those whose foreparents went through discrimination? If the far right gains power and decide to purge natives, I'm sure most white looking who claim native ancestry will be quick to deny any native in their DNA at all. However, the ones that obviously have it won't have such option.

"We" who wants their land back?

@@stanleyhood7354 The People of The Land.

@@Club_Talk_Tv Does that include the groups that were destroyed in the wars of centuries before?

@@dansmith1661 Only groups were destroyed was ours, the Blacks that’s indigenous to this land.

Those who waz Kangz.

Thank you for saying this. I agree that there is danger in focusing solely on ‘native blood.’ I am white and would never claim to be indigenous, however I try to follow the Anishinaabe ways.

Most tribes rely on native blood or blood quantum for tribal enrollment (some are now switching to ancestral lineage). My certificate of tribal enrollment lists my blood quantum, and lineage. I live in Massachusetts but my reservation is in Minnesota. There are hardly any natives here, and you wouldn’t believe how often someone finds out I’m native and they respond “yeah, me too… I was told my great great grandmother married a native man”, but they have no clue what tribe, and know nothing about the culture or the challenges. It’s pretty infuriating, and it happens all the time. And this is coming from someone who as an enrolled tribal member, faces my own challenges of being native since I didn't grow up on the rez. It may sound dangerous if you don’t understand tribal enrollment, but it’s a big part of being accepted into the tribe.

How do you stop a pretendian from taking the mic away?

Is she working for the Federal Government of Canada. A lot of Pretendian’s are hiding there and rising high off this fake identity.

@@mycinnamongirl A grandmother is 25%. That's more than a drop. You know...math.

@@mycinnamongirl I already responded...sent the offer for Zoom more than a week ago and I haven't heard from you. Check your messages. And again...what you interpreted was not what was said. I didn't claim I was a teacher of it - that was my friend Linda. I said I worked on curriculum planning and learned the language through a project I did with two elders to make the language accessible to our whole community. Again, my work is available through the Montana Office of Public Instruction and the Montana historical society under the Indian Education for All act tribal submissions. It's pretty obvious you are going to read into every situation what you want to read into it. From reading your other posts here, it's clear that if someone isn't exactly like you, you will just try to tear them down at all costs. I really don't even need to say anything more because you have already put enough words in my mouth. You may think that you've proven yourself right, but again, you would be misinterpreting. I don't need you to validate who I know I am. I know my grandmothers, their names, and how they connect my nation. I know our history, and the sacrifices the old people at Batoche and elsewhere made so the nation could live. I am proud they stood up for all first nations peoples to have a say in what was happening to them and to their nation's future. The nation's future is most important. I understand the choices left to them (all bad) and their reasoning. It lives in the way I interact with and perceive others in society today. I get that from my grandfather, who was told he could live in the US or 'hang' in Canada for being Metis. I understand the plains animals and plants that grew and gave us life and a new start. I know their medicines and how to harvest and preserve them for the generations to come. I have listened to the teachings I learned at my great-grandmother table, and burned them into my memory so as to keep them for guidance when times are most dim. I'm sure it will never feel like enough, but I still try to do my relatives justice by doing what I can in service of my nation. I know what's in my heart, and refuse to let it become hatred, anger, and division. There is enough of that in the world - it it gets us nowhere.

Each tribe has their own criteria. Most require 25%. But some just require proof of descent from an original tribal member.

White Supremacist demon "An Emblem of America" by John Fairburn

@@negloblaxon7616 moronic!

Well, the white forefathers actually described the natives, especially the California natives. Funny enough the high jackers of natives aren't the black Americans, but the white Americans. Nowadays you can't tell the difference between natives and whites anymore. Ask Elizabeth Warren. Ask the 5 dollar indians. It's mainly the whites that are doing cultural appropriation. A guy above was lamenting that he isn't considered native American because it goes back a few generations. Having one native ancestor doesn't make you native. And finally, if you want to see the racists, look no further than white america. Are you aware that your history was taught by the same that institutionalized Jim crow laws and all the other acts? Why don't you know about the California indians and their description by a white British colonial historian and explorer? It's his words. Not mine, not yours. Is every African American descended from natives? Of course not. That's rediculous. But is every black american defended from slavery migration from Africa? Of course not. The issue is they need to dig up the skeletons of the California indians and do autosomal testing. The native Americans were described as having a wide range of colours. BTW, have any of you been to the Americas? The natives don't look all alike. Some have narrow noses, some have broad flat noses and skin colour varies. But like I said, the biggest grifters and imposters are white Americans. I find it despicable, racists, offensive and criminal. Im not a trump fan, but he rightly said that those supposed natives who are getting benefits look nothing like the natives he was taught and saw growing up. He reckoned he may have more native than them. BTW, it isn't the AA who are constantly getting busted for pretending.

Survey says that one third of white students said they were minorities for admission to college. The biggest claim was native American. 77% got accepted. However they were found eventually to be white. " White professor finally admits she's not native american". Looks like the grifting is mostly from whites. It is embarrassing, sickening and blatant theft. Now go chastise white people for actually claiming and benefitting from others culture by way of theft.

Actually it IS ridiculous, but the people who HAVE actually done real HARM by stealing land, benefits, getting casino money, fake Natives in movies, selling Native merchandise and totally stealing the identity are/were EUROPEAN AMERICANS. African Americans who can’t prove their ancestry as descendants of the Mansa Musa of Mali exhibition to the Americas shouldn’t claim to be Indigenous. The other Blacks who made it the Americas before everyone else were the Black Pacific Islanders, like Fijians, Melanesians, etc. Black Americans are not DIRECTLY related to those Black Pacific Islanders, so they can’t claim that ancestry. Some of them may be incorrectly vocal but they’ve done NOWHERE near as much damage as European Americans have/is doing to the Native American people.

I'm Mexican too, and you're full of sh**. If you're crying about the use of the word "Native American," then blame the Historians, genealogist, and anthropologists that clump us all together. "Native American" has no legal meaning, if Mexicans were lying about belonging to a U.S tribe, well then that would be pretending, but we have a very rich history of our own, with millions of "full-blood" indigenous still existing. Historians even refer to Juan Diego as a Native American. Cry about it. Indigena=Indigenous. "But, but, the majority of Mexico is predominately European and Mestizo," yeah nobody cares what you Hispanistas have to say. We only have Spanish surnames because of the Encomiendas and the division and forced labor of the natives who were forced to take up their "master's surname," and the forced conversion to Christianity which could only happen with Spanish surnames.

Mexicans ARE native american. Actually, most of you have far more indigenous blood than most of the Americans claiming to be native. The invisible line dividing the US and Mexico is European made. Native trade routes here in the U.S. also included what is now geographically Mexico.

@@1coolgyrl Mexicans are different culturally than Native Americans. The language, the culture , food, religion , traditions … everything is different from Native American people. I am Mexican, who is of mostly European descent and only 20 percent Native, but my family is from a Ranch in the middle of nowhere that has been there for generations. We consider ourselves Mexican and the people, even though they have native blood, do not consider themselves to be native nor European but it could be said, a race of people all unto themselves. Mexicans do not feel any sort of kinship to neither White people nor Native people, however, they are related to both of these people.

@@felipeperez2991 It’s isn’t Native American vs Mexican. Remember, Mexico and America only became distinct places in Meso America after colonization (Mexico being a Nahuatl word). We use the name “Native American” as an all encompassing term for natives in this country, but there are 574 federally recognized Native American tribes. They too have a diversity of language, culture, food and traditions. There’s obviously some cultural and linguistic overlap, but some are very distinct from each other none the less. Also, the politics behind who is and isn’t native is very different in both countries and is constantly changing. The average Hispanic person here wouldn’t consider themselves indigenous with 20% and would likely identify as mixed just like you do. For both white and blacks in America that’s a very high percentage and they’d be more likely to identify as native/indigenous.

You must be some kind of goofy Mexican to have made such an ignorant comment. Mexico has an enormous native population, much bigger than even the U.S. Meztisos are for the most part at least 50-65% indigenous. Educate yourself.

Firing someone because they’re native is definitely wrong. And excluding you because you are of mixed heritage would also be wrong.

Most folks say the same exact thing, looking like they just came off the boat from the Netherlands or Sweden. If you’re not at least half you should leave it alone. My gandma was a “Cherokee Princess” syndrome.

Not really, the word America was used by Spaniards in 1407 to name “South America” which isn’t Texas or Florida.

@@MiloCarrete what's your point. It has always been the America's. This is not africa. North America is also known as India Superior. And Turtle Island.

@@mikejones-wn1swstop your 432 nonsense

@@mikejones-wn1swYALL are Africans

@@GrandMaSaid..Iam.A.Indian it's OK you are from Eurasia be good with that.

are u on something

yes your ancestor was a nobody, most peoples were. mine on the otherhand founded the knights templar.

and when i say founded i legit mean it was my family by name and blood that created the Templar order

Always that stupid npc canned response colonizers heard from their colonizer ancestors to justify the genocide and land steal. “ThEy fOuGhT eAcHoThEr” so we do it too, because might makes right. Remember that the Aztec calendar is way more precise than the European calendar we use today.

Well are your ancestors Indigenous?

I’ve been mistaken for a Latina does that give me the right to appropriate Latin culture ?

@asdjdjdnsf Cherokee Arapahoe acatepulco from my dads side, but Huichol nahuatl Spanish French fro. My moms side from Los Altos de Jalisco Mexico

@@ezragonzalez8936 Gilakas’La 🪶✨🏔️than you’re Indigenous doesn’t matter what anyone says. You know who your ancestors are and people can doubt it but that’s their bull****. Stand proud as an Indigenous woman- our people fought to remain alive as a collective group-

My sister you are indigenous from turtle island??? Do your people come from this continent

You just made his point, like you said, hardly anyone is 100% Native right. So they’ve got to get a handle/control over this at some point because it’s out of hand. Eventually REAL Natives will go extinct and have a bunch of $5Indians & PretIndians who have taken their place.

@@mycinnamongirl and who decided the percentage?? You? Is that how you quantify black? Er no!

@@houseatreides1 Anything less than 1/2 is pulling at straws and creating a slippery slope, creating a situation like the subject at hand. Especially if someone is mixed with all kinds of races/ ethnicities, (wants to) but really shouldn’t try to make claims to anything that belongs to marginalized individuals such as Indigenous peoples, especially with the HISTORY of lies, abuse, and stealing from indigenous people from people in disguise as Natives or with hardly nor any indigenous ancestry at all.

@@mycinnamongirl lol listen to yourself??it's science? Science can't determine cultural heritage nor how black or native you are...science only says what percentage DNA matches people typically of that region ....not a shade card! Have you seen the twins one white with blue eyes and blonde hair,the other black! Is the black one more black than her twin!!!

Comparing race to gender is genuinly batshit crazy go get checked in