Are you a Pretendian? If you’ve ever worn a feathered headdress, clad yourself in head-to-toe Navajo prints or claimed without evidence that one of your great-great-great grandparents had some Native blood as a way to derail an argument about your white privilege, you’re the kind of person we Native Americans shame as seeking to co-opt Native identity.

When Pretendians seek to adopt Native identity to appear more exotic, or for some other perceived benefit, yet lack a genuine claim to Native heritage, their actions are little more than an extension of manifest destiny and colonial conquest – you could even call it racial identity theft. Sacred objects like warbonnets and peace pipes, and even the sexuality of Native women, are treated like the spoils of war, free for the taking.

Besides being descended from and related by blood to one of the more than 566 tribal nations recognized by the US government, Natives today agree that blood quantum is not the sole determinate of Native identity: kinship is key, because no true Native is an island. We have grandparents and cousins, blood roots and homelands. Pretendians lack kinship ties to tribal people.

Pretendians also have not lived through the systemic oppression that actual Native people face on a daily basis. They lack connections to reservations or urban Native communities who battle the effects of historical trauma. Pretendians aren’t the survivors of genocide; rather, it was their colonial ancestors who set up housekeeping on stolen lands built over the corpses of our dead, and Pretendians have benefitted from it. Insisting on inclusion when unqualified just exploits the people that Pretendians seek to imitate.



Some Pretendians even go as far as falsifying tribal citizenship for the purposes of monetary gain and defrauding governments for treaty benefits, while about 25% of Native Americans live at or below the poverty line – 10% above the national average.



Others claim Native heritage so they can speak for us. Ellie Reynolds, the conservative blogger who claimed to be Oglala Lakota (and an avid Washington football supporter), was exposed as a fake in May. She had no right to speak on behalf of the Oglala, let alone any other native. Meanwhile, real Natives have difficulty finding a media platform at all.

Supporters of Washington’s mascot are quick to say that their great grandmother was a Cherokee Princess (for some reason non-Natives tend to pick “Cherokee” as their boilerplate when adopting Native customs, often while donning a warbonnet, which actual Cherokees do not wear). But this claim is only for the purpose of slighting legitimate Native voices and garnering approval from team owners and other non-Natives who want to silence anyone who disapproves.

Others become Pretendians because they romanticize Native identity. This behavior can be dangerous, as with the plastic shamans who conduct ceremonies without knowing how to do so properly. People died, for instance, in a Pretendian Sedona “sweat lodge”. Native women are fetishized by “Pocahottie” imagery, as that can translate into acts of violence committed by men who’ve been conditioned to think we are only objects meant for sexual gratification. (One in three Native women are sexually assaulted in their lifetime.)

By supporting generic, false stereotypes that encourage a belief that Natives are monolithic, all Pretendians commit cultural genocide and contribute to the erasure of legitimate, unique, ancient indigenous cultures while spreading misinformation about us. That I even have to say any of this – that any person of color has to justify why co-opting her identity is problematic – speaks to the pervasiveness of white privilege in society.



Mutual respect and an awareness of the privilege whiteness wields could help put an end to this epidemic of cultural tourism and the exploitation of Native identity. Native culture is not an accessory you can pick up to add spice to your personality. We are real people.



Multitudes have died because they were Native; ancestors gave their lives to protect our ways. Native identity is the birthright of its bearers and no one else. Pretendians seeking to deceive the public and usurp our place aren’t allies; they are enemies.