They’re coming for white lies.

A list of allegedly fake Native Americans has begun circulating in tribal and academic circles, accusing 195 people of falsely claiming an Indian identity for personal gain.

The “Alleged Pretendians List” is the creation of Jacqueline Keeler, a Native American writer and activist who has spent years busting fakers in politics and academia.

“Everyone on this list has made public claims through interviews, in books authored, documentaries, and even in Congressional testimony. They are also all monetizing their claims. These are not privately-held beliefs,” reads her introduction. “We will release the names and findings of all those who are found to have no relation to the American Indian tribe they claim in the United States.”

The list is a hodgepodge, with some entries containing detailed genealogical records to back up the claims, while others offer little beyond Keeler’s j’accuse. The list contains both those being probed and those who have already been disavowed by tribes they claim affiliation with.

The list includes well-known imposters and claimants like Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Johnny Depp, but also less well-known figures in media and the arts.

Nadema Agard, a New York City visual artist who claims Lakota, Cherokee, and Powhatan ancestry, is named. Keeler insists Agard’s heritage traces itself back to Barbados and showed genealogical records which she said backed up the assertion.

Agard denied faking her ancestry and called the allegations from Keeler a “witch-hunt,” and sent her own slew of documents which she said backed up her claim.

Many of the accused sit in prestigious academic perches. Dartmouth’s assistant undergraduate dean, Susan Taffe Reed, is named. In 2015 Reed was forced out as director of the school’s Native American Program over allegedly faking membership in the Eastern Delaware Nations.

Reed did not respond to request for comment from The Post.

The issue of Pretendians made headlines last month when Canada’s top indigenous health expert, Carrie Bourassa, was ousted after her claims of membership in the Métis nation were debunked. Researchers found her people actually originated from Eastern Europe and Russia.

Keeler, 53, a member of the Navajo Nation, was born in Cleveland to parents who went there as part of a voluntary relocation program by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the mid-20th century

“I am an enrolled Navajo Nation citizen. My mom’s full Navajo. My dad is 5/8ths Yankton Dakota, but they had to choose a tribe,” she told critics in March. “My grandparents didn’t even speak English! Only Navajo!”

Keeler said she was inspired to create the document this year in response to a New York Times op-ed by Claudia Lawrence — a freelance journalist who has since been accused of being a Pretendian. The op-ed was a letter of advice to Deb Haaland, a Native American who had just been nominated to serve as President Biden’s Interior Secretary.

Ms. Lawrence was unable to provide evidence of Native ancestry; she is not an enrolled member of any federally or state-recognized tribe,” an editor’s note above the Times piece now reads. “If the editors had known that there were questions about her connection to the Native community, this essay would not have been published until those questions had been resolved.”

Lawrence is on the list. The Native American Journalists Association has since rescinded Lawrence’s membership.

“Ethnic fraud, particularly against native people is huge,” Keeler said. “There is an element of narcissism. There is a lack of empathy because they will retaliate against native people who try to expose their fraud.

Keeler said the list was a collaboration of many researchers, journalists and activists, but that she had been the one to compile those efforts into a single place.

Keeler says she and other researchers capped the list at 200 to help make the investigative caseload manageable, but that the true number of alleged fraudsters is closer to 500.

Keeler’s list is controversial within native communities as well. A parody website lists her and like-minded natives as “Karendians.”

Rhiana Yazzie, a Native-American playwright, said she had mixed feelings about the list.

“Pretendians are a major problem yet I’m disturbed that there’s a list like this that feels arbitrary. I’m not sure who is investigating and what the consequences are,” she said.

LINK: https://nypost.com/2022/01/01/...ke-native-americans/

.....but I have high cheek bones!

I’ll be following this story for a while. While I am quick to dismiss the ‘poor me’ claims of most “Pick your Race” American groups, the American Indian is in a different category altogether. Their story is one part of our American History that I’m not exactly proud of.

I hope Chuck Norris's name isn't on that list (one-fourth Cherokee). For their sake.

https://docs.google.com/spread...hcHT2BH44/edit#gid=0
^^
This is the link to the list. Didn't see Chuck Norris on the list.

It seems to me that this is necessary and long overdue, and if it prevents any more of these phonies from popping up, these Indians yes I said Indians will have accomplished much.

The bonus in this is that most or all of these frauds are leftists. Ward Churchill is on that list. Remember that asshole?

I knew a woman who managed to get into Optometry school by claiming Indian heritage, and the word is it was just a lie. She looked about as Indian as Jimmy Stewart.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
https://docs.google.com/spread...hcHT2BH44/edit#gid=0
^^
This is the link to the list. Didn't see Chuck Norris on the list.

Lot of those folks are in academia….do they not think that people won’t dig into it? Of all the things to claim, being an Indian shouldn’t be one of them. Don’t they know the tribes keep records?

Sheesh..just mind boggling

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Lot of those folks are in academia….do they not think that people won’t dig into it?

There was a time not too long ago when these frauds could get away with this stuff, but it looks like the gravy train is entering the station.

Haha.

Pretendians.

There is lore in my family. All of my life I remember hearing how my great grandfather was a medicine man who ran a clinic for other Indians since they could not get healthcare from the white man. He had a white nurse assistant with whom he fell in love. They couldn't be married so they carried on in secret. My grandfather was born of that affair. He married my grandmother but the culture frowned on the interracial relationship and they split up. My mother and her brother were born of that marriage. As a youth we visited my "Indian" grandfather at his house in Oregon. His place was decorated with all kinds of Indian stuff. He wore Indian style clothes and turquoise. He had long straight hair parted in the middle and ponytailed. He sure looked the part to me.

That is what I was told and believed. Sometime after Billy Jack in the 1970's the culture changed. Now everyone wanted to be part of the 'noble, peaceful, persecuted' Indian tribes. Lore stories were ubiquitous. This would be around the time Elizabeth Warren came out of the closet and shed her whiteness. She clearly was not alone. My family lore was declared more boldly and I participated.

I began to doubt as I matured past my youth and early adulthood. I quit retelling the story and excused myself from the discussion when it came up. Sometime in 2010 my uncle had a DNA test done to prove his heritage. It came back negative for Indian heritage. He was crushed as were the rest of the family. My suspicions were confirmed. What is most distressing to me is that in spite of the science that indicates otherwise, they all still insist that our heritage is Cherokee. It's kind of Jussie Smollett-ish.

Anyway, I hate falseness and artificiality. I will not be a part of it. So I reject my family lore and think those who believe it in the face of the truth are somewhat emotionally unstable.

Edit to add: LOL Cher is a Pretendian.....

They already got this guy.

Darthfuster’s post is exactly why I never understood or put any stock in “ethic pride”.
1. It’s in reality got nothing to do with YOU.
2. In many cases you really have no idea if it’s even true or not. (Oh yeah, we never told you, you’re adopted. So where is your heritage pride now?)

What is there to be proud of?

It sounds to me like Jacqueline Keeler needs to connect with Don Shipley. He'll show her how to track down and expose frauds.

I have mixed feelings about this. I know of a family that tried to adopt a child who was part Cherokee, was being brought up in an abusive family, the would-be adoptive family really loved this little girl.
The Cherokee tribal council refused the adoption because the little girl would have been brought up by a white family.

Lou Diamond Phillips on that list

quote:

Originally posted by p08:
They already got this guy.

Hey, he was from the Eagle Eye Talians tribe!

quote:

Originally posted by Sigfest:
Lou Diamond Phillips on that list

So is Ben Nighthorse Campbell. That could get embarrassing.

Somehow I can only think of Sopranos references when I hear about this.

@darthfuster

With every passing generation the odds of having DNA from a Native American ancestor plummets. If they are the only Native Americans in your family tree then chances are any DNA passed down would have been lost by now.

Think of it this way, although you do get 50% of your DNA from each parent, that doesn't mean that every single building block of your DNA is 50% from each parent. If your father has blue building blocks and your mother has red building blocks you don't get blocks that are half red and half blue. You get some red blocks and some blue blocks. What happens to the blue blocks from your father that weren't needed because you got the red blocks from your mother? That DNA is lost to time.

I'm 1/64th Cherokee. I have an ancestor that married and had children with a Cherokee woman. I've seen the family tree and have visited their graves, well, at least his grave. Though they are in the same cemetery in southern Illinois, they couldn't be buried next to each other. She is in an unmarked grave somewhere in the cemetery.

I also have had a DNA test and it shows no Native American ties. That DNA has been bred out of me. If my ancestors would have continued to have relations with Native tribes then the likelihood of my test showing Native American ties would have been higher, but she was the only one so her DNA eventually was part of the 50% not passed down.

I hope that makes sense.