Sicilian-American Espera Oscar de Corti (a.k.a. “Iron Eyes” Cody) meeting President Jimmy Carter, 21 April 1978
17 April 2024
Pretendian is a word that has yet to make it into any major dictionary, and it refers to a person who falsely claims to be Native-American or to have Native-American ancestry. It’s etymology is rather obvious, a blend of pretend + Indian. Pretendians range from people who have been told incorrectly by their families that they have Indigenous heritage to outright frauds who use false claims for financial or professional benefit, taking what should rightly go to others.
Like most words, this one got its start in oral use. The earliest documented use I can find is from the Usenet newsgroup alt.native on 22 April 2003. A user replied to another poster with the username BravesHeart with this:
No need to be so polite, BravesHeart, what do you *really* think? :-)
Don't you love it when some pretendian gets on the board, insults folks who have been here for years, and tries to tell us how we're *supposed* to think?
The word made its way onto Urbandictionary.com in an entry dated 15 April 2007:
Every white person in America that claims to be “part” Native American.
I'm part Indian on my great grand mother's brother's uncle's sister side (Pretendian) but I don't have any way of proving it.
And it sees its way into print by 4 August 2010 in the newspaper Indian Country Today in an interview with Vicky Apala-Cuevas (Oglala Lakota):
ICT: The imitation Indians claim to be well-meaning.
Apala-Cuevas: As the professor wrote in her letter, we've suffered under centuries of good intentions. People who play Indian are a problem countrywide. I see it as mental illness—a mass hysteria. An elder told me they have genetic memory of the genocide, so they carry fear within them and claim these relationships and this knowledge to alleviate the stress. Wilma Mankiller once sat next to Bill Clinton at a lunch, and the first thing he said to her was that he was part Cherokee. So you see, it's from the president on down.
ICT: Do 'pretendían' activities affect the wider public?
Apala-Cuevas: Absolutely. We heard, for example, about a pond liner purchased to construct a sweat lodge. This is very dangerous, as plastic coverings—as opposed to natural traditional coverings—produce extreme temperatures and toxic fumes and may well have contributed to the recent deaths and hospitalizations at the non-Native pseudo-sweat lodge in Arizona. We contacted Iowa's health department, and they were concerned. We're also exploring consumer-protection laws, as some may receive funding under false pretenses.
Pretendians can be found in many fields. Academics who have furthered their careers though false claims of Native-American heritage include Ward Churchill (University of Colorado, Boulder), Elizabeth Hoover (University of California, Berkeley), and Andrea Smith (University of California, Riverside). Entertainers who have falsely claimed Indigenous ancestry include Johnny Depp, Cher, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Maria Louise Cruz (a.k.a. Sacheen Littlefeather), and Espera Oscar de Corti (a.k.a. “Iron Eyes” Cody). Pretendian writers include Archibald Stansfield Belaney (a.k.a. Grey Owl) and Jackie Marks (a.k.a. Jamake Highwater). Pretendians in politics include Senator Elizabeth Warren and Trump-supporter Kaya Jones. A few (e.g,. Hoover and Warren) have admitted the false claims and apologized, but most pretendians when exposed do not.
There is no single set of qualifications that determine whether one is Native-American or not. It is up to individual tribes and bands to determine who is part of their community. While ancestry is one factor, it is usually not enough. One must also be accepted as part of a tribal community, which may or may not entail being officially registered as a member. Nor is the amount of Indigenous “blood” one has usually a factor. The idea of a “blood quantum” is a settler-colonial one.
Sources:
Lancaster, Bob. Usenet: alt.native, 22 April 2003.
Urbandictionary.com, 15 April 2007, s.v. pretendian, n. (Accessed 17 March 2024)
Woodard, Stephanie. “Playing Indian.” Indian Country Today (Oneida, New York), 4 August 2010, 6, 8. ProQuest Newspapers.
Photo credit: White House staff photographer, 21 April 1978. Wikimedia Commons. National Archives, NAID: 179013. Public domain photo.