Just a little FYI, since I've seen a lot of stuff about Pretendians coming up.
Some Pretendian red flags:
● "I took a DNA test and it said--" DNA tests are often wrong. Beyond that it has to do with relationship to the tribe, not just blood quantum.
●"I'm part Native American and that doesn't bother me!" Normally people identify by their tribe specifically, not a very vague 'Native American'.
●"My (family) was a (tribe) princess." Many Americans have a family myth about being Indigenous. It often roots back to land disputes in early American colonization. Almost always, this isn't true. Most tribes didn't even have royalty in the European sense.
● Misuse of regalia. This one is most annoying to me personally. War bonnets at music festivals, dream catchers as decorations, breast plate bikinis, chin 'tribal' face paint, and so on. It's so rude and so often excused with "well I'm part native." Even if you are Native it's still rude.
● Offense at being asked questions. I don't know a single indigenous person who gets cagey when asked about themselves. People LOVE to talk. You let someone just keep talking, and you'll know all their distant cousins and those cousins cousins in no time. At the very least, your indigenous ancestors name and the tribe should be known if you're going to try to make a claim.
To be clear: I'm pretty darn white myself, and I'm a big advocate for when white Indigenous people are confronted with questions about their tribal status, they shouldn't be offended. There are people who fake it ALL the time for a lot of reasons. A community wanting to be safe isn't bad. If someone questions your status, just answer honestly. In the Muscogee tribe the normal introduction is "I'm (name) a member of (clan). my tribal town is (region). I come from (home region). My parents are (family).". It's very normal to know this stuff, or at least some of it.
