u/Mountain_Brief9613

I've explained this before, but my culture is the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. My green eyes and light complexion seems to originate from my Dutch (born in Holland) father, and I get my facial bone structure and hair from my mom. I've been enrolled in the tribe since before I can remember, yet people either assume or mistakenly think I'm non-native because I appear European. Lol

Anyways, a coworker of mine who's Yupiaq from Alaska (who looks more Native than me and thought I was white until I showed her my tribal ID) condescendingly told me,

"If you ever want to learn more about Native culture, you should visit the Hopi or Navajo lands, and see if you can get invited to one of their ceremonies."

(She thinks I've never been before).

I just attribute this person's weird, gatekeeping & exclusionary behavior to her being rude and having an inflated sense of self-importance.

I resent the erroneous term "Native culture" because it's oversimplified. It suggests that all Indigenous people of North America share the same rituals, languages, spiritual beliefs, ideas, traditional clothing, regalia, diet, and/or worldview.

That just isn't the case. I've never met a Narragansett person whose origin story was the exact same as a Choctaw, or an Ojibwe. There are Native cultures, not one singular Native culture. WTF?

I've not been to Canada yet, and I hope you'll forgive me for asking such a loaded question. I am looking forward to visiting there, once my financial situation has improved. Nonetheless, I'm Choctaw and have lately been getting to know more First Nations (one of my friends is Haida/Tlingit from present-day BC), but for anyone of Métis heritage, how often do you get imposters either mistakenly, or knowingly, intentionally & falsely claiming to be Métis?

Context:

I had a loud, boisterous doughboy employee tell me a few hours ago at work, "I'm technically Métis, my great grandma was Blackfoot." And because he said technically, I see that as a red flag because anyone proudly representing their heritage is not going to say that it's *technically* their identity.

Even if his statement were proven, he also used the colonial term, and not the original term used by some Niitsitapi people I know, who take their culture seriously.

He claimed that he graduated from a Canadian high school, and so I asked him, "You know about Louis Riel, right?"

And he replied saying, "Oh yeah that guy was an asshole."

My response, "How so?"

"The only reason that guy's famous is because he made Manitoba grow, before him it was the size of a postage stamp."

That's another red flag.

If you're going to claim Métis is your heritage, or even just a portion of your ancestry, then wouldn't you avoid disrespecting one of history's most important Métis leaders? Instead of being blatantly disrespectful, flippant, and crass. His remarks reeked of colonialism to me.

The third claim he made was, "In Canada, you shouldn't use any other term except for Native Canadian."

Does he not realize how many tribally enrolled (not counting CPAINs) folks actively use First Nation, Indigenous, and even Indian?

I get annoyed when people talk about entire nations as though every individual person's expectations are monolithic. He then made a racist statement about Indian people (from India) and decided to say that they're "terrible people" who (according to him) "Natives don't want to be associated with." WTF?

And in case you're wondering, yes I live in the states.

My guess is that he assumed I knew nothing about Indigenous cultures from further north of here, because I'm not Canadian. Needless to say, I walked away feeling a sense of glee knowing that he probably thought his comments were very convincing flexes. How entertaining!

Long story short, I was taking a course called American Indian Studies through ASU a couple of months ago.

My professor for the course is Diné (she explained this to us at the beginning of the course, most of you know this already, but that is the indigenous term for Navajo).

Anyways, the textbook, "An Indigenous People's History of the United States" was interesting, and contained tons of useful information, it was well-referenced, and included important, specific, primary sources that discussed Scots-Irish settlers (squatters), encroachment along the frontier of the colonies, violence against Indians, and made the case that 1776 was *not the end* of a European Colonial Project on turtle island, but rather the beginning, or the end of the beginning (as far as I'm concerned).

I'm feeling uneasy about the textbook, though, because it was written by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, and *I didn't realize this at the time* but she's a well-known race-shifter and Pretendian. As a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, I feel cognitive dissonance about this being the curriculum for a course that's so pivotal to my identity.

On one hand, none of the information I found in the book was exaggerated, false, or misleading. The coursework was also very respectful, and beneficial to Native communities, as it promoted our rights, justice, and visibility.

Nonetheless, the author of the text has intentionally lied about their personal life, and therefore harmed her own credibility. What do you think?

Why do people who deliberately falsify Native identity or misrepresent themselves as Indigenous rarely ever face public scrutiny?

Long story short, I found out that the Broadway actor and model Eric Stanton Betts is unequivocally **NOT** Cherokee, after I called the enrollment department of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma in Tahlequah, OK (sometimes the Eastern Band refers to them as the Western Band) and the secretary confirmed to me that this name is not listed. He is not enrolled there. And then I even called the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians' enrollment department in North Carolina. The secretary confirmed with me that he is not enrolled there, either.

He identifies as "Halfrican" (with a black father and white mother) and his bio on his website reads,

"Eric is a mixed BIPOC artist proudly representing the Afro-Indigenous community as the child of a mixed race marriage and a direct descendant of the Cherokee Nation on his father’s side."

I agree with weresubwoofer (Reddit User) that claiming that you're Cherokee "on your father's side" when that tribe has no BQ sounds like a stretch to me, especially when the term "descendant" indicates that they don't meet the minimum requirement for blood quantum. Yes, I know, blood quantum is a colonial concept, but we have it for a reason so that Elizabeth Warren, Loretta Lynn, Miley Cyrus, Buff St

Marie, and other lying frauds can't make unsubstantiated claims about being Native American.

There are also inconsistencies due to the fact that his IMDb profile states that he's EBCI. **But he's still not enrolled.**

He clearly doesn't have the documents to prove any of his ancestors were on the Dawe's Rolls, ever.

Which is why he's not enrolled.

He needs to be exposed, and stop referring to himself as "Cherokee," because it's offensive to people who are actually enrolled as Cherokee, and all other Indigenous folks who have actively proved that we're eligible for tribal enrollment, and deserving of our rights as "tribal Indians" under US Constitutional Law. It's unacceptable, irresponsible, disrespectful, flippant, and insulting that people like him who are grown adults (36 years-old) thinking hearing one childhood or adolescent era story heard from one's parents about their alleged "Cherokee roots" serves as proof, when he's intelligent enough to understand that in fact, it does not. Also why are some people mad at us Pretendian Hunters, when all we're doing is allowing the truth to prevail?

If you're not aware, he's a Broadway actor and model.

I think he might just be another Pretendian, because so far he hasn't produced any evidence that he's an enrolled Cherokee. There are generally three separate Cherokee bands within the political coalition of "Cherokee" or Aniyvwiyaʔi and 7 separate clans...

If someone can't tell you their clan, chances are they aren't Cherokee.

And no, based on his looks he's clearly biracial, there's one photo of him with his parents (he's partially African-American from his dad) but that does not mean he's Cherokee, and neither do his facial features.

If we don't put up with baseless claims of being indigenous from people like Blake Lively, Johnny Depp, Loretta Lynn, Miley Cyrus and other famous people who claim to be "part Native-American" without proof of lineage or citizenship, then why should we believe this guy?

Hello, I'm male, 30 years-old, and haven't yet worked in any sort of administrative or clerical role (any office work whatsoever). I've always wanted to, but it seemed like it was always hard to get your foot in the door, if you didn't have the perfect resumé.

Almost every single job I've worked in was retail (lots of cashiering, sales, stocking merchandise, helping customers, etc.) or in restaurants (working as a server, cashier, barista, or basically anything imaginable in back of house). Nowadays, I work at a traffic control company (as a flagger) in Oregon. I enjoy certain aspects of the job, but it's not something I want to do for very long. I'd rather work somewhere that offers consistent hours, a decent wage (it doesn't have to be high), and where I can always expect to work in the same building. Even doing something where I can work from home would be nice.

(It's probably important for me to mention that I am a college student who's halfway through my bachelor's degree, so I'll be finishing the remainder of it online).

I haven't had a lot of luck on LinkedIn, Indeed, or with very many staffing agencies or standard applications for companies, firms, businesses, and government agencies that hire entry-level office workers, who don't have specialized or specific experience.

I have been told, though, that there are some employers who *sometimes* prefer to hire brand-new receptionist/secretary type workers without specific, curated experience so that they can train them from the ground up, in their unique style.

What is some advice that you have that might help me?

I'd so appreciate hearing from any of you.

I'm Choctaw (enrolled in the Choctaw Nation through my mother), and until very recently was living in Oklahoma. Because I lived there for quite a long time, I encountered tons of White people (and sometimes people from other cultures) who would periodically lie, or make exaggerated claims about being "part Cherokee" (even claiming to have "Iroquois blood" seemed rather common for White folks from settler families dating back to the colonial age).

For context, I have light hair, and the same shaped eyes as my late father, who was Dutch, so there have been times when (understandably) people don't realize I'm Indigenous until I show them my tribal ID, or just a picture of myself with my mom. Then, they usually understand. It used to annoy me, but at this point, I understand, and I own both sides of our family history.

Anyways, here's something that happened to me in 2018, while temporarily living in Washington state.

Also, please keep in mind that I'm gay, (and since I was 16 have also reclaimed my identity as a Two Spirit person) so I'm fully supportive of trans rights, and equality/equity for all LGBTQP2+ individuals. I understand why the term Indigiqueer appeals to many Native folks, but it's not really my preferred term, so I use Two Spirit.

I once worked with this (highly narcissistic) white trans woman who lied about being Native, and by extension, lied about being Two Spirit. I believe she was highly narcissistic because of the rude, aggressive way she treated basically everyone who encountered her.

She claimed to have a "Great-grandfather who was the Chief of the Blackfoot Tribe." Which sounds like a typical Pretendian story, passed down by many white, settler families. This person also claimed to have his (her fictional grandfather's) feather warbonnet.

A coworker & Yakama elder and I laughed that in all likelihood it must have been merely a costume piece, likely purchased on Amazon, and made in China.

Anyways, she didn't even use the term Two Spirit (she was unfamiliar with it), but referred to herself as a "Shaman," as a result of being trans.

A primary reason I knew she was full of s**t was because she'd made other questionable, unbelievable, and pathologically false statements about her accomplishments about her life, before.

She was waiving all sorts of red flags with her statements, but what officially sealed it for me and made her delusions totally unbelievable was that she once told me and someone else that,

"We, the Blackfoot (not knowing how to pronounce Niitsitapi), used to rule the Plains. Everyone was scared of us. Even the Cherokee were scared of us."

Little did she realize that anyone who's taken courses, visited museums, or even read books about American Indians knows that historically speaking, the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) never, ever had close contact, with the Cherokee. Their ancestral homeland was too far away, both during (and before) Andrew Jackson had the Cherokee displaced by implementing the Trail of Tears. They certainly never went to war with each other, either. The Blackfoot were also never involved, or impacted by the displacement of the Cherokee Nation(s) and (to use a colonial phrase) the other four of the "Five Civilized Tribes."

I find it bizarre that this person thinks they're convincing.

One would have to be an idiot with an IQ of 80 to believe her.

I remember once attending one that the Cheyenne Nation was hosting years and years ago in Montana (2005), if I remember correctly (I believe it was the MC) who was sitting near dance competition judges who were waiting to award prizes... Who then praised everyone involved, and proceeded to make a joke, announcing with his microphone,

"It's a tough day to be a cowboy!"

And my mom just about died laughing her ass off 🤣

Especially because that was a common film genre in her childhood, growing up in the '60s & '70s. Lol