Pretendian Explained

Pretendian (portmanteau of pretend and Indian) is a pejorative colloquialism describing a person who has falsely claimed Indigenous identity by professing to be a citizen of a Native American or Indigenous Canadian tribal nation, or to be descended from Native American or Indigenous Canadian ancestors.[1] [2] As a practice, being a pretendian is considered an extreme form of cultural appropriation,[3] especially if that individual then asserts that they can represent, and speak for, communities from which they do not originate.[4] [3]

The practice is called Indigenous identity fraud.[5] A form of fraud,[5] [6] it is also called ethnic fraud or race shifting.[7] [8]

Early false claims to Indigenous identity, often called "playing Indian", go back at least as far as the Boston Tea Party. There was a rise in pretendians after the 1960s for a number of reasons, such as the reestablishment of tribal sovereignty following the era of Indian termination policy, the media coverage of the Occupation of Alcatraz and the Wounded Knee Occupation, and the formation of Native American studies as a distinct form of area studies which led to the establishment of publishing programs and university departments specifically for or about Native American culture. At the same time, hippie and New Age subcultures marketed Native cultures as accessible, spiritual, and as a form of resistance to mainstream culture, leading to the rise of the plastic shaman or "culture vulture." By 1990, many years of pushback by Native Americans against pretendians resulted in the successful passage of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 (IACA) a truth-in-advertising law which prohibits misrepresentation in marketing of American Indian or Alaska Native arts and crafts products within the United States.

While Indigenous communities have always self-policed and spread word of frauds, mainstream media and arts communities were often unaware, or did not act upon this information, until more recent decades. Since the 1990s and 2000s, a number of controversies regarding ethnic fraud have come to light and received coverage in mainstream media, leading to a broader awareness of pretendians in the world at large.

History of false claims to Indigenous identity

Early claims

Historian Philip J. Deloria has noted that European Americans "playing Indian" is a phenomenon that stretches back at least as far as the Boston Tea Party.[9] In his 1998 book Playing Indian, Deloria argues that white settlers have always played with stereotypical imagery of the peoples that were replaced during colonization, using these tropes to form a new national identity that can be seen as distinct from previous European identities.

Examples of white societies who have played Indian include, according to Deloria, the Improved Order of Red Men, Tammany Hall, and scouting societies like the Order of the Arrow. Individuals who made careers out of pretending an Indigenous identity include James Beckwourth,[10] Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance,[11] and Grey Owl.[2] [12] [13]

The academic Joel W. Martin noted that "an astonishing number of southerners assert they have a grandmother or great-grandmother who was some kind of Cherokee, often a princess", and that such myths serve settler purposes in aligning American frontier romance with southern regionalism and pride.[14]

Post-1960s: Rise of pretendians in academia, arts, and political positions

The rise of pretendian identities post-1960s can be explained by a number of factors. The reestablishment and exercise of tribal sovereignty among tribal nations (following the era of Indian termination policy) meant that many individuals raised away from tribal communities sought, and still seek, to reestablish their status as tribal citizens or to recover connections to tribal traditions. Other tribal citizens, who had been raised in American Indian boarding schools under genocidal policies designed to erase their cultural identity, also revived tribal religious and cultural practices.

At the same time, in the years following the Occupation of Alcatraz, the formation of Native American studies as a distinct form of area studies, and the awarding of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction to Kiowa author N. Scott Momaday, publishing programs and university departments began to be established specifically for or about Native American culture. At the same time, hippie and New Age cultures marketed Native cultures as accessible, spiritual, and as a form of resistance to mainstream culture, leading to the rise of the plastic shaman or "culture vulture." All of this added up to a culture that was not inclined to disbelieve self-identification, and a wider societal impulse to claim Indigeneity.[15]

Elizabeth Cook-Lynn wrote of the influence of pretendians in American academia and political positions:

By 1990, as noted in The New York Times Magazine, many years of "significant pushback by Native Americans against so-called Pretendians or Pretend Indians" resulted in the successful passage of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 (IACA)a truth-in-advertising law which prohibits misrepresentation in the marketing of American Indian or Alaska Natives arts and crafts products within the United States. The IACA makes it illegal for non-Natives to offer or display for sale, or sell, any art or craft product in a manner that falsely suggests it is Indian produced, an Indian product, or the product of a particular Indian, Indian tribe, or Indian arts and crafts organization. For a first-time violation of the act, an individual can face civil or criminal penalties up to a $250,000 fine or a five-year prison term, or both. If a business violates the act, it can face civil penalties or can be prosecuted and fined up to $1,000,000.[16]

21st century: Contemporary controversies

United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo (Mvskoke) writes:

While modern DNA testing that can generally confirm if there is some degree of Native American ancestry and determine family relatedness, it is less able to indicate tribal belonging or Native American identity which is based on culture as well as biology.[17] [18] Attempts by non-Natives to racialize Indigenous identity by DNA tests have been seen by some Indigenous people, such as Kim TallBear, as insensitive at best, often racist, politically, and financially motivated, and dangerous to the survival of Indigenous cultures.[19]

While Indigenous communities have always self-policed and spread word of frauds, mainstream media and arts communities were often unaware or did not act upon this information, until recent decades.[3] However, since the 1990s and 2000s, a number of controversies regarding ethnic fraud have come to light and received coverage in mainstream media, leading to a broader awareness of pretendians in the world at large.[3]

In April 2018, APTN National News in Canada investigated how pretendiansin the film industry and in real lifepromote "stereotypes, typecasting, and even, what is known as 'redface.[20] Rebecca Nagle (Cherokee Nation) voiced a similar position in 2019, writing for High Country News that,

In January 2021, Navajo journalist Jacqueline Keeler began investigating the problem of settler self-indigenization in academia.[21] Working with other Natives in tribal enrollment departments, genealogists and historians, they began following up on the names many had been hearing for years in tribal circles were not actually Native, asking about current community connections as well as researching family histories "as far back as the 1600s" to see if they had any ancestors who were Native or had ever lived in a tribal community.[21] This research resulted in the Alleged Pretendians List,[22] of about 200 public figures in academia and entertainment, which Keeler self-published as a Google spreadsheet in 2021.[23]

While some people have criticized her for "conducting a witch hunt", Native leaders interviewed by VOA, such as Chief Ben Barnes of the Shawnee Tribe, report Keeler has strong support in Native circles. Academic Dina Gilio-Whitaker, who reviewed Keeler's documentation on Sacheen Littlefeather before it was published (see below), wrote that in her opinion Keeler did solid research. Keeler has stressed that the list does not include private citizens who are "merely wannabes", but only those public figures who are monetizing and profiting from their claims to tribal identity and who claim to speak for Native American tribes. She says the list is the product of decades of Native peoples' efforts at accountability. Academic Kim TallBear writes that all those mentioned on the list are public figures who have profited from their alleged Indigenous status, that Keeler's and her team's list documents that the overwhelming number of those who benefit financially from pretendianism are white, and that these false claims relate to white supremacy and Indigenous erasure. Tallbear stresses that people who fabricate fraudulent claims are in no way the same as disconnected and reconnecting descendants who have real heritage, such as victims of government programs that scooped Indigenous children from their families.[24]

On September 13, 2021, the CBC News reported on their ongoing investigation into a "mysterious letter", dated 1845 (but never seen before 2011[25]) that is now believed to be a forgery. Based solely on the one ancestor listed in this letter, over 1,000 people were enrolled as Algonquin people, making them "potential beneficiaries of a massive pending land claim agreement involving almost $1 billion and more than 500 sq. kilometres of land".[26] The CBC investigation used handwriting analysis, and other methods of archival and historical evaluation to conclude the letter is a fake. This has led to the federally recognized Pikwakanagan First Nation to renew efforts to remove these "pretendian" claimants from their membership. In a statement to CBC News, the chief and council of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation say that those they are seeking to remove "are fraudulently taking up Indigenous spaces in high academia and procurement opportunities."[26]

In October 2021, the CBC published an investigation into the status of Canadian academic Carrie Bourassa, who works as an Indigenous health expert and has claimed Métis, Anishinaabe and Tlingit status.[27] Research into her claims indicated that her ancestry is wholly European. In particular, the great-grandmother she claimed was Tlingit, Johanna Salaba, is well-documented as having emigrated from Russia in 1911; she was a Czech-speaking Russian.[27] In response, Bourassa admitted that she does not have status in the communities that she claimed but insisted that she does have some Indigenous ancestors and that she has hired other genealogists to search for them.[27] Bourassa was placed on immediate leave from her post at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research after her claims of Indigenous ancestry were found to be baseless.[28]

In November 2021, writing for the Toronto Star about the Bourassa situation as well as the actions of Joseph Boyden and Michelle Latimer, K.J. McCusker wrote,

In October 2022, actor and activist Sacheen Littlefeather died. Shortly thereafter her sisters spoke to Navajo reporter Jacqueline Keeler and said that their family has no ties to the Apache or Yaqui tribes Sacheen had claimed. As Littlefeather had been a beloved activist, these reports were met with controversy, challenges, and attacks on Keeler, largely on social media. Academic Dina Gilio-Whitaker wrote that the truth about community leaders is "crucial", even if it means losing a "hero", and that the work Littlefeather did is still valuable, but there is a need to be honest about the harm done by pretendians, especially by those who manage to fool so many people that they become iconic:[29]

Motivating factors

There are several possible explanations for why people adopt pretendian identities. Mnikȟówožu Lakota poet Trevino Brings Plenty writes: "To wear an underrepresented people's skin is enticing. I get it: to feast on struggle, to explore imagined roots; to lay the foundational work for academic jobs and publishing opportunities."[30] Helen Lewis, wrote in The Atlantic that perhaps personal trauma from unrelated events in their lives, such as a difficult upbringing, may motivate hoaxers to desire to be publicly perceived as victims of oppressionto identify with those they see as victims rather than the perpetrators.[31]

Patrick Wolfe argues that the problem is more structural, stating that settler colonial ideology actively needs to erase and then reproduce Indigenous identity in order to create and justify claims to land and territory.[32] Deloria also explores the white American dual fascination with "the vanishing Indian" and the idea that by "Playing Indian", the white man can then be the true inheritor and preserver of authentic American identity and connection to the land, aka "Indianness".[33]

In Canada in 2024, Karima Manji and her two daughters, a non-Indigenous family, were charged with defrauding the Nunavut government of over $150,000 by claiming Inuit identity. [34] Manji must serve jail time as a result.[35]

Academics Kim TallBear (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville), Robert Jago (Kwantlen First Nation), Rowland Robinson (Menominee), as well as journalist Jacqueline Keeler (Navajo Nation) and attorney Jean Teillet (great-grandniece of Louis Riel) also name white supremacy, in addition to ongoing settler colonialism, as core factors in the phenomenon.[24] [36] [37] In Settler Colonialism + Native Ghosts"Community, Pretendians, & Heartbreak", Robinson posits that

In October 2022, Teillet published the report, Indigenous Identity Fraud, for the University of Saskatchewan.[38] Discussing her research, she wrote for the Globe and Mail,

Notable examples

Individuals who have been accused of being pretendians include:

Academic

Film, television, and music

Literary

Political

Visual arts

See also

Further reading

External links

Opening Remarks at by George Cornell (Ojibwe), Ben Barnes (Shawnee), Kim TallBear (Sisseton-Wahpeton) - March 21, 2022

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 'Pretendians': Elizabeth Warren not alone in making questionable claim to Native American heritage . Maria . Polleta . . . November 30, 2017 . November 11, 2021 . March 22, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220322025959/https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2017/11/30/senator-elizabeth-warren-not-alone-making-questionable-claim-native-american-indian-heritage/903573001/ . live .,
  2. News: Irwin, Nigel. Joseph Boyden's Apology and the Strange History of 'Pretendians' – Boyden is hardly the first person to be alleged to have faked Indigenous roots for material or spiritual gain. Vice Media. January 12, 2017. July 8, 2021. June 8, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210608124447/https://www.vice.com/en/article/yppmdv/joseph-boydens-apology-and-the-strange-history-of-pretendians. live.
  3. Web site: Ridgen. Melissa. Melissa Ridgen. 2021-01-28. Pretendians and what to do with people who falsely say they're Indigenous. 2021-07-13. APTN News. en-US. Pretendians – noun – A person who falsely claims to have Indigenous ancestry – meaning it’s people who fake an Indigenous identity or dig up an old ancestor from hundreds of years ago to proclaim themselves as Indigenous today. They take up a lot of space and income from First Nation, Inuit and Metis Peoples.. July 13, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210713021512/https://www.aptnnews.ca/infocus/pretendians-and-what-to-do-with-people-who-falsely-say-theyre-indigenous-put-infocus/. live.
  4. Robinson. Rowland. 2020. Settler Colonialism + Native Ghosts: An Autoethnographic Account of the Imaginarium of Late Capitalist/Colonialist Storytelling. Ph.D. . [Waterloo, Ontario]

    University of Waterloo

    . 1263615440. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1263615440 . 4. Interlude: Community, Pretendians, & Heartbreak. 235. 28 Dec 2021 . [The] phenomenon of what I and many other Indigenous people have for some time called Pretendians, as well as the related, and very often overlapping, phenomenon of Fétis*. This not-new phenomenon, to put it perhaps overly simply, is the practice of settler individuals (and sometimes others, but primarily settlers) putting forth a false Indigenous identity, and placing themselves out in front of the world as Indigenous people, and sometimes even attempting to assert themselves in some way as a kind of voice of their supposed peoples. *Portmanteaus of “Pretend” and “Indian” and “Fake” and "Métis", respectively. Pretendian, as a descriptive term, has been around most of my life, to the extent that I am not sure that placing its origin on the timeline is readily possible.. December 28, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211228160104/https://www.worldcat.org/title/settler-colonialism-native-ghosts-an-autoethnographic-account-of-the-imaginarium-of-late-capitalistcolonialist-storytelling/oclc/1263615440 . live.
  5. News: Victor . Patti . Pretendians: Indigenous Identity Fraud . 26 July 2024 . Do Justice . 21 June 2024.
  6. News: Isai, Vjosa . Doubts Over Indigenous Identity in Academia Spark 'Pretendian' Claims - Some Canadian universities now require additional proof to back up Indigenous heritage, replacing self-declaration policies . . October 15, 2022. October 28, 2022. “pretendians” (short for “pretend Indians”)... Ms. TallBear said, there is no excuse for outright lies. “If they’re lying and they’ve gotten job benefits or scholarship benefits, they should be required to figure out how to make restitution,” she said, likening fake identity claims to falsifying academic credentials. “It’s fraud.”.
  7. Web site: Leroux . Darryl . Raceshifting . live. 2021-07-08. Raceshifting. en-US. July 9, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210709190929/https://www.raceshifting.com/.
  8. Web site: Becoming Indigenous: The rise of Eastern Métis in Canada. Leroux . Darryl R. J. . Gaudry . Adam . . October 25, 2017. November 5, 2022. In 2011 there were over 250 self-identified Cherokee “tribes” in the U.S., according to anthropologist Circe Sturm. Like efforts by self-identified Métis, Sturm suggests that “race shifting” among white Americans to Cherokee identity is an attempt to “reclaim or create something they feel they have lost, and … to opt out of mainstream white society.” The end result, however, has been the proliferation of self-identified Cherokee “tribes” in the U.S. and “Métis communities” in Eastern Canada with minimal connections to Indigenous peoples who they claim as long-ago ancestors..
  9. Book: Deloria, Philip J.. Philip J. Deloria

    . Philip J. Deloria. Playing Indian. 1999. Yale University Press. New Haven. 9780300080674. 64–8, 91, 101, et al. February 28, 2019. June 8, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210608063410/https://books.google.com/books?id=dQFBTKi4aYsC&pg=PA126. live.

  10. Laura Browder, " 'One Hundred Percent American': How a Slave, a Janitor, and a Former Klansmen Escaped Racial Categories by Becoming Indians", in Beyond the Binary: Reconstructing Cultural Identity in a Multicultural Context, ed. Timothy B. Powell, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press (1999)
  11. Melinda . Micco . Tribal Re-Creations: Buffalo Child Long Lance and Black Seminole Narratives . Re-placing America: Conversations and Contestations . Hsu. Ruth. Franklin. Cynthia. Kosanke. Suzanne . Honolulu . University of Hawai'i and the East-West Center . 2000.
  12. News: Murray . John . APTN Investigates: Cowboys and Pretendians . . Apr 20, 2018 . July 8, 2021 . Canada's most famous pretendian is a man who called himself Grey Owl. . October 7, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211007175631/https://www.aptnnews.ca/investigates/cowboys-and-pretendians/ . live .
  13. Book: Smith, Donald B. . From the Land of Shadows: The Making of Grey Owl . Saskatoon . Western Prairie Books . 1990.
  14. Book: Martin, Joel W. . 'My Grandmother Was a Cherokee Princess': Representations of Indians in Southern History. . Dressing in Feathers: The Construction of the Indian in Popular Culture . Elizabeth . Bird . London . Routledge . 1996.
  15. [Elizabeth Cook-Lynn]
  16. http://www.doi.gov/iacb/act.html "The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990".
  17. Web site: Tracing American Indian and Alaska Native Ancestry Indian Affairs . 2023-11-27 . www.bia.gov . en.
  18. News: Geddes. Linda. 'There is no DNA test to prove you're Native American' . 31 May 2019 . New Scientist. 5 February 2014. March 15, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170315112433/https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129554-400-there-is-no-dna-test-to-prove-youre-native-american/. live.
  19. News: TallBear. Kim. Kim TallBear. Elizabeth Warren's claim to Cherokee ancestry is a form of violence - Be it by the barrel of a carbine or a mail-order DNA test, the American spirit demands the disappearance of Indigenous people. 5 Nov 2019 . High Country News. 17 Jan 2019. November 22, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211122135715/https://www.hcn.org/issues/51.2/tribal-affairs-elizabeth-warrens-claim-to-cherokee-ancestry-is-a-form-of-violence/. live.
  20. News: Murray . John . APTN Investigates: Cowboys and Pretendians . . Apr 20, 2018 . July 8, 2021 . Actors who do this are sometimes called “pretendians” but that term is also used for people who play at being Indigenous in their real life. . October 7, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211007175631/https://www.aptnnews.ca/investigates/cowboys-and-pretendians/ . live .
  21. Web site: Hilleary . Cecily . Across North America, academics have allegedly manufactured indigenous identity for personal, professional and financial gain . . 27 Oct 2022 . 3 April 2022.
  22. Web site: Cyca . Michelle . The Curious Case of Gina Adams: A "Pretendian" investigation - She was hired by Emily Carr University in an effort to recruit Indigenous faculty. Then questions arose about her identity . . 23 Oct 2022 . 16 Sep 2022.
  23. Web site: Jacqueline . Keeler . Jacqueline Keeler . The Alleged Pretendians List . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20210608063411/https://www.pollennationmagazine.com/pollen-nation/2020/5/5/the-alleged-pretendians . June 8, 2021 . May 5, 2020 . Pollen Nation Magazine.
  24. Web site: TallBear . Kim . Kim TallBear. Playing Indian Constitutes a Structural Form of Colonial Theft, and It Must be Tackled . Unsettle . 30 May 2021 . 10 May 2021.
  25. News: Leo. Geoff. Mysterious letter linking 1,000 people to $1B Algonquin treaty likely fake, CBC investigation finds – Author of conspiracy theory books says letter was dropped in his mailbox in 2011. CBC News. Aug 9, 2021. Dec 26, 2021. December 26, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211226224737/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/letter-lagarde-algonquin-1.6121432 . live.
  26. News: Leo . Geoff . Push to remove 'pretendians' from Algonquin membership rekindled after CBC investigation – Analysis revealed letter linked to 1,000 Indigenous ancestry claims is likely fake. . Sep 13, 2021. Dec 26, 2021. December 26, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211226224737/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/algonquin-ancestry-lagarde-letter-follow-1.6171830. live.
  27. Web site: Leo. Geoff. 2021-10-27. Indigenous or pretender?. live . 2021-10-28 . . October 28, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211028214903/https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/preview/carrie-bourassa-indigenous.
  28. News: Health scientist Carrie Bourassa on immediate leave after scrutiny of her claim she's Indigenous. CBC.ca. Leo. Geoff. November 1, 2021 . December 20, 2021 . November 29, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211129054348/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/carrie-bourassa-indefinite-leave-indigenous-1.6233247 . live.
  29. Web site: Sacheen Littlefeather and ethnic fraud – why the truth is crucial, even if it means losing an American Indian hero. Dina . Gilio Whitaker . Dina Gilio-Whitaker . . October 28, 2022 . October 29, 2022.
  30. Brings Plenty. Trevino. Trevino Brings Plenty. 30 December 2018. Pretend Indian Exegesis: The Pretend Indian Uncanny Valley Hypothesis in Literature and Beyond . Transmotion. 4. 2. 142–52 . 10.22024/UniKent/03/tm.648. 25 November 2021. November 25, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211125082654/https://journals.kent.ac.uk/index.php/transmotion/article/view/648/1356 . live.
  31. Web site: Lewis . Helen . 2021-03-16 . The Identity Hoaxers . 2023-07-21 . The Atlantic . en . The need to be associated with the victims rather than the perpetrators in such a context was, he said, often linked to another trauma in a person’s life. [....] Perhaps the subconscious reasoning runs like this: White people are oppressors, but I’m a good person, not an oppressor, so I can’t be white..
  32. [Patrick Wolfe|Wolfe, Patrick]
  33. Book: Deloria, Philip J.. Philip J. Deloria

    . Philip J. Deloria. Playing Indian. 1999. Yale University Press. New Haven. 9780300080674. 64–5, 91, 101, et al. February 28, 2019. June 8, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210608063410/https://books.google.com/books?id=dQFBTKi4aYsC&pg=PA126. live.

  34. News: Cecco . Leyland . 2024-06-28 . Canadian woman gets three years' jail in first ever sentencing for a 'Pretendian' . 2024-06-29 . The Guardian . en-GB . 0261-3077.
  35. Web site: June 29, 2024.
  36. Jacqueline Keeler . Jacqueline Keeler . Ridgen . Melissa . Melissa Ridgen . 2021-01-28. Pretendians and what to do with people who falsely say they're Indigenous. 2022-11-18. APTN News. en-US . https://web.archive.org/web/20210713021512/https://www.aptnnews.ca/infocus/pretendians-and-what-to-do-with-people-who-falsely-say-theyre-indigenous-put-infocus/ . live. July 13, 2021. Television broadcast. 13:47 . Winnipeg. White people are so accustomed, they are centered by white supremacy to such an extent they feel no compunction about doing this ... maybe even they covet what we have and they feel we don't deserve it. And so they decide they can perform the identity better than we can. And they can - for a white audience. ... White people like to see other white people in redface..
  37. Web site: Teillet . Jean . November 11, 2022 . There is nothing innocent about the false presumption of Indigenous identity . . November 17, 2022.
  38. Teillet . Jean . October 17, 2022. Teillet Report on Indigenous Identity Fraud . University of Saskatchewan. November 17, 2022 .
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  79. Web site: Disney Exploiting Confusion About Whether Depp Has Indian Blood. June 17, 2013. August 13, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130705002853/http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/17/disney-exploiting-confusion-about-whether-depp-has-indian-blood-149941. July 5, 2013. dead.
  80. Web site: Sonny Skyhawk on Johnny Depp, Disney, Indian Stereotypes and White Film Indians. Toensing . Gale Courney . June 11, 2013. May 3, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130715084025/http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/11/sonny-skyhawk-johnny-depp-disney-indian-stereotypes-and-white-film-indians-149841 . July 15, 2013. dead. Yet [Disney] has the gall and audacity to knowingly cast a non-Native person in the role of an established Native character. ... American Indians in Film and Television's argument is not so much with Johnny Depp, a charlatan at his best, as it is with the machinations of Disney proper. The controversy that will haunt this endeavor and ultimately cause its demise at the box office is the behind-the-scenes concerted effort and forced manipulation by Disney to attempt to sell Johnny Depp as an American Indian. American Indians, as assimilated and mainstream as they may be today, remain adamantly resistant to anyone who falsely claims to be one of theirs..
  81. Web site: Moore . Nohemi M. . May 15, 2022 . Johnny Depp's History of Racism and Broken Promises to Native Americans . June 21, 2022 . Eight Tribes. December 6, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20221206205551/https://eighttribes.org/johnny-depps-history-of-racism-and-broken-promises-to-native-americans/. dead. While promoting The Lone Ranger, Depp was made an honorary son by LaDonna Harris, a member of the Comanche Nation. Although now an honorary member of his family, he is not a member of any tribe..
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