Reclaiming identity of first nations through language.
https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/opinions/want-native-identity-take/
Debating whether who is "playing indian", and by arguing, they are the only ones that lose.
people coming into the community to take something away and impose their own narrative on the culture.
no one wants to fight, but everyone has something to say.
All this discussion turns into banter and egos and not much thought.
All we're doing is categorizing, which is western thought.
"Ultimately, I think authenticity is nonexistent. I believe the self is formed and cultivated. My culture is not necessarily about my nation, but how my mother interpreted her teachings, and how she filtered it down to me. We convolute ourselves in a beautiful way, and I transformed myself away from the rigidity of my environment."
"Maybe if these people want to be Indian, we should let them be just that. They could relieve us at conferences by answering the racist questions white people ask. They could explain to white people why talking about spirit animals is offensive. They could do every odd job Native writers are forced to undertake. It’s exhausting, and maybe someday, if they have to deal with people stealing the identities they’ve stolen from us, they’ll finally understand."
Author Joseph Boyden says he’s sorry for being ‘too vocal on many indigenous issues’
Boyden also addresses the issue of his indigenous identity, describing himself as a “white kid from Willowdale with native roots” and using his oft-repeated refrain, “a small part of me is indigenous, but it’s a big part of who I am.”
https://lastrealindians.com/native-identity-a-discourse/
Don’t get me wrong- blood ties are crucial to Native identity. Blood is ancestry. Even bloodlines do not fully explain Native identity though, because traditionally, Tribes allowed for the adoption of non-blood members. Members who originated with other Tribes, or even non-Natives, could be absorbed into Tribes via marriage or adoption; but these events weren’t in name only- as we’ve seen occur with celebrities who are suddenly and rather inexplicably adopted by Tribes today. Originally, anyone who became part of a Tribe learned that Tribe’s culture, language, and practiced their sacred ceremonies. They lived and worked in that Native community, and played an active role as a Tribal member.
Besides blood ties, Native identity is firmly anchored in tradition. Our cultural practices, our Tribal languages, our sacred rites, all define us.
Spirituality is also a significant attribute of all Native groups, regardless of whether a Native chooses to practice traditional ceremonies.
Besides being descended from and related by blood to one of the more than 566 tribal nations recognized by the US government, Natives today agree that blood quantum is not the sole determinate of Native identity: kinship is key, because no true Native is an island. We have grandparents and cousins, blood roots and homelands. Pretendians lack kinship ties to tribal people.
Others become Pretendians because they romanticize Native identity. This behavior can be dangerous, as with the plastic shamans who conduct ceremonies without knowing how to do so properly. People died, for instance, in a Pretendian Sedona “sweat lodge”. Native women are fetishized by “Pocahottie” imagery, as that can translate into acts of violence committed by men who’ve been conditioned to think we are only objects meant for sexual gratification. (One in three Native women are sexually assaulted in their lifetime.)