Just Who Is A Pretendian?
Is it a legitimate fraud or a disagreement on who counts?
When the topic over who or what qualified a person as a Pretendian first came out in 2021 I found myself not concerned with the chatter because I didn’t think that it impacted me, or so I thought. I thought the issue with Pretendians was someone who falsely claimed to be Indigenous when they had no proof of such ancestry, and then a friend made me aware that there were those out there seeking to call even legitimate descendants Pretendians where they would have been previously called Metis before the 2002 MNC definition change that sought to define Metis as only those of whom had descended from the Red River.
In a new article from Analyst News called The “Pretendians” exploiting Indigenous communities through identity fraud” by Daniyah Yaqoob, a non Indigenous writer pulls voices from the Indigenous community that are already known for labelling those of legitimate descent as Pretendians. Pretendian documentary filmmaker Drew Hayden Taylor is quoted as saying. “I feel threatened by [Pretendians], because they’re trying to take our identity. They’re trying to become our leaders, our thinkers, our influencers.”
“I feel threatened by [Pretendians], because they’re trying to take our identity,”
Well Mr. Taylor, I feel threatened by voices within the Indigenous community that seek to label those like me with similarly extracted descent to the Red River Metis as a Pretendian simply because my family were private and isolated rather than public about our Indigenous heritage. My family had customs and traditions that we shared privately over the generations, family knowledge and stories that were passed down within the family as the years went by.
When the conversations started to label those like me who’s families hid their Indigenous identity from the public but maintained it privately as Pretendians committing fraud I challenged my own family history against the accusations being levied against those within similar stories to mine. My family maintained our Indigenous heritage but we never went and got validation or confirmation of it, it was simply something that we always said was a part of our story here on Turtle Island. I found myself on a journey of self discovery wherein I dug through my family history to find if I could get community acceptance for who my family was and what claims we made. It wasn’t until I had an Elder from the Anishinaabe tell me that I was in fact Anishinaabe that I even allowed myself to identify as Indigenous, because after all this was what the Indigenous community said determined belonging and how one is able to define legitimate Indigenous ancestry is it not?
However, Taylor admits that he himself doesn’t have the answer to how someone is or isn’t a Pretendian going on to say “I don’t know how you say this person is Indigenous and this person isn’t… Assuming it’s a combination of nature and nurture, it’s a combination of blood and how you were raised.” Which in my case is my truth, because I am a lineal Anishinaabe descendant, and I was raised with particularly Indigenous cultural practices infused with the rest of my heritage and culture as an urban Canadian growing up in the late 90’s early 2000’s. When I approached an Elder amongst the Anishinaabe who could validate if my family history was true all I asked for was the truth about who we were, and I was adamant that if I could be of service in anyway to the Anishinaabe that I would be to make up for how my family had hid as white people when it was the easier thing to do. Indigenous ancestry comes with a dodem, our clan, and we must be willing to live up to that responsibility if we are to claim our Indigenous identity. Living up to your family and nation’s history are big shoes to fill, especially when people know so much about you.
It is with that in mind that I find myself disappointed in the great grand niece of Louis Riel, Jean Teillet. She along with the Red River supported by the Manitoba Metis Federation have been loudly telling everyone who gets to call themselves Metis ever since 2002, which is odd given how much they celebrate the Powley decision that would now no longer even fit their own definition of what qualifies a person as Metis.
Yaqoob pulls opinions from Teillet’s report going on to say that
“identity has now become a contested term, a subjective notion with additional legal, political, social and psychological dimensions. But Teillet rejects this idea: “Indigenous identity exists only if it is in relation to cultural ancestors and to existing Indigenous societies,” she writes, explaining that reliance on subjective self-identification and “tenuous ancestral connections” is what allowed identity fraud to flourish. Indigenous identity is incomplete, Teillet emphasizes, unless the community also acknowledges an individual as one of their own.”
The scathing tone with which Teillet characterizes other mixed Indigenous Canadians relationships with their ancestors as “tenuous” when she herself is directly going against the vision that Riel had for all mixed Indigenous Canadians (aka Metis) to be cared for by the government is a bit rich.
Many in the First Nations community in Canada feel that there are many amongst the Metis who have co-opted the stories and trauma of the First Nations to boost up their own claims. Who are we to believe in this modern game of identity politics? Are the Metis guilty of identity fraud? Are those the Metis claim are guilty of identity fraud no more Indigenous than the Metis themselves?
https://twitter.com/wovokanarchy1/status/1673340421009813505?s=20
Legitimate identity fraud should absolutely be called out in every arena that it plays out in, but calling those of legitimate descent Pretendians when their ancestry is just as removed as yours is wrong. If Indigenous identity is incomplete “unless the community also acknowledges an individual as one of their own” what is to stop the First Nations from saying the First Nations community of Canada no longer recognizes the Metis if they continue their land claims to over 20%+ of Canada?