Since I was young, I have deeply valued, honored, and even boasted about being Cherokee. I am a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Throughout my life, when I have proudly claimed “I am Cherokee,” people have met me with questions and phrases all too familiar to Indigenous people: “How much Cherokee are you?”; “Do you get a check from the government?”; “I didn’t know Cherokees could have blue eyes”; “My great-great-grandmother was a Cherokee Princess”; “I have Cherokee blood too!”
For a long time, I responded to these questions by flashing my Tribal ID, gnashing my teeth, and trying to educate these people that not all Cherokees look alike, as is true for the Canadians, Germans, or any people hailing from one nation. With encouragement from my always braver and bolder older sister, I stopped flashing my Tribal ID. I now respond to questions about how much Cherokee I am by stating, “I am Cherokee enough for my nation to recognize me as a citizen.”
As I began my graduate school journey, I sought out Indigenous ethicists, gender theorists, ontologists, metaphysicians, personal identity theorists, feminists, historians, and activist writers to supplement the overwhelmingly white and cis-male-dominated literature. However, my efforts were often met with the fact that academia has held, uplifted, promoted, and made space for many, many pretendians. Much to my continued shock and horror, it seems as though these pretendians more often than not claim to be Cherokee.
A pretendian is a non-Indigenous person who falsely claims to be Indigenous, to have Indigenous ancestry, to be from a specific nation, or who misrepresent themselves as a member of an Indigenous community, especially for personal, monetary, and exploitative gain. Enrollment, citizenship, descendants, and overall Indian status are sensitive topics for many native people, especially because enrollment, status, and blood quantum are decidedly colonial constructs that have also caused damage to Indigenous identity. However, despite the colonial history of status, enrollment, and citizenship, it is how most contemporary Native nations within the United States operate and exert sovereignty. I am not here to question the validity of any person’s identity, only to point out that the number of people who self-identified as Native American on the U.S. Census has jumped 86% from 2010 to 2020.
Furthermore, there was a 45% increase in Americans self-identifying as Cherokees on the census from 2010 to 2020 (it is essential to note that during this period, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma has recognized the rights of Freedman descendants and citizens). However, of the total 1.5 million Americans claiming to be Cherokee only about 6% (92,542) identify themselves as enrolled citizens. The combined citizenship numbers of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians was about 450,000 in 2020, creating a large and laughable discrepancy between tribal citizens and pretend Cherokees. (Wado to Dr. Daniel Justice, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, for crunching these numbers.) Although this is not a uniquely Cherokee issue Cherokee, pretendians seem to get a disproportional amount of attention in scholarly and public spaces.
From politicians like Elizabeth Warren, entertainers like Johnny Cash, and scholars like Justine and Andrea Smith and Qwo-Li Driskill, there is a shocking amount of people who claim to be Cherokee, or at least “part Cherokee,” who simply are not Cherokee. Members of the Cherokee community also recently witnessed the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association rescind one of its awards for the Best Subsequent Book Prize for Maylei Blackwell’s book. Maylei Blackwell, like many others, was at best misrepresenting her identity as a Cherokee and, at worst, falsely claiming to be a Cherokee. Michael Lambert, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Professor of Anthropology, recently stated during an email discussion with Think Tsalagi members about Blackwell and Driskill, “We will never know who missed out on opportunities, visibility, or this award because of her actions. What troubles me is that the harm is not always abstract. It is real. It is traumatizing. I have seen it derail careers.”
When the works of pretend Cherokees are given space and promoted, especially in academia, Cherokee citizens’ voices are silenced and passed over. I recall reading Making Space for Indigenous Feminism, the second edition, edited by Joyce Green, and seeing that Andrea Smith was there, taking up space instead of making space for Indigenous feminists. I couldn’t help but recognize the irony. I wonder how many Cherokee scholars were denied space that Smith took up. Further, I wonder how her work and reputation have affected Indigenous Feminism at large. Some grace is deserved to the editor and publisher of the edition as it came out in 2007; however, questions and demands from the Cherokee Nation to clarify her status have existed since 2007.
In more recent history, Driskill, who has identified themself as two-spirit and Cherokee, has also admitted that they are not an enrolled citizen of any federally recognized tribal nation. As a result, Driskill has taken up space that a two-spirit Cherokee could have held and opened space for other two-spirit Cherokee scholars. Scholars like Driskill and Smith also seem to have little to no issue with damaging the identities of legitimate Indigenous scholars who worked with them, vouched for them, nor the Indigenous students they mentor under false pretenses. Indeed, as Cherokees find out they have been working with, advocating for, and uplifting pretend Cherokees, the damage goes beyond their career and causes complicated feelings of guilt, anger, and distrust. Daniel Justice, Cherokee Nation, Professor of English and Critical Indigenous Studies and Distinguished University Scholar, described his experience of working with pretend Cherokees over email: “Over the years I’ve had the unhappy experience of watching the heritage claims of numerous friends and colleagues completely unravel along with many other examples of extractive, abusive, and even unhinged behavior of entitled claimants, and not only did I experience the sadness and betrayal of those revelations, I saw the damage they’d inflicted and had to face my own complicity in supporting them for so long.”
As a graduate student member of the Think Tsalagi: A Cherokee-centric Place by Cherokee Scholars and Educators, I am aware of many talented Cherokee scholars who deserve to have their work elevated, invested in, and take up space.
Knowledge about pretendians and how they operate has been around for as long as Native Americans have existed in the political, legal, and public spheres. Vine Deloria Jr. makes note of his experiences with pretendians in Custer Died for Your Sins, originally published in 1969. So, although the phenomena of pretendians is not new, the issue is gaining more attention than ever. This could be due to the increased visibility of Native people, and with the increased visibility, more Americans desire to claim Indigenous heritage.
In times like these, pretend Cherokees take up space that real Cherokee scholars could hold. They undermine political, legal, and cultural sovereignty, and they put Cherokee citizens in a position where questioning their status seems reasonable. Falsely claiming Cherokee identity is not only disrespectful but also an act of disenfranchisement against the Cherokee people. Furthermore, such actions threaten and violate the sovereignty of the governments of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, all recognized at federal and international levels.
As sovereign nations, we hold our own elections, have our own governments, our own IDs (which are valid forms of ID for TSA, much like a passport), our own laws, and our own unique identities. In 2024, we mark one hundred years of the Cherokee (and all other Native people within the boundaries of the United States) being recognized as citizens of the United States. Because we are a sovereign nation of people, I and Cherokees like me are recognized as dual citizens of the United States and the Cherokee Nation, much like if you were a dual citizen of Canada, Ireland, Mexico, or Japan. When individuals falsely claim to be Cherokee, it is akin to falsely claiming to be Canadian. It is just weird; if the Canadian government would not claim you as a Canadian, why falsely claim to be Canadian?
Pretendians do not gain our history, struggles, joys, or our stories. But they may try to gain notoriety in the academic and public spheres. They monetize and commodify an identity and a history that is not theirs.
This is part of the Cherokee pretendians endemic that is so troubling to me as these claims spit in the face of revitalization in the pride of being Cherokee. There were generations of Cherokees who did not want to be identified as Cherokees, who were punished, prosecuted against, and harmed for being Cherokee. Our removal from our homelands through the Trail of Tears, land allotments from the Dawes Act, and the history of boarding schools are never far from the minds of contemporary Cherokees.
However, we resist being defined by the darkest moments in our history and continue the Indigenous tradition of resistance in our everyday lives. We are defined by the people who make up our great nation, our values, and our sovereignty. We are a strong people, and as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma is the largest Native nation, we have many things to take great pride in. Still, part of this pride comes from our shared history, our collective memories, knowing the challenges we have overcome, and how we continue to look forward to a future of prosperity and sovereignty.
Each and every time a new pretendian is revealed, my heart breaks because I know that somewhere, there is an Indigenous American who has their identity shaken. When it is another pretend Cherokee, I am equally angry and crushed because I also know that as I pursue my studies, there will be someone questioning me, my status, and my identity.
And I cannot say I blame those who may question me, as I have also become increasingly suspicious of anyone who claims to be Cherokee. I am now on the lookout more than ever before for the mythical “Cherokee Princesses” in the academy and everyday life. Perhaps worse still, I know more pretend Cherokees will continue to come out of the woodwork.
The Women in Philosophy series publishes posts on those excluded in the history of philosophy on the basis of gender injustice, issues of gender injustice in the field of philosophy, and issues of gender injustice in the wider world that philosophy can be useful in addressing. If you are interested in writing for the series, please contact the Series Editor Alida Liberman or the Associate Editor Elisabeth Paquette.
Delaney O'Connell
Delaney is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and a graduate student in the University at Buffalo’s Indigenous Studies Department. Her research interests include Indigenous onto-epistemologies, cognitive science, cultural property rights, Indigenous feminism, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). She holds a BS and an MA in philosophy from the University of Utah and the University at Buffalo, respectively. She dedicates her time to fostering an inclusive academic environment through her position as the vice-president of the Minorities and Philosophy chapter at UB, co-chairing the UB feminist reading group, and serving as a mentor through the Indigenous at UB program.
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