Pretendian

 ( Literary Forgeries ) 

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, 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 Sixties Scoop.

Skeptics of the "Alleged Pretendians List" have contested statements about its reliability and countered by questioning the methodology and motivations of Keeler, in one case releasing a signed statement via Last Real Indians accusing her of exploiting the issue of Indigenous fraud - which they acknowledged "had long been a problem in Indian Country" - for her own personal agenda. Signees felt Keeler's methods were not an appropriate way to address the problem and instead argued Keeler was weaponizing "lateral violence, colonial trauma, and colonial recognition" against people she disagreed with or had prior disputes with. Keeler was also accused of promoting herself as a "self-appointed arbiter of Indian identity", with the statement eventually requesting that Keeler "respect the rights of every tribe, and urban inter-tribal communities to determine their own people, kin and citizenship".

Lakota journalist Alexandra Watson wrote in "Who made the Pretendian?" for NtvTwt.com that an article she'd written was used for reference without her consent. Noting that she was not a genealogist and that the information she'd originally posted was publicly available, Watson felt her writing shouldn't be used as an endorsement nor support of the List. Watson later questioned, after discussing the history of Pretendians and lack of accountability they had beyond an apology in most cases, whether the List truly effected change in a society with "fake Natives being hired and passed off as Natives in Hollywood today no matter how many websites or how many Natives might speak up." She did not dismiss the need for Pretendians to be exposed - noting she and other Native writers and sites did so - but distinguished her methodology by noting "there is a lot of information to consider and reasons not to support the person" and felt that the process used to form the Alleged Pretendians List needed to be reconsidered and planned beyond merely listing people.

Other journalists have echoed similar concerns about the "Alleged Pretendians List's" accuracy and effect on the sovereignty of tribes. Northern Cheyenne journalist Angelina Newsom wrote in an op-ed for Powwows.com that Keeler had questioned the enrollment of the Native politician Ben Nighthorse Campbell and included him in her research, despite Campbell being a member of the federally-recognized tribe. target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Alt URL Newsom stated that it was unclear whether Keeler "reached out to Northern Cheyenne tribal officials" before making the decision and that at the time of writing, Newsom stated Keeler had not removed Campbell's name from the list. Newsom accused Keeler of lacking proper documentation, possible bias, as well as using Ancestry.com records in part of her research, and warned that the publishing of private information could also "negatively impact the actual Native folks listed as relatives and in-laws." Newsom argued in the closing of her article that tribes should be in charge of investigating citizenship claims, claiming that Keeler's method -which Newsom believed implicated people who were verifiably Native- wasn't "safe for Indian Country nor should it be the standard".

Métis author Chris La Tray, a member of the Little Shell Tribe, expressed his own thoughts about the debate after reportedly gaining access to the list, in an article published on the online publication Culture Study. Noting that he "felt greasy" after viewing it, La Tray mentioned it was unclear how individuals he recognized were selected, nor who had nominated them. La Tray cited the inclusion of Thomas King as an example of this: "Why is he here? Who said he's a pretendian? And where on this list is it detailed the steps made to put him here in the first place?" While La Tray stated that he respected Keeler's previous work and also felt the cause was needed, La Tray nonetheless considered the list to be " bullshit". He stated that "throwing a list of names out there for people to eyeball and gossip" /ref>

Academics Kim TallBear (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville), 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. 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. Discussing her research, she wrote for the Globe and Mail:

In Canada in 2024, the government funding Tri-agency (including the NSERC, SSHRC, and CIHR) announced an 8-month pilot project to ensure that grants, awards, and jobs intended for Indigenous people go to those that are genuinely Indigenous.

• Ward Churchill (born 1947) – A professor of ethnic studies and political activist, Churchill built his career on his claims of Indigenous identity that were unsupported by membership in any tribe or by later genealogical research that failed to find any evidence of Indigenous ancestry.Richardson, Valerie. "Report on Conclusion of Preliminary Review in the Matter of Professor Ward Churchill". University of Colorado at Boulder. 2005. Retrieved July 26, 2009.Brown, Thomas. "Is Ward Churchill the New Michael Bellesiles?" George Mason University's History News Network. March 14, 2005. Retrieved July 26, 2009.
• Qwo-Li Driskill (Paul Edward Driskill) (born 1975) – Former Associate Professor at Oregon State University claiming to be Cherokee, Lenape (Delaware), Osage Nation, Lumbee and African. Driskill resigned from their position in September 2024, after accusations of academic misconduct and misrepresentation of their ethnicity.
• Nadya Gill and Amira Gill (twins born 1998) – In September 2023, the twins, along with their mother, were charged with two counts of fraud for posing as adopted Inuit children in order to benefit from the 1993 Nunavut Agreement, which entitles Inuit students to benefits and scholarships, which the twins erroneously claimed. Before their deception was uncovered, the twins had been awarded over $158,000 in benefits. In February 2024, charges were dropped against the twins after their mother pled guilty to one count of fraud. In June 2024, the twins' mother was sentenced to 3 years in prison.
• Elizabeth Hoover – University of California Berkeley professor and Native food sovereignty activist with documented childhood identification as Native and involvement within Native culture. Following questions about her ancestry, Hoover conducted her own family genealogical research. She then announced in 2022 that she was not Native American, adding that she had been mistaken about her ancestry. Hoover did not resign from her university position.
• Kay LeClaire – Madison, Wisconsin-based co-owner of "an Indigenous and queer art and tattoo space" who held a paid residency at the University of Wisconsin. LeClaire, who has also gone by the name Kathryn Le Claire and the self-chosen spirit name nibiiwakamigkwe, misrepresented themself as two spirit and was paid to educate students and LGBTQ audiences about food sovereignty, Indigiqueer, and the dangers of cultural appropriation. They were briefly a member of a state task force focused on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. LeClaire has since resigned and the tattoo collective has apologized to the community for the harm that they say was done by LeClaire, stating that they have cut all ties with LeClaire.
• Susan Taffe Reed Former director of Dartmouth College's Native American Program. Fired in 2015 "after tribal officials and alumni accused her of misrepresenting herself as an American Indian".Pierce, Meghan, " "Dartmouth criticized for Native American Studies hire" , New Hampshire Union Leader, September 19, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
• Andrea Smith Smith built a career as a scholar, author and activist based on her claim that she is a Cherokee woman. Despite many articles and statements by Cherokee people and genealogists stating she has no Cherokee heritage or citizenship, she has never retracted her claim. Smith has been employed as a professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at University of California, Riverside. In August 2023, the university announced that she would resign from the university as an Emeritus professor in August 2024, due to charges that she "made fraudulent claims to Native American identity in violation of the Faculty Code of Conduct provisions concerning academic integrity".
• Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond (born 1963)Doug Cuthand, "Faking Indigenous ancestry hurts First Nations causes", Saskatoon StarPhoenix, November 25, 2022. A lawyer, academic, and former judge, for whom false claims to Indigenous ancestry were alleged by the CBC News in 2022. She was dismissed from a university faculty position, and various honors and awards that she had received were revoked or relinquished, including all her 11 honorary degrees and the Order of Canada. However, in 2024, the Law Society of British Columbia released a report which stated that DNA analysis indicated that Turpell-Lafond most likely had recent Indigenous ancestry, while confirming she had made numerous "mischaracterizations" in her credentials.

• Mona Darkfeather (1882–1977)
• Chief Thundercloud (1899–1955)
• "Iron Eyes" Cody (1904–1999) Born Espera Oscar de Corti, and later becoming known as "The Crying Indian", this Italian-American actor is most well known for his appearance in a 1970's anti-littering PSA. Cody pretended to be from various tribes and denied his Italian heritage for the rest of his life.
• Johnny Depp (born 1963) This actor has claimed both Muscogee and Cherokee descent on numerous occasions, including when cast as Tonto in the 2013 film The Lone Ranger, but has no documented Native ancestry, is not a citizen in any tribe, and is regarded as "a non-Indian" and a "pretendian" by Native leaders. During the promotion for The Lone Ranger LaDonna Harris, a member of the Comanche Nation, adopted Depp, making him her honorary son, but not a member of any tribe.
• Michelle Latimer – Canadian actress and film director whose claims of Indigenous ancestry and tribal membership have been questioned by the CBC, the Globe and Mail and other media. Latimer has said that her identification as Indigenous rested on the oral history of her maternal grandfather. A previously commissioned show was cancelled by CBC after Latimer's misrepresentations were made public. Latimer later produced genealogical records to bolster her claim that she was a 'non-status Algonquin'; these claims were rejected by tribal leaders. However, one genealogical researcher has found that Latimer had two Indigenous ancestors dating from 1644,Ka'nhehsí:io Deer and Jorge Barrera, "Award-winning filmmaker Michelle Latimer's Indigenous identity under scrutiny". CBC News Indigenous, December 17, 2020. while others have found that Latimer has Indigenous ancestry from both her paternal and maternal lines that originate from a "historical community of Baskatong that was known for its Algonquin and Métis population." In 2020, Latimer apologized for having claimed historical roots to the Kitigan Zibi community.Barry Hertz, "'I made a mistake': Canadian filmmaker Michelle Latimer addresses Indigenous ancestry questions". The Globe and Mail, December 17, 2020.
• Sacheen Littlefeather (1946–2022) – Born Maria Louise Cruz, this actress took the stage in Plains Indians attire at the Academy Awards to decline the 1972 Best Actor award on behalf of Marlon Brando for The Godfather, on being hired by him to do so and advocate for Native American rights. Subsequently presenting herself throughout her life as a White Mountain Apache and Yaqui as she had portrayed on-stage, who had grown up in a hovel without a toilet, her sisters and others later said her father was a Mexican-American of Spanish descent with no known ancestors who had a tribal identity in Mexico, while her mother was of French, German, and Dutch descent. An investigation by the Navajo writer-activist Jacqueline Keeler and her team, and reviewed by academics prior to publication, revealed no apparent ties to any tribe in the United States.
• Heather Rae (born 1966) Born Heather Rae Bybee, having falsely claimed to be Cherokee, Rae became a prominent producer in Hollywood. She ran the Indigenous program at the Sundance Institute from 1996 to 2001, producing a number of projects centered around Native American experiences including the Oscar-nominated Frozen River (2008). She serves on the Academy of Motion Pictures' Indigenous alliance, which "recognizes self-identification" for Native American identity. She has supported the casting of pretendians in Native roles as well as leading the charge for an apology by the Academy to fellow pretendian Sacheen Littlefeather. She is an adviser for IllumiNative, which says they are a "Native woman-led racial and social justice organization dedicated to increasing the visibility of—and challenging the narrative about—Native peoples". The Cherokee Nation has stated that Rae is not a citizen of their nation and she did not receive funding for the film Fancy Dance (2023), which they funded. Research by the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds into her public family records shows that Rae's family identified as white across multiple records and no documented ties to a tribal community.
• Buffy Sainte-Marie (born 1941) Born Beverly Jean Santamaria, Sainte-Marie is an American musician who has said since 1963 that she has Cree Indigenous Canadian roots. A 2023 investigation by CBC News featured her birth certificate, which stated that she had been born in Stoneham, Massachusetts of European ancestry and that the couple who she had asserted were her adoptive parents were in fact her biological parents. In the 1960s, she had performed at a powwow and falsely claimed that she might be the long-lost daughter of a Piapot First Nation family; a couple she met there then adopted her into their family and still claim her to this day. For about 60 years, she built a career in part on her claimed Canadian and Native heritage. She was introduced as a regular character on the Sesame Street television series in 1975, at which time she stated that "Cree Indians are my tribe, and we live in Canada". The CBC investigation concluded that "her account of her ancestry has been a shifting narrative, full of inconsistencies and inaccuracies".
• Kelsey Asbille (born 1991) - Born Kelsey Asbille Chow, Kelsey is an American actress known for her roles in Wind River and Yellowstone, faced controversy regarding her claims of Native American heritage, particularly her claim of Eastern Band of Cherokee descent. While Asbille previously stated she was Taiwanese, British, and Eastern Band Cherokee, the tribe stated they have no record of her membership or Cherokee ancestry citing a lack of enrollment records or documentation supporting her claims. An inquiry from actor-producer Sonny Skyhawk prompted the tribe's statement, which stated that Asbille was not an enrolled member and that they had no evidence of her lineage. Asbille had previously told The New York Times that her Cherokee heritage was "in her blood." This discrepancy led to questions about her portrayal of Native American characters.

• Joseph Boyden (born 1966) A Canadian novelist, Boyden has claimed Mi'kmaq, Métis, Nipmuc, and Ojibway heritage. He registered with the Ontario Métis Aboriginal Association, also known as the Woodland Métis Tribe. In January 2017, Boyden said he had erroneously identified himself as Mi'kmaq in the past and that he was a "white kid with native roots".
• Asa Earl Carter (1925–1979) Published using the pseudonym Forrest Carter as a supposed Cherokee. The founder of a Ku Klux Klan paramilitary group and a white supremacy politician under his birth name, he used his pseudonym to write popular books including and The Education of Little Tree. Also known for co-authoring George Wallace's tagline, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever".
• Grey Owl (1888–1938) An Englishman born as Archibald Stansfeld Belaney who became a woodsman and wrote books and gave lectures as an activist primarily on environmental and conservationism issues, but was exposed after his death as having falsely claimed his Indigenous identity.
• Roxy Gordon – an American writer and musician who identified as being of white, Choctaw, and Assiniboine ancestry. A report from Texas Monthly alleged that he was a pretendian, concluding that he had no Native American heritage. The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma has stated that Gordon was not enrolled with the tribe. Gordon's son John Calvin has stated that he has found no evidence that his father had Choctaw heritage.
• Jamake Highwater (1931–2001)
  Joane Nagel (1997). 9780195120639, Oxford University Press. . ISBN 9780195120639
  Hoxie, Frederick E. Encyclopedia of North American Indians: Native American History, Culture, and Life From Paleo-Indians to the Present. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006: 191-2. (retrieved through Google Books, July 26, 2009)
  Jace Weaver (2001). 9780806133522, University of Oklahoma Press. . ISBN 9780806133522
  A prolific American writer and journalist born as Jackie Marks who passed as Cherokee and used Native American culture as his writing theme, although he was actually of eastern European Jewish ancestry.
• Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance (1890–1932)
  Eva Marie Garroutte (2025). 9780520229778, University of California Press. ISBN 9780520229778
  The persona of the African-American journalist, writer, and film actor Sylvester Clark Long, who falsely claimed Blackfoot and Cherokee heritage.
• Brooke Medicine Eagle (born 1943)
  Ronald L. Grimes (2025). 9780520236752, University of California Press. ISBN 9780520236752
  the pseudonym of Brooke Edwards, an American author, singer-songwriter, and teacher specializing in a New Age Plastic shaman of Native American religion.
• Nasdijj (born 1950)Italie, Hillel, "Identity of Indian Memoirist is Disputed", Associated Press, ABCNews.Go.Com, January 25, 2006. Retrieved July 30, 2006.Maul, Kimberly, "Agent Confirms Author Nasdijj and Gay-Erotica Writer Timothy Barrus Are Same Person", The Book Standard, January 27, 2006. Retrieved July 30, 2006. The pseudonym of writer Tim Barrus, an American author and social worker best known for having published three "Fake memoir" between 2000 and 2004 while presenting himself as a Navajo.
• Red Thunder Cloud (1919–1996) Born Cromwell Ashbie Hawkins West, also known as Carlos Westez, a singer, dancer, storyteller, and field researcher who was promoted as the last fluent speaker of the Catawba language, but was later revealed to have learned what little he knew of the language from books and to have been of African American heritage.
• Sat-Okh (1920–2003), also known as Stanisław Supłatowicz, was a writer, artist, and soldier who served during World War II, who claimed to be of Polish people and Shawnee descent. His origins were heavily disputed.Katarzyna Krępulec: Stanisław Supłatowicz. Niezwykła biografia Sat-Okha, czyli jak się zostaje legendą, UMCS, Lublin 2004.
• Margaret Seltzer (born 1975) The writer of a "memoir" of her supposed experiences as a half–Native American foster child and gang member in South Central Los Angeles was later revealed to have completely fabricated the story after growing up in an affluent neighborhood with no Native American background or heritage.
• Hyemeyohsts Storm (real name Charles Storm or Arthur C. Storm, born 1931 or 1935) is an author of German ancestry variously claiming Cheyenne, Sioux, Crow people, and Métis ancestry, but has not provided credible evidence for these claims.
  (2010). 9781438120874, Infobase Publishing. . ISBN 9781438120874
  He is considered by many to be a plastic shaman,
  (1983). 9780826306722, University of New Mexico Press. . ISBN 9780826306722
  and actual Cheyenne consider his purporting to present Cheyenne religion in his works as blasphemous, exploitative, disrespectful, stereotypical, and racist. When challenged, he presented a fraudulent Cheyenne enrollment card to his publisher, Harper and Row. Historians have criticized Seven Arrows as falsifying and desecrating the traditions of the Cheyenne due to the numerous errors in his descriptions. He is known for inventing the medicine wheel symbol in his book, Seven Arrows (originally published as non-fiction but later reclassified as fiction in a settlement between the publisher and the Cheyenne tribe).
  (2008). 9781552662670, Fernwood Pub Co Ltd. ISBN 9781552662670
• Erika T. Wurth is a novelist who self-identifies as being of Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee descent whose novel White Horse was reviewed favorably in The New York Times. Native American activists have alleged that Wurth is white and has no Native American ancestry.

• Kaya Jones (born 1984) A singer and model who joined the National Diversity Coalition for Trump as their "Native American Ambassador"; she falsely claimed to be Apache.
• Kevin Klein – Manitoba politician whose ongoing claims of Metis ancestry were debunked in a July 31, 2023, piece by the CBC.
• Sherri RollinsWinnipeg City Councillor whose ongoing claims of being "...a proud Huron-Wendat woman" were refuted in a CBC article. as well as on APTN News, both published on November 23, 2018.
• Danielle Smith – Premier of Alberta who claimed to have a Cherokee great-great-grandmother who was a victim of the Trail of Tears. An investigation from APTN National News found no evidence that Smith's ancestors were Indigenous or victims of the Trail of Tears.
• Elizabeth Warren (born 1949) A U.S. Senator and presidential candidate who said she grew up believing she had Cherokee and Delaware ancestry due to family members saying so, and then claimed such heritage publicly. After her heritage was called into question, she attempted to support her claim by releasing a video with DNA analysis, but her DNA claims were rejected by the Cherokee Nation, which formally requires a documented lineage. Then-Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. (who became Principal Chief of the Nation in the following year) commented, "Using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong". Warren eventually expressed regret and apologized for "claiming American Indian heritage".
• Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond (born 1963)A Canadian lawyer, former judge, and advocate who falsely claimed Treaty Indian status as a Cree member.

• Gina Adams (born 1965) A visual artist and assistant professor at Emily Carr University, Adams claims White Earth Ojibwe and Lakota people ancestry, and that her grandfather lived on the White Earth Indian Reservation and was removed at age eight to attend Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which closed in 1918. Genealogists reported that Adams' grandfather "was a white man named Albert Theriault, who was born in Massachusetts to French-Canadian parents." Adams has also claimed that her great-great-grandfather was Ojibwe chief Wabanquot (1830–1898), a signer of the 1867 federal treaty with the Chippewa of the Mississippi. She has shown no evidence supporting any of these claims. She claims to be only a descendant, not an enrolled tribal member, so she and her gallery have so far successfully evaded the US Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990.
• Jimmie Durham (1940–2021) An artist and activist who claimed one-quarter Cherokee descent by blood and to have grown up in a Cherokee-speaking community, Durham exhibited his work in the U.S. as Native American art until the 1990 passage of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act (which prohibits false claims of Native production of arts and crafts that are offered for sale). He subsequently left the United States and continued to falsely claim Cherokee status in European exhibitions. He had formerly been an organizer and central committee member for the American Indian Movement, and worked as the chief administrator for the International Indian Treaty Council. He was found to have "no known ties to any Cherokee community" and to be "neither enrolled nor eligible for citizenship" in any of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes.
• Yeffe Kimball (1906–1978)Anthes, Bill. "Becoming Indian: The Self-Invention of Yeffe Kimball". Native Moderns: American Indian Painting, 1940–1960. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006: 117–141. . An artist who claimed to be Osage Nation. Born Effie Goodman, under her assumed identity she made art that she misrepresented as Native American, and also engaged in Native American political activism.
• cheyanne turions An artist and art curator who claimed an Indigenous Canadian identity for grant applications until "outed" in 2021, Turions later stated that she had investigated her family's history and that as a result "I changed my self-identification to settler," and resigned from her position as a curator.

• Edgar Laplante (1888-1944), an American-born French-Canadian con man and actor known for his .

• 1896 Applications for Enrollment, Five Tribes (Overturned)
• Australian Aboriginal identity
• Cherokee descent
• Cherokee Nation Truth in Advertising for Native Art, a law passed by the Cherokee Nation about marketing products as Indian-made
• Eatock v Bolt, an Australian case involving writings that suggested false claims of Aboriginal descent
• Eastern Métis
• Guion Miller Roll
• Federal Law for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican Peoples and Communities
• Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990
• Indian arts and crafts laws
• Índia pega no laço
• List of organizations that self-identify as Native American tribes
• Native American identity in the United States
• Native Americans in German popular culture
• Passing (racial identity)
• Plastic shaman
• Racial misrepresentation
• People who self-identify as being of Indigenous descent
• Reel Injun A 2009 Canadian documentary film about the portrayal of Native Americans in Hollywood films
• Qalipu First Nation
• The Pretendians, a Canadian television documentary film

• Browder, Laura. Slippery Characters: Ethnic Impersonators and American Identities. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.
• Dean Chavers. " Around the Campfire: Fake Indians". Native Times, 2013.
• Foster, John Wilson. "Pretendians and the Crisis of the Self". The Critic, June 4, 2023.
• Gaudry, Adam. " Communing with the Dead: The 'New Métis,' Métis Identity Appropriation, and the Displacement of Living Métis Culture.". American Indian Quarterly, 42, no. 2 (2018): pp. 162–90
• Leroux, Darryl. Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity. University of Manitoba Press, 2019.
• Leroux, Darryl. " Inventing an Indigenous People in Algonquin Territory". Canadian Journal of History, vol 56, pp. 71–72, 2021.
• Leroux, Darryl. " Self-made Métis". Maisonneuve, 2018.
• Debbie Reese. Native? Or, not? A Resource List. American Indians in Children's Literature, February 2021.
• Robinson, Rowland. Settler Colonialism + Native Ghosts: An Autoethnographic Account of the Imaginarium of Late Capitalist/Colonialist Storytelling, "Chapter 4. Interlude: Community, Pretendians, & Heartbreak". Waterloo, Ontario: University of Waterloo, 2020.
• Circe Sturm. Becoming Indian: The Struggle Over Cherokee Identity in the Twenty-First Century. Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research, 2010.
• Kim TallBear. Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science. University of Minnesota Press, 2013.
• Tuck, Eve; Yang, K. Wayne. " Decolonization is not a metaphor". Moves to Innocence I: Settler Nativism, pp. 10–13. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 2012.

• APTN Investigates: Cowboys and Pretendians APTN National News television report featuring many of the examples in this article, notably those in film
• The Convenient "Pretendian", Canada Land podcast
• Ghost Warrior Society, an anti-Pretendian task force based in Canada
• "Indigenous 'Race Shifting' Red Flags: A Quick Primer for Reporters and Others", by Kim TallBear (Sisseton-Wahpeton)
• "Playing Pretendian", Code Switch, NPR
• Pretendians and Their Impact on Métis Identity in the Academy - University of Saskatchewan panel discussion including Maria Campbell (Métis) - December 10, 2021
• The Pretendian Problem - Indian Country Today video report on pretendians and fake Métis - January 28, 2021
• Raceshifting, resource on Eastern Euro-Canadians and Euro-Americans posting as Indigenous peoples
• target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Unsettling Genealogies Conference - A Forum on Pseudo Indians, Race-Shifting, Pretendians, and Self-Indigenization in Media, Arts, Politics and the Academy - Series of eight panel presentations in Spring 2022, at Michigan State University.
• Unmasking Pseudo Indians: Opening Remarks at by George Cornell (Ojibwe), Ben Barnes (Shawnee), Kim TallBear (Sisseton-Wahpeton) - March 21, 2022
• Teillet Report on Indigenous Identity Fraud - October 2022 report for the University of Saskatchewan
• Tribal Alliance Against Frauds, an intertribal anti-fraud task force