Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:30 — 51.7MB) | Embed
After a CBC investigation called her claimed Indigenous heritage into question, Canadian filmmaker Michelle Latimer resigned as director of the CBC-TV series “Trickster,” a show she co-created. The National Film Board also dropped its intention to distribute her film “Inconvenient Indian” and pulled it from a Sundance Film Festival screening. It’s the latest in a continuing series of prominent people who initially benefitted from their Indigenous identity but were forced to backtrack when those claims couldn’t be documented. We’ll hear about the latest incident and an effort to expose those who improperly cash in on Native heritage.
Guests:
Dr. Andrew Jolivette (Ishak Nation) – professor and department chair of ethnic studies, and director of Native American and Indigenous studies at the University of California-San Diego, and board president of the American Indian Cultural Center in San Francisco
Dr. Kim TallBear (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate) – Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience & Environment and Associate Professor at the University of Alberta
Jacqueline Keeler (Dakota and Diné) – writer and author of an upcoming book called “Standing Rock, the Bundy Movement, and the American Story of Occupation, Sovereignty, and the Fight for Sacred Lands”
Renee M. Chacon (Diné and Mexica)- youth program coordinator at Spirit of the Sun, co-founder of Womxn from the Mountain and Sahumadora of Danza Azteca\
Break 1 music: Ideal Dub (song) Casper Loma Da-Wa (artist) Honor the People (album)
Break 2 music: Igluvut (song) Quantum Tangle (artist) Shelter as We Go . . .(album)
Why oh why do non Native do this?!! It boggles my mind. I am looking for the tribe that my mom lived with as a child. She was Euro descent. My family honors our former native neighbors, and we don’t pretend to BE them! Keep standing up for your people.
What about genízaros/as of New Mexico and southern Colorado? Are they considered pretenders?
I think this is an important topic and I appreciate journalists and researchers who are gathering facts first, rather than targeting innocent as well as guilty through shotgun publication of unvetted lists. It is incumbent upon responsible journalists to gather their facts prior to dispersing accusations.
Tribal sovereignty should come first and foremost, as it is a Nation’s right to determine citizenship.
She does not have facts. She is picking people she doesn’t like, as a personal vendetta
That’s nonsense. I work with the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds and I’ve seen the documentation. Jacqueline does very thorough work. I’m aware of many of the folks on her list and they are absolute frauds.
This fake Indian list is important for many reasons. I have known many in my lifetime, I am a former journalist and the problem is disturbing both as an economic issue but of the greed of the European culture that not only stealing our lands and children is not enough, now it is our identities. Where were they when we were being murdered and our lands being stolen from us? I think we have to hold accountable all the academia, art world, grant makers, foundations and all other institutions for their hiring of fake Indians. A federal law needs to be created and a verified list of fake Indians needs to be available to all. Jobs, money, awards, prestige and our culture is at stake and we need to have everyone on board with eliminating fake identities.
You are working out of malice and Creator will NOT bless this. Karma is real sister and this will come back to you im ways you do not desire. You will get what you put out. Praying for you and smudging
I thank God for Jacqueline and all her diligent and discerning work. These frauds need to be stopped along with all their enablers. I’m praying for you too, Jacqueline. Keep up the good work! And how ridiculous was it that a fraud like Andrew Jolivette sat on this panel! LOL. CRAZY!
Stop deleting comments from people who don’t agree. I heard a Lakota elder put her in place. Why dont you talk about that.and talk about you being mixed blood Jackie…..and help do something to help our people.
Interesting that they interviewed Mr. Jolivette on his opinon of Fraudulent folks claiming to be American Indians when in fact his group is not a Federally recognized Nation, nor does his group have any primary historical documents that link their claimed tribe (Ishak Nation) to its “members” genealogy records.
Jeremy. Are you aware that your argument concedes literally all of our sovereignty and identity as Native people to the status bestowed on us by the genocidal force of our colonizers? Do you know how corrupt the Federal recognition process is for all indigenous people here? Can you see the anti-Blackness in how you chose to target Andrew – a Black Native person – for questioning his Native identity and not the non-Black California Native caller whose tribe is also not Federally recognized?
It is a similar issue for people who are phenotypically white who claim a Ishak (Attakapas) identity. They find out that great-grandma was 1/8 Ishak and suddenly start creating clan names. They are treated with equal skepticism. Others may have much stronger claims so it is hard to judge everyone by the same standard.
There is some irony in the fact that there is a history of intermarriage between Native Americans and French Canadians. So it could be presumed that someone like Latimer whose family has been in North America for over 300 years has other ancestors of at least partial Native American ancestry besides the distant clearly Native ancestors identified in her genealogy. At a time when some federally and state recognized tribes have lowered their blood quantum requirement to near Elizabeth Warren level and there is a resurgence in Metis identity among people previously thought of as only French Canadian it would seem that treatment of Latimer by some is overly harsh. Her mistake seems to lay in claiming a particular tribal identity rather than a generic Metis identity. But then people would fight and nitpick over the latter as well.
Pointing out the fact that Andrew doesn’t have a native bone in his body is not “anti-Black”. It’s a simple fact. And the woman in California actually belongs to a federally recognized tribe. Educate us, oh wise one. What would YOU do about the pretendían situation? Because it does exist and it’s huge.
I don’t believe that this show was long enough or formatted in a way that could adequately capture the complexity of the issues presented by its many speakers and callers. Not only does the topic deserve more time but listeners would have benefited from the speakers engaging with each other more. Nowhere was it mentioned that Dr. Jolivette has created an online petition to dispute the validity of the list that Keeler has created. That’s critical information for listeners to have in this discussion. Not giving Dr. Jolivette a chance to challenge Keeler’s the claims of helpfulness, fairness, etc of her list during the show was a huge oversight and prevented a much deeper and more pertinent critical analysis of the topic.
This discussion would also have been enriched by the perspective of our many relatives (many of whom are Black – eg see the Cherokee and Choctaw Freedmen) who are not able to be enrolled in our tribes due to white supremacist exclusionary practices instituted generations ago and ongoing genocidal blood quantum policies.
Keeler discussed the white people on her list that she has determined aren’t Native. But how many of the people on her list are Afro-indigenous? Why aren’t more non-Black Native people concerned for their disenrolled or unenrolled Black relatives and Black members of non-recognized tribes? How are we upholding white supremacy by making lists that target Afro-indigenous people for exclusion from our tribes and communities?
I agree, this was a missed opportunity for a deeper conversation. There also needs to be a lot more dialog around the issue of anti-Blackness in who gets called out on lists like this and who is being shut out of tribal enrollment.
I’ve came to understand that, you see if people are native or not. I mean I kinda understand, I hate when people say they are native when they aren’t. But the way I would go at it, is to see how close they are to their culture, Ik a lot of natives that are Close to their culture but don’t live on the rez. I live on my rezovation and do my cultural dances but I have no place to tell someone their not native if they don’t live on the Rez. My cousins dance. And dedicate their self to dancing but they don’t live on the Rez, I would still count them just as native as me. That’s just how I would see if someone’s native. That person that made the show should be ashamed and shouldn’t have lied. This isn’t me coming at you this is just, my way of how I would see if someone was native. And Ik theirs a lot of natives that lost their dances but I would still count them as native if they put in the work to be apart of their culture.
Even tho I havent listen to all you podcast I would still like to say I don’t like the way your coming at this and you should rethink the way you say someone’s not native bc, at the end of the day if it’s in their blood and their trying to make a effort to be apart of their culture I would say their native and I’m not talking ab this show thing this is just how I feel about all the podcast
Keeler hasn’t reached out to a number of people on her list even though she said she contacted everyone for comment. She hasn’t done much research beyond ancestry.com searches. I don’t think that qualifies as research. She often attacks people and then says she’s doing it for many people who’ve reached out to her privately about an issue or person, but she’s never had to substantiate any of those claims or provide evidence showing that this isn’t some vindictive or jealous mission. Pick any successful Indigenous person and she’s attacked them—-Tara Houska, Simon Moya Smith, Elissa Washuta, Erika Wurth, Winona Laduke, Gyassi Ross, Tracie J. … She was kicked out of several Native groups online for her spam and personal attacks. She was kicked off the NAJA board for her unethical reporting and actions on Twitter. She was also fired from Indian Country Today for her unethical actions on Twitter regarding her own boss and coworkers. She can’t get along with anyone for too long. If anyone would like to further research this—-question Keeler about her research, ask about her sources, ask people who have worked with her what she was like or if she’s ethical in her approaches or conduct.
Andrew Jolivette is a huge FRAUD. Its hysterically funny to me that he’s in a show about calling out frauds! LMAO!!!!
Sit down, Andrew. You are irrelevant.