(Un)Settling Genealogies: Self-Indigenization in Media, Arts, Politics, and Academia

Dear Colleagues

Dr. Kim TallBear (University of Alberta) and Dr. Gordon Henry (Michigan State University) are co-editing a Special Issue of the journal Genealogy that will focus on the pervasive phenomenon in the US, Canada, and globally of individuals and groups that make unverifiable or remote claims to Indigenous or Native ancestry in order to gain access to opportunities, resources, and governance rights. Variously referred to as self-indigenization, pretendianism, race shifting, or playing Indian, this phenomenon is not completely new. Dakota historian, Philip J. Deloria (1998), documented the roots of “playing Indian” in the U.S. American colonial era when settlers dressed up as Indians in the Boston Tea Party protest. Throughout US history, Deloria demonstrated, non-Natives have continued to appropriate Native dress, artifacts, and representations in their fraternal orders, scouting organizations, and sports teams in order to make psychic and moral claims to land, history, and resources, and to help build a uniquely “American” identity.

Furthermore, as Nancy Mithlo writes in a 2019 issue of the American Indian Culture and Research Journal,

“The existence of fraud finds relevance in these times not only because of its long history and association with US politics (think Boston Tea Party), but also because of its utility in the ongoing colonial project that enlarges the power and control of non-Native individuals and institutions while stripping Indigenous communities of rights and resources. The problem with fraud for Native American communities today is that these incursions into Native sovereignty are covert, embedded, and weighted down with divisive false ideologies.” (Mitholo, 2019).

In the past few years, we have seen high-profile cases of self-indigenization that go beyond dressing up as Indian to make moral and resource claims. More recently, both individuals and groups make claims to Native genealogical ancestry in order to gain “transcendence” and conversion from the “guilt, loneliness, isolation, and a gnawing sense of racial, spiritual, and cultural emptiness” of whiteness (Sturm 2011: 83, 87). Simultaneously, in the high-profile cases, we see individuals and groups using Native genealogical assertions to shore up their claims to rights of Indigenous governance, to natural resources, and to access lucrative opportunities, notoriety, and funding in sectors including academia, politics, television and film, museums, and the music industry (Barrera 2016, CBC 2023, Cyca 2022, Deer and Barrera 2020, Elmahrek and Pringle 2019, Kuo 2023, Leroux 2019, Smith 2018, Sturm 2011, Vermont Public 2023, Viren 2021).

This Special Issue seeks submissions from Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars from the social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences fields; Indigenous journalists and writer-activists; and Indigenous government officials who critically interrogate this phenomenon in the US and Canada, Australia, and in Sámi territories in Scandinavia, and elsewhere. Potential areas of focus may include the following topics, although other relevant submissions are also welcomed and encouraged:

• Historical/sociological/anthropological studies of unverifiable group claims to Indigenous nationhood/identity and quests for state recognition and related rights and resources;
• Studies of the use of genetic ancestry science and commercial technologies to support Indigenous identity claims;
• The role of genetic scientists and/or commercial DNA testing operations in shaping new ideas of race and ethnicity and their intersections with claims to Native identity;
• Studies about the kinds of professional/personal risks and trauma that actual Indigenous people endure from self-indigenizers in their fields;
• Analyses of the intersections of Indigenous definitions, colonial histories, and racial formations in specific national contexts, and how they shape self-indigenization in those nation states;
• Critical race analyses of state/provincial or federal laws that might encourage self-indigenization, including the rise of state (as opposed to federal) recognition processes, the demise of “affirmative action” programs, and/or the consequent rise in “equity, diversity, and inclusion” programs in universities, companies, in government and in other sectors;
• Psychological studies or theorizations of the self-indigenization/race-shifting phenomenon;
• Studies or statements of policy implications for and responses of federal, state/provincial, and/or Indigenous governments to the self-indigenization phenomenon;
• Studies or statements of policy implications for and responses of universities, corporations, museums, foundations, arts councils, museums, etc. to the self-indigenization phenomenon;
• Statements or overviews of organizational or institutional responses to the self-indigenization phenomenon;
• Studies of the ways genealogical theories and practices on standards of evidence and proof might dispel fraudulent claims to Native identity;
• Tribal-centric critiques of institutional and organization policies and practices that operate in support of false claimants to Native tribal belonging.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editors (tallbear@ualberta.ca and to) or to the Genealogy editorial office (genealogy@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

References

Jorge Barrera, 2016. Author Joseph Boyden’s shape-shifting Indigenous identity, APTN National News, December 23.

CBC, 2023.The Fifth Estate, Investigating Buffy Sainte-Marie’s claims to Indigenous ancestry, October 27. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMsqCWNCUc4 (accessed on 29 January 2024).

Michelle Cyca 2022. The Curious Case of Gina Adams: A “Pretendian” investigation. MacLeans’s, September 6.

Ka’nhehsio:io Deer and Jorge Barrera. 2020. CBC Indigenous. Award-winning filmmaker Michelle Latimer’s Indigenous identity under scrutiny. December 17.

Philip J. Deloria. 1998. Playing Indian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, London, UK

Adam Elmahrek and Paul Pringle. 2019. Claiming to be Cherokee, contractors with white ancestry got $300 million. The LA Times, June 26.

Christopher Kuo. 2023. The New York Times, “Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Indigenous Parentage is Questioned,” October 30.

Darryl Leroux. 2019. Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, Winnipeg, Canada.

Nancy Marie Mithlo. 2019. “Introduction: Fraud in Native American Communities,” American Indian Culture and Research Journal, (Issue on Fraud), Vol. 43, Issue 4.

Jamil Smith. 2018. Rolling Stone. “Why Elizabeth Warren’s DNA Fiasco Matters.” December 7.

Circe Sturm. 2011. Becoming Indian: The Struggle over Cherokee Identity in the Twenty-first Century. Santa Fe, NM: SAR Press, Santa Fe, NM, USA.

Vermont Public. 2023. Brave Little State. “Why are Abenaki Nations challenging the legitimacy of Vermont’s state-recognized tribes?” October 19.

Sarah Viren. 2021. New York Times Magazine. “The Native Scholar Who Wasn’t.” May 25.

Prof. Kim TallBear
Prof. Gordon Henry
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Genealogy is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• self-indigenization
• pretendians
• genealogy
• genetic ancestry
• Tribal citizenship/enrollment
• federal recognition
• state recognition