Abstract
Today, more and more people declare that they have Native American roots, due to the fact that America has become fascinated with the culture and history of this minority. This form of imperialist nostalgia which causes Whites to look at Native Americans with admiration, after having spent many years trying to destroy, harms Native Americans even if it seems to represent a positive change of attitude. By claiming a fake Native American identity, Whites try to appropriate the Indian culture and past, with the same lack of respect and consideration as they did in the past. They attribute stereotypical characteristics to present-day Indians, and they ignore the true experiences and realities of the Native American communities, which do not fit their romanticized idea about this group. Furthermore, other people who claim a Native American identity may pursue financial or political goals. Either way, this phenomenon is a new form of exploitation of the Native American culture, which damages an already vulnerable community, and for this reason, it should be punished by the law.
Presently, it has become fashionable to have a Native American ancestor in the genealogic tree. In the past decades, more and more non-Indian individuals, in particular Whites, have begun to declare a Native American ancestry, and to identify themselves as Indian, based on a partial blood life, from a forgotten family root, which is very often fake (Salt Lake Tribune). These wannabe Indians become more openly ‘Indian’ than the originals, and may display traditional Native American symbols, clothing or other items which transform their identity into their ideal and often stereotypical, view of Native Americans. This may seem as a positive evolution of the relationship between Native Americans and Whites, as the dominant group who oppressed this minority for centuries. However, it is in fact a new type of aggression because it leads to the unjust appropriation of the Native American history and patrimony. Besides, it leads to a repudiation of true Indian Americans’ contemporary experiences, life style and problems, in favor of an idealization of Native American imagery, which becomes predominant. Moreover, non-Indians could take advantage of the Indian history in order to make profit. Therefore, the wannabe Indian trend of the past decades is a manifestation of imperialist nostalgia which has a negative impact on the already burdened Native American community, and declaring a fake Native American ancestry should be punished by the law.
Most often, people who want to be Indians and adopt an Indian identity are driven by a genuine fascination with the Indian culture, but their ideas about Indians are most often outdated and inconsistent with the lives and realities of real Indians. As Welsch shows, people are often attracted to the culture, art or history of Native American , but they “avoid having anything to do with living Indians, dismissing them as culturally diminished because they aren't the same people disinterred at dig sites” (24). The author further explains that Indians of today are very different from those of the past. Many of them are integrated in the American society, and have ordinary jobs. However, what differentiates them from wannabes is that the latter often pretend to have in their genealogy some distinguished ancestor, like a Cherokee princess (Welsch 24). However, what wannabes truly lack is knowledge about the true experiences of Native Americans. What is even more disturbing is that these wannabes, who are satisfied about claiming a noble Native relative from a famous and romanticized tribe like the Cherokee, is that they have no interest in getting to know how Indians live in the present. They do not want to be today’s Indians. They want to be Indians from the past, or they claim an Indian ancestry due to fascination with stereotypical media representations of historical Indians, not due to fascination with present-day Indians.
The appropriation of the Native American identity is a misguided form of imperialist nostalgia, where the colonizers become fascinated and intrigued with a people they used to despise. As Andrews argues (49), Native Americans have been deprived of their own past to the extent that they need to use the Whites’ version of their own past in order to recreate a sense of self. In this context, Whites have become fascinated with the same people they used to slaughter and demonize (Andrews 49). The wannabe phenomenon comes at a time when authentic Indians have a very vague idea on how to express their identity, based on fake media representations of their peoples. They may wish to regain a missing part of their identity as Native Americans, but they do not know how to find it, or where. In this context, the wave of Native American Wannabees comes to create a sense of ridiculousness in this search, because, while authentic Native Americans are searching for a true self, an increasing number of fake Indians adopt their own version of Indian identity. In her article on the issue of ‘passing’ as someone else, Mills explains that pretense is a form of lie, and “lying is a violation of one’s duty to others” (33). This is particularly true when the way in which individuals present themselves have a negative impact on others (Mills 31). Therefore, in this case, the Indian pretense hinders the claim of true Native Americans over their own past. By having a wide group of wannabes who redefine themselves as Native Americans, it may be difficult, or even impossible for Native Americans to regain their own past, and to gain control over their present, because they may become the ones who seem unauthentic, in front of the wave of new so-called Indians who may adopt a stereotypical Indian image, which appeals to the press due to the correspondence with the mythical Indian.
Furthermore, Indian religion and traditions may be exploited by non-Indians for profit. After the fascination with the ‘noble savage’ emerged, more and more people found Indian ancestors in their genealogical tree and began checking the “Native American” box during census (Salt Lake Tribune). Furthermore, people may go as far as to create new tribes in order to make money by allowing non-Indians to join. For example, a man named Sun Bear tried to make money by becoming a spiritual leader and healer. He created a Medicine wheel religion by combining the beliefs of several tribes and even started his own Bear tribe, asking for an entrance fee (Salt Lake Tribune). In other cases, claiming a Native American identity may be a strategical move in order to meet a very specific goal. For example, in his article, Fruehling Springwood (56) discusses the situation of individuals who claim a Native American identity in order to argue in favor of Native American mascots. As the author argues, “a number of White people are now rhetorically fabricating Indianness in debates, not to realign themselves psychically or sympathetically with Native Americans but rather to obscure, if not dissolve, Native voices”(Fruehling Springwood 56). Therefore, the easiness with which people can assume a fake Native American identity damages the interests of an already vulnerable group, who is struggling to preserve its traditions and history.
The nostalgia that the American people feel for the Native American culture of the past leads to the emergence of pretended Native American identities, which has a negative impact on the future of true Native Americans. The idealized image of the Native Americans, which does not correspond any longer to the lived experiences of Native Americans, causes them to appear as unauthentic, whereas a pretending Native American who adopts a romanticized image as depicted in films, may appear more truthful in the eyes of the society. Furthermore, people may adopt Native American identities in order to reach their own interests, in direct oppositions to the interests of Native Americans, or to make profit. Regardless of the reasons, this phenomenon is a new type of unlawful exploitation of the Native American culture.
Works Cited
Andrews, Scott. “Ceci n’est Past Un Indien”. World Literature Today 84.4(2010): 48-51.
Fruehling Springwood , Charles. “I’m Indian Too!” Claiming Native American Identity, Crafting Authority in Mascot Debates”. Journal of Sport and Social Issues 28.1(2004): 56-70.
Mills, Claudia. “Passing”: The Ethics of Pretending to Be What You Are Not. Social Theory and Practice 25.1(1999): 29-51.
“Rise in U.S. Indian Population Attributed to ‘Wannabes’”. The Salt Lake Tribune. 1994. Web. 30 July 2016.
Welsch, Roger. “Confessions of a Wannabe (American Folklore Society Presidential Invited Plenary Address, October 2009)”. Journal of American Folklore 124.491 (2011): 19-30, 125.
