Buffy Sainte - Marie & What IS a Pretendian Anyway!?

Hey, everyone. As has been pointed out in the comments several times over the last week or so, there were pretendions before Buffy or pretendions discovered before her. But I think because of her massive popularity and the length of her career, she has really sparked a discussion about pretendions. There are people that are confused on what it means. There's some people that didn't even hear the term before all of this hit the fan. So I thought it'd be a really good idea to talk about pretend Ians today. Who they are and who they're not. Let's talk about it. Hi, everybody. My name is Sandy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine River First Nation in Treaty 3 Territory in Northern Ontario. And I'm here today to talk about pretendions because obviously from the reaction to my Buffy Saint Marie videos, you're interested in Pretendians or. And I think for a lot of people. I'm going to go out on a limb here for non indigenous people, people you now understand. You felt the betrayal. I know Canadians definitely felt the betrayal to find out that Buffy's story wasn't authentic. And that's exactly how it feels for us when someone pretends to be indigenous, a pretend Indian, Pretendian. So for one, as much as that wasn't fun, I like the fact that we have built a bridge here, that commonality. But I did want to really clarify some things for some people because I. If you don't know who I am, I've worked as a reconciliation guide, inspirational speaker, speaker, author for. I'm in my 15th year and my role has always been I don't do shame, I don't do guilt, and I refuse to crucify someone for something they were never taught. That doesn't even make sense to me. And that's why I wanted to do this video. Because pretend I ends. That could be new to you. So once again, I have a handy, dandy little index card because I just find this really helps me stay on point. So you get the best of this video and it's not a total waste of your time. So first and foremost, and this may confuse the issue a little bit more, but I will clarify. Pretendians are not indigenous, period. And there are so many forms of indigenous pretend peoples. That's why I wanted to make that point. Because if a person fits into any one of those other criteria, by definition they're not a pretendian. So for example, someone that is urban, an urban indigenous person, grew up in the city, never been on the Reserve doesn't hunt and fish, all of that kind of stuff. Maybe not exposed to their culture, has never danced at powwow. They're still indigenous. They just didn't have those experiences. They're still indigenous, so they're not a pretendian. Another one Metis. Well, there was so many a huge discussion on skin tone and I'm not metis. I'm first nations. I'm status but obviously I'm fair. I now know I'm fading with age. That was in another video. But many Metis people and even first nations people have blue eyes. They're still indigenous. So not a pretendian. Another thing I know, and this one kind of makes me sad, that's just a personal thing. I know many indigenous people, excuse the way. I'll explain why I said it this way, but that they speak white. And what I mean by that is they've been totally assimilated for a multitude of reasons. They no longer carry the indigenous world view when they speak. They've been, you know, raised in a mainstream society with mainstream values. But if they have the bloodline, they're still indigenous. Another one sixties scoop was touched on. That was a horrific time period. It was the system that replaced the residential schools. I mean, it's not like this stuff stopped, it just changed its form. So they took the kids into the residential schools when those closed. Well, 60 Scoop was still going on during the residential school era, but it was another way, adopting them out of an indigenous family and surrounding them by putting them in the middle of a non indigenous family. So again, they would lose the idea was they would lose their culture, their world view, whatever. I know 60 scoops people that did lose those things. And I know 60 scoop people that always knew they were different and looked at the world differently. They didn't lose that blood memory. Another is the people that are totally disconnected for a variety of reasons. Foster care, adoption, where they ended up getting moved to incarcerated. So many reasons. While people are separated from their family, their worldview, their customs, their culture, they're still indigenous. None of those people are pretendians. Pretendians are non indigenous people, people who are presenting as indigenous. And I'm going to go out on a limb here. Even if they're not presenting as indigenous, they know people are assuming they're indigenous and they're not correcting that. So it's a facade, it's fake. That's who pretend Ians are. Unfortunately, what we've seen here in Canada is the pretendians. Really. Well, except for Joseph Boyden, a lot of pretendions were identified in universities. And that's because I mean hearts in the right place taken advantage of these universities wanted to up their indigenous knowledge or their indigenous engagement. They reached out to find indigenous people to work with, to hire into those positions. And guess what? For mainstream culture, pretendions are really easy to work with. You're thinking this is an indigenous person. But I really get along with them and they seem easy to work with. I understand what they're saying. That's because they're not indigenous. If it's that comfortable, if you have the exact same world view, then they're not helping you get better at a cross cultural relationship. They're just pretending to be indigenous. Another thing I notice about some, not all these are just like little check boxes you can consider. I find that many pretendians really advertise their supposed indigeneity. It's the beads and the feathers and, and I mean you don't have to pretend to be indigenous if you're indigenous. And again, and I'm going to touch on this at the end of the video, there are often times that we don't want to advertise we're indigenous because it's going to result in an unsafe environment or it could. That's the reality of being indigenous. So when I after all of this broke and I'm looking at those images of Buffy and how large in her indigeneity she was, it was like, you know what? Like that wouldn't have been safe. And as a real indigenous person you would understood that you would have never done that pretend. Ians tend to be in positions that are either going to bring the money, bring them fame or have them accepted. Like they get the job because they present as indigenous, right? They get the publisher because they present their book as an indigenous world view. There's a gain to it. People, you don't just pretend you're indigenous for nothing. I mean they're doing this to gain fame, fortune, acceptance or that job. Another thing I've really noticed about pretendions, they get really upset when you ask them where they're from or they won't. I can think of one individual that I asked like are you indigenous and a fair presenting person and trust me, I know what that feels like. No answer, silence that makes me believe pretending rather than indigenous. And again, there's complicated situations. If you're married in for the longest time in Canada, if a white woman married an indigenous man, she became status Indian. If you married in, tell people that it wasn't your fault. That was what the government policy Was. But you don't pretend you're indigenous with the world view and the culture. You can explain to people I married in, but my husband is incredibly traditional, so I picked up a lot of things from him. There is nothing wrong with that. Why? Because it's authentic. So they really get upset if you ask. One thing I had to point out actually, to the local library, when you're reading advertisements, you know, saying an indigenous speaker is coming to town, I have noticed some really flowery misleading statements like has been influenced by many indigenous elders. Nowhere did it say their elders or that they're indigenous, was influenced by the people of such and such community. Everyone said they belonged to that community. Do you see what I mean? If you're Indigenous, look at the beginning of my videos where I identify who I am by my style, my Ojibwe name and my community, my nation. If we're indigenous, we identify as such. So there's another hint, I guess for a pretendian, most of the time you don't have to ask. But sometimes if you're just meeting someone, like maybe they assumed everyone knew they're indigenous. So be careful with those statements though I have seen bios of people that I didn't see anything in there that actually said you're indigenous, so watch out for that. The last thing I really. Oh, there's two things I want to point on, touch on one, this is me personally. This is the way I look at it. There are many indigenous people that won't agree with this. And again, that's another thing. Indigenous, actually, it's not one mind. We, we're individuals. I think there's a huge difference between being indigenous and having some indigenous heritage. And it's the worldview and the teachings that's the difference. So if you have indigenous blood, that's a horrible way to put it. But if there's indigeneity in your bloodline, and we're talking about your third great grandmother or your third grandmother, whatever, you know what I mean. Generations back you have some indigenous heritage. I wouldn't agree with you claiming to be Indigenous because you would have been raised and influenced by non indigenous values, teachings, worldview. That's just a fact in your family line. That's not the knowledge or the worldview you carry. And again, authenticity, there's no shame or guilt. Just be crystal clear on that. Saying you're indigenous and the last indigenous person existed four generations ago, that's pushing it and that's misleading. And now you wouldn't technically be a pretendian, I guess Unless you were pretending to carry the world view and the teachings because you don't have those. So that's a huge, huge thing. I think North America, I'd be willing to bet most of us could look in our family tree and find indigeneity somewhere. But was that an influencing factor in your life? Right. And again, if you're indigenous and disconnected from culture, that you're still indigenous. Right. But you know what I mean, it gets confusing. Last but not least is something I hinted about earlier. Indigenous peoples in Canada and in the US Are oppressed, marginalized, held down, do not have the same advantages or not advantages, but supports that other people do. I can think of our communities that we have, first nation, communities without fresh drinking water. We have communities that share police services with the next community. Community. We have communities that don't have health services, very limited education. We have great students leaving home and living with boarding parents to go to grade nine. A marginalized, oppressed group. Part of being a member of an oppressed group is to internalize that oppression, to start believing the stereotypes, to start believe that you can't have what other people have that you're not allowed to because you're indigenous. And to highlight this point, when I saw how many views I got on the Buffy Saint Marie videos, I had to step back for a second. Like, was that okay? Is that okay that I got that many views? Are people going to accuse me of capitalizing on a situation? Am I going to be okay with being asked that? That's internalized oppression. Like I can't even imagine what it'd be like to just celebrate success in a popular video. I am okay with how many people are viewed that video because that tells me people needed one, the information and two, they appreciated how I explained things. But for indigenous people, it is super common to fear success and to fear fame. We're not the cocky, confident, walk out on the stage. Look at me, I'm all that in a bag of chips. Took me 15 years to get here and a lot of unpacking and healing. So when that person that, that cockiness, that confidence, that acceptance comes from being part of a group like mainstream. So I'm just saying I. There are like even I can think of Pam Palmer. She's an incredibly strong, confident woman. She doesn't come across with that cockiness. She comes across with someone who knows what she's talking about. Cindy Blackstock is a wonderful, humble human being. Senator Murray Sinclair, right. These are authentic indigenous that have hang, hung on to their humility. They there's so much a large part of so many Indigenous cultures. So I hope that helped. And if you're feeling confused, it is confusing. But we have to ask the questions. We have to call out these Pretendians and like I said in the other video, if they were just calling themselves indigenous and staying at home and not talking to anyone, I could care two beans. But they're out there presenting Indigenous people without the knowledge, the experience or the worldview, and that's dangerous. Or they're capitalizing and taking up the space where authentic indigenous could have worked for those awards or for, you know, we climb the mountain to try to be accepted. We shouldn't lose that space to someone who's just pretending to have had challenges. I hope that made sense. Please comment below. And was there something in here that resonated with you? If you have a question, I try to answer all the comments. Definitely try to read all of them. If not, send me an email if you have something specific to ask. I am happy to help you with this. It's confusing times and there are so many Indigenous that are finally finding their voice and still standing up. They should have the space and time to do that and not have to worry about someone pretending to be who we are. Until next time, I love you. Take care. Bye Bye.