Not an Indigenous Identity Problem: Pretendianism, Whiteness, and Genocide

Kim TallBear rejects the idea that self-indigenization, also sometimes referred to as “pretendianism,” is a problem of “Indigenous identity.

In this talk, Kim TallBear rejects the idea that self-indigenization, also sometimes referred to as “pretendianism,” is a problem of “Indigenous identity.” Instead, Dr. TallBear turns her critical gaze onto settler-colonial society. What is their problem? Why do so many people insist on self-identifying as Indigenous without corresponding Indigenous community recognition of their belonging? Drawing on Critical Indigenous Studies, anthropology of whiteness, and critical race theory, Dr. TallBear discusses pretendianism as a problem of whiteness and its unrelenting claims over centuries to Indigenous property. She also analyzes self-indigenization as a technique of Indigenous genocide.