pretendian

a wannabe american indian. usually exhibited by white people but blacks do it too. claims to be 1/4th native american or a lesser percentage, but usually have no definitive proof of it or of what tribe they’re from (unless it’s cherokee of course). if such ancestry exists, they tend to exaggerate the very small amount that they have after generations of their family neglecting this heritage.

most annoying thing about these people is the smugness that they claim this lost heritage with. upon being told by some senile relative or actually finding proof, they suddenly claim to know everything about native americans and press for tribal membership while buying ambiguous, commodified indian-themed jewelry and merchandise like dream-catchers. it’s usually the first thing they put on their mysp-ce biographies, and get miffed when people don’t referred to them as native american or take them seriously as such (but say that they don’t want people to “judge them for embracing their ancestral roots”). they also spend their time discrediting other white people who display indian princess syndrome or people who actually have accountable native ancestry.

these people often have no grasp on native culture and issues, both historical and contemporary. in the end, most people with accountable ancestry don’t wh-r- their heritage in order to look “exotic” and interesting.
sarah worthington claims that her great-great-great grandmother was a cherokee princess while discrediting the heritage of sarah red-deer, who comes from the pine ridge reservation, located in the poorest county in america and is deemed the most dangerous.

guess which sarah is the pretendian.
every white person in america that claims to be ‘part’ native american.
i’m part indian on my great grand mother’s brother’s uncle’s sister side (pretendian) but i don’t have any way of proving it.
one who claims to be indian but doesn’t exhibit indian qualities or isn’t indian. it can also apply to a non-indian who hangs around with nothing but indians. can apply to both india indians and native american indians.
steven is such a pretendian.
person who falsely claims native american heritage, lineage, indian hoaxers
bob claims to be an indian, but he’s short, bald and has a full beard, he’s plainly a pretendian.
an actor or actress of non-native american descent who plays a native american on the screen or stage.
i’m not an indian, but i play one on tv.

so, you’re a pretendian?

taylor lautner, in the new twilight film, prime example of a modern day pretendian.
a motorcycle styled to look like the cl-ssic indian motorcycles, but made from harley-davidson clone parts, or by another motorcycle company (i.e. kawasaki).
that pretendian may look like an old indian, but it’s really a harley clone beneath the sheet metal.