Over the last few years, I’ve learned “pretendians” vary in reason for desire to be Indigenous and that they cut a wide swath in professions, learning institutes, and even within Indigenous communities. When we point out an uncovered discovery publicly, this is about far more than ‘shaming’. This is more than ‘gate-keeping’. This is protection and an effort to stanch the continuing effort to dilute, diminish and degrade the teachings and traditions of entire cultures. 

These people aren’t readily identifiable as terrible trespassers. They are neighbors, co-workers, friends and sometimes, family. Many are mostly exceptionally friendly, articulate and some are very charismatic, which makes for frustrating, vigorous protection by those around them when questioned.

The above excerpts are from the post I published at Medium.com

I hope you enjoy it in full at: https://medium.com/p/22fe175f4d60

RL