The Disadvantages of Pretending to Be an Indian

There is an epidemic of primarily white people—and white women in particular—who are pretending to be Native Americans for professional gain. Dubbed “Pretendians,” these individuals are predominantly active in academia and hold tenured faculty positions or even department chairs. To help make sense of this institutionally supported fraud, Peter Boghossian spoke with Jacqueline Keeler, a Native American author and journalist who’s an expert on the phenomena of Pretendians. Keeler names names and pulls no punches in this conversation. In light of Peter's experience at Portland State University (PSU), he was only mildly surprised to hear Keeler’s report that three of its leading Indigenous Nations faculty are Pretendians: Ted Van Alst, Grace Dillon, and Judy Bluehorse Skelton. Jacqueline Keeler: https://linktr.ee/jfkeeler Watch this conversation on YouTube!