You’re definitely spot on!

Absolutely! Injun Joe was not a dude hiding his ancestry to pass for white in a time when it would have been easier. Dude was full-out repping the Native stereotypes hard, all the while admitting publicly to not being Native.

So you have anecdotes about your own history, and how you were able to document your connection to your community. That’s wonderful! That’s what supposed to happen. You have a documented connection? Great, reconnect away!

Well, now you’re painting all tribes with the same brush, when there are over 1200 across North America. We all define our membership differently, and blood quantum is a part of that.

Haha, right! Everyone is suddenly a long-lost princess when Indians are involved!

This is definitely the root of a lot of the frustration from Native people towards Boyden and others who do this!

If you don’t think Native folks have been giving Warren hell for that bullshit, you haven’t been paying attention.

Yup, both experiences are so fucking annoying!

There are indeed a lot of nuanced reasons someone might not be enrolled. Yes, people hid their ancestry during that time. However, Indian impersonators have also always been popular (Grey Owl, Iron Eyes Cody, Boyden’s uncle).

My typos? Eh, I’m on my phone and autocorrect is a bitch.

I disagree. Twitter grants access to dialogue to marginalized people long silenced by gatekeepers and without access or opportunity to broadcast their voice.

It is a very important piece of the puzzle! 

Except that I think you’re characterizing the “some people”/”bunch of howlers” criticizing on Boyden Twitter are “outsiders,” and for that reason should not get a voice in this conversation. But a LOT of the people on Twitter who have been keeping this issue alive in the media ARE indigenous people. So why are we not…

Ugh. I’m in the US, but I’ll have to try and find the CBC segment. I absolutely hate that bullshit. When the 23&Me and Ancestry.com commercials come on I have to avoid throwing things at my TV.

His sole claim is the “Injun Joe” uncle referenced in the article, who clearly in 1956 is quoted as saying he is not indigenous at all. Doubt he has any records to back it up at all.

Indigenous identity is not about DNA. This is what aggravates me so much about those fucking DNA-Ancestry commercials where people find out they’re “Native American” (just that, not what tribe, or clan, or anything else), and suddenly they’re pulling dreamcatchers out of their ass.

So much love for this piece, as a fellow Native woman! Not that Jezebel hasn’t done a fantastic job on NoDAPL coverage, but given how little our voices get amplified, it’s always better when this comes from our voice as Native people!

Except that Indian Country is united behind the Standing Rock Lakota in their fight against #NoDAPL. The current protest camps include thousands of fellow Natives from 100s tribes across the country. The current protest camps also include other indigenous allies across the Pacific Ocean.

As I am neither Irish or a Viking, I cannot speak to that. However, if Irish or Scandinavian people told me that they found it offensive, I would listen to them and support them in their efforts to remove those mascots. People deserve to be treated as human beings and with dignity, and I will not deny them that. I…

Germans who were not Nazi were still pretty overwhelming complacent in the face of Jewish extermination. Being neutral or silent in situations of injustice is choosing the side of the oppressor.