Thread by @YurokGuy

#Keelerism and the #Pretendian Crusade.

here’s a fun fact, the “Research“ on pretendians is fundamentally flawed. Let’s look at my family tree for instance, here on my Rez before it was cool to be Indian the only way that you could get work is to say you were white or hispanic

My great great grandmother, Aawok Fanny Rube is listed on one or two censuses as being white, it’s well documented she was 4/4 Yurok, the last “documented” practicing medicine woman in Weitchpec in 1942. I stay documented because it was illegal to do those things in 1942

So when a person like Keeler puts you on the list and then begins to do your research, the first instance of white on a census this is going to be enough and the research will never continue.

When it comes to tribal enrollment, Yurok Tribe wasn’t officially formed under federal law until 1992, we’ve always been a tribe just not one with a status of sovereign independence according to the federal government. So is my grandma enrolled? Nope she died before 1992

In 1992 and until this day it is the responsibility of the Yurok tribal government to verify our descendants, not some random failing journalist, ever.

We have neighboring tribes who are well documented that are not recognized by the govt, even though they are in rolled in another tribe they are still of their tribe, and still claim their status of their ancestors. By Keelers logic all of those people are not themselves

Now don’t get me wrong I enjoy beating up on a wannabe every now and then, however to publicly try and make a name for oneself at the expense of others is traditionally wrong, especially if it is from a tribe you are not a part of. Sovereignty 101

Yurok is still a blood quantum tribe for now, but at no time would we ever try and deny the identities of our descendants that don’t meet those enrollment criteria, they are still as much Yurok as the rest of us. Full stop

And if someone like Keeler and Co attempted to attack the identity of one of our own on enrollment status or otherwise, I have full faith that as a sovereign nation we would stand up AND to go further

If Keeler was to set her sights on someone claiming Yurok that may not be a descendant, we would still stand up, that is OUR right as a tribal nation to decide who is or is not Yurok, not the failed journalist turned ancestryDOTcom vigilante, stay in your lane Keeler & Co

This is a real example, we have roughly 100 enrolled members that have zero Yurok blood, they meet our criteria according to our Constitution, if anyone was to claim those folks are not Yurok, same response, YUROK decides who we are, not the state, feds or baby jesus, YUROK

Another thought, imagine that Keeler continues and somehow becomes the NDN Whisperer to non nativesu, and they see her as the defacto identity expert on native people, and she doesn’t like you, your done and you go on the list….

Imagine your career that you worked so hard for, the 3 jobs to go to school, the sacrifices, all down the drain because an unproven NDN fooled enough non natives, does that sound familiar? The Feds didn’t consider you NDN if you were below 1/4 Indian blood, there you go

That’s not a world I want to live in. Me and Keeler have our backstory, she questioned my identity at one point, yet here I am an elected of the largest tribe in CA, doing all kinds of NDN stuff with my light skin and “white” great great grandma on the census 😂

Now, if we had a whole bunch of people claiming they are native and working against NDN country, trying to send us backwards in our advancements, then yes maybe a little backgrounding is in order, but if someone claims to be native and does good things for all NDN country?

I can think of a couple other people over the years who just attacked native people for no reason other than to erase them, Andrew Jackson comes to mind….