@DinaGWhit @washingtonpost Did a terrible covering the actual reporting (mine in the @sfchronicle that spurred the article. AND the issue of Pretendianism and the political nature of Native identity. @DinaGWhit @washingtonpost @sfchronicle They even got the way the Alleged Pretendians list works wrong. We verify stated claims, so there is no need to remove folks from the list if we do.

So you mean you can trust Mexican records but not US ones?

Still doesn’t change #SacheenLittlefeather ancestors didn’t identify with the tribe when they came to AZ and haven’t since then. Or that Littlefeather added the claim some 20 years after her White Mountain Apache claim. And the only person #SacheenLittlefeather’s sister Roz heard who speculated on the claim was her white mother. Her sister Trudy never heard such a claim.

And 1819? My kids have an Italian ancestor who moved to Canada around then. Does this make them Italian?

I speak to a lot of historians/researchers as a journalist & know their work is necessary for our fight. Native scholars and tribal historians document our claims to the land & preserve our continued political existence. A racialized dismissal of their work is pretty weak. 1/4 However, proving who you are is necessary — or at least, representing yourself accurately. Advocacy based in truth is our most potent weapon. I don’t present myself as anything other than what I am. You can do the work w/out false claims to tribal identity. Many do. 2/4

For everyone just learning about the flooding of the White Swan community via the @Guardian article please check out my reporting and tweets about it via the hashtag #YanktonSiouxFlood2019.

I also wrote about it in a newsletter here: mailchi.mp/fa7b1c3aaced/p… @guardian My original reporting from September on the flooding the White Swan community on the Yankton Sioux reservation in @IndianCountry #YanktonSiouxFlood2019 newsmaven.io/indiancountryt…

This whole Elizabeth Warren 1/512ths DNA "proof" of Native ancestry hurts Native people because it adds to the Republican attack that we are "race-based" and not citizens of nations. #Indigenous #Termination 1/5 This "race-based" argument was recently cited by a federal judge in Texas to declare ICWA unconstitutional and in violation of the 14th Amendment. The goal here is to declare TRIBES unconstitutional because they are "race-based." #ElizabethWarren #Indigenous #Termination 2/5