Everyone wants to be Native until it’s time to be Native. I decided to go ahead and make a list of actors, singers, etc. who claimed to have Native heritage but aren’t really Native. I’m doing this because people don’t understand the nuances of our identities and how complicated and complex it is. Sure, you may have Native ancestry, but our identity goes beyond that. Does your tribe claim you? Do you support your people? Are you connected to your culture?
Another reason why I’m making this is because some people do actually believe these actors, singers, etc. are Native. They’re not aware of the long history of white people and non-native peple of color pretending to be Native. The most famous example is Iron Eyes Cody. He claimed his father was Cherokee and his mother was Cree. It turned out he wasn’t Native after all, he was Italian. He made a whole career out of pretending to be Indian. Most people know him from playing the ‘Crying Indian’ in the PSA commercials about the environment. A mess.
So, below are the pretendians:
Johnny Depp — In the past he’s claimed to be Cherokee due to his grandmother side. He played a Native American man in ‘The Brave’ and Tonto in the tragic and racist reboot of ‘The Lone Ranger’. I’d generally avoid him because he’s a piece of sh*t.
Hailey Baldwin — Instamodel. Nepotism. Devoid of any personality. In 2011, she claimed to be Cherokee in this tweet. If you’re Native, a white person claiming to be Cherokee is nothing new and I generally wouldn’t count them as Native unless proven otherwise. She also allegedly said the n-word so yikes.
Blake Lively — She claims to be Cherokee in this L’Oréal commercial. Again, we know how the story goes. People did their research and turns out she has ZERO Native ancestry in her lineage. Shocking, right?
Justin Bieber — In 2012, Bieber claims to be part Indian in an interview with Rolling Stone: “I’m actually part Indian,” he says – “I think Inuit or something? I’m enough percent that in Canada I can get free gas”. *bangs head on desk* If Justin was actually Inuit, he’d know that they don’t get free gas. That’s a common misconception in Canada.
Taylor Lautner — Taylor is known for playing Jacob Black in The Twilight Series. The character is Native, Quileute, to be more specific. Taylor Launter is not Native. When asked about it, Taylor said the following: “I have some Native American in my distant background.” Later in an interview with his fellow co-stars Chaske Spencer, Alex Meraz and Kiowa Gordon confirmed Taylor isn’t Native American.
Tinsel Korey — Since 2009, there have been numerous reports about Tinsel being another pretendian. Apparently her real name is Harsha Patel and she is of Asian Indian descent. There’s a post about that here and here. Comedian Ryan McMahon backed up the claims in this tweet.
Kelsey Chow — In July, Adam Beach called out Taylor Sheridan for not casting a Native actress in his TV show ‘Yellowstone’. Kelsey has claimed to be Cherokee (notice a pattern here?) and played a Native American character in Taylor’s new movie Wind River (which is pretty awful). She’s white and Chinese.
People I’m not sure if they’re Native or not:
Blair Redford — This article from 2010 claims he’s Native American along with being French, German and Irish. Since then we have yet to learn which tribe he’s from. He’s set to play Native American superhero John Proudstar in the FOX X-Men show The Gifted. He’s also played another Native American character Ethan Whitehorse in the ABC Family drama The Lying Game.
Blu Hunt — She’s set to play the Cheyenne superhero Danielle ‘Mirage’ Moonstar in the X-Men movie Mutants. The announcement this past summer stirred controversy because she was listed as Western European on her website and is only Native because of her paternal grandfather. Another reason why everyone was up in arms is because Danielle is portrayed as a brown-skinned Native in the comics and Blu is light-skinned.
