Who Gets to Be Indian? Ethnic Fraud, Disenrollment, and Other Difficult Conversations About Native American Identity

Journalist Gilio-Whitaker (As Long as Grass Grows) exposes how Indian identity is commodified in this provocative takedown of America’s tribal politics. Spurred by frustration over her own “blood quantum”-determined status as a “descendant” but not, as her mother is, an enrolled member of the Colville Confederated Tribes, Gilio-Whitaker examines the history of “pretendianism,” or white entertainers passing as Native. She tracks the phenomenon from 19th-century theatrical performances like Buffalo Bill’s Wild West through the 20th century, when “the growing ethnic renewal movement” and new census rules that allowed for self-identification led to a surge of pretendianism. This history sets the scene for Gilio-Whitaker’s ruthless, stringently cited allegation of pretendianism against Sacheen Littlefeather, who famously declined the Oscar on behalf of Marlon Brando in 1973. (Littlefeather contacted the author to ghostwrite her memoir in 2016, but later backed out; Gilio-Whitaker speculates it was because Littlefeather wanted to avoid questions about her heritage.) Gilio-Whitaker calls out Native Hollywood insiders who continue to prop up Littlefeather—naming multiple industry gatekeepers—and, in a stunning tie-it-all-together twist, demonstrates how these bigwigs are “incestuously” entangled with the “casino capitalism” that has created the “tribal disenrollment crisis,” an ongoing process by which tribes oust members in order to raise per capita payouts. This incendiary j’accuse isn’t afraid to names names. (Oct.)

Correction: An earlier version of this review mistakenly described the author’s mother as a “full-blooded” member of the Colville Confederated Tribes and mischaracterized when the plan to ghostwrite Sacheen Littlefeather’s memoir came to an end.