Second Opinion : OTHER MEDIA : INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY : Weeding Out the Indian Wanna-bes
As the popularity of being American Indian increases, tribes are becoming more vigilant about protecting their members.
New laws recently enacted to protect genuine Indian artists and artisans from wanna-bes or outright phonies were passed because there have been hundreds of unscrupulous individuals claiming to be Indians just because they see a huge profit in marketing their products under the guise of being Indian.
For those artists who are not enrolled (as certified members of a tribe) and who pooh-pooh the new laws as protectionist for Indians or who claim Indian artists are just afraid of competition, we say: baloney.
We don’t buy the excuse that these people claiming to be Indians do not want to enroll because they don’t want to play the game. To the tribes of America trying to preserve their sovereign status and to strengthen their membership, it is not a game. It is a matter of survival.
In fact, some tribes are publicly denouncing those writers, columnists, spiritual shamans, artists and artisans claiming membership in their particular tribes under false pretenses. We applaud these tribal efforts.
Indian Country Today is a weekly published on Wednesdays in Rapid City, S.D., and circulated throughout the West.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
