Dr. Kim TallBear on Indigenous belonging: from "Who am I?" to "Who are my people?"
For the past 500 years, Indigenous Peoples have faced the taking of their lands and resources. Today, Dr. Kim TallBear argues that settler theft continues in another form: settlers not only take Indigenous resources, but "they want to become us."
The conversation is particularly timely for the University of Manitoba (UM), which is advancing its Affirming Indigenous Citizenship and Membership Policy and procedures in response to calls from Indigenous communities and leadership to protect Indigenous-specific opportunities.
On September 10, TallBear will visit UM for the Indigenous Scholars Speaker Series to present The Indian's Death to Make Settler "Indigenous" Life: Genetics, Ancestry and Self-Indigenization in Canada and the USA.
TallBear is a citizen of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate and Professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, and author of Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science. Her research examines genetics, colonialism, Indigenous sovereignty and self-Indigenization.
Ahead of her visit, we spoke with TallBear about the colonial history behind self-Indigenization, why ancestry and DNA cannot determine Indigenous belonging, and the role universities should play in responding to Indigenous claims.
TallBear: In the talk and in my work, I explain the long presence in U.S. and Canadian history of the "Vanishing Indian" idea — portrayed in artwork, in U.S. and Canadian doctrine, in films, and central to Hollywood's cowboys-and-Indians Westerns.
The whole world has been educated by settlers about the idea that the Indian is always dying and vanishing — oh, isn't that sad — but they can't survive under the weight of Western civilization. So it's not that settlers actively genocided Indians. It's that our ancestors and their cultures were less sophisticated, destined to disappear.
Today we have the latest iteration of settler theft: not only do they take the land and resources, but they want to become us. If they can't completely eliminate us, they will become us in order to claim every last thing — opportunities, resources. They steal our stories of trauma and history.
As long as we continue to exist as First Nations, they cannot claim final moral and legal authority over the land. So we still stand in their way.
"If they can't completely eliminate us, they will become us."
TallBear: I think pretendianism is the newest iteration of a 500-year-old phenomenon. They stole land, they stole resources. Now they're stealing what's left — our biological resources, our DNA, our jobs, our stories.
People actively fabricating genealogies and claiming "my ancestor was some Indian" is a bit newer — that starts in the early-to-mid 20th century, but ramps up since the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
In Canada, we see a sharp increase during the Truth and Reconciliation era, as money flooded into universities and organizations for Indigenization. Before, you might have been discriminated against for being Indian or Aboriginal; suddenly there were increased scholarship and job opportunities. So we've seen a real uptick in the last decade, though we can document cases before that too.
TallBear: Genetic discourse has such strong power in our society — people think DNA equals the truth. The public wants to believe there's a definitive scientific answer to difficult political problems.
While we can discuss where ancestry might come from, DNA testing can't determine who belongs to a particular First Nation, Métis or Inuit community, because those aren't genetic populations — they're social groups with shared ancestry.
I share ancestry as a Dakota person with people from Germany, since that's where my father's ancestors came from, and with Cree and Métis people, since my great-grandmother was Cree and Métis. But I'm not Cree and Métis.
TallBear: Right.
I try not to use the word identity — in English, it's understood as something individual, something we choose or cultivate. Indigenous belonging isn't like that. Somebody once asked if I self-identify as Indigenous, and I laughed: "That's ridiculous." My family told me I was Dakota. My family told me who our relatives were. I grew up in that community. I didn't get to decide.
Indigenous belonging is about communities and a sense of collective history — where you come from, and where your family comes from.
TallBear: Universities give out jobs and admissions and are trying to Indigenize, allowing people to check boxes and make claims to gain positions — there has to be some way to verify those claims. Indigenous people, lawyers, and policy staff within universities should be in conversation with Indigenous communities about how to do this work.
What we've seen from lawyers — and I think this is good — is:
It goes back to the claims people are making — can they be verified? And that has to happen in conversation with actual Indigenous people in your territory. What Treaty area are you in? Whose homelands are you on? The University of Manitoba — I think you start there.
"It goes back to the claims that people are making, and can they or can they not be verified?"
TallBear: There are all kinds of effects. I've seen Indigenous women lose their jobs, or fear losing them, simply for asking who somebody's relatives are.
On a broader level, pretendians displace actual Indigenous people.
When a pretendian gets a job over a legitimate Indigenous person, those resources go to the pretendian's family and community — not to the Indigenous person's community. They also become influencers and spokespeople, shaping policy and commenting on Indigenous lives from a place of dishonesty — they didn't live those experiences, yet they speak for us.
TallBear: If I walked the streets of Winnipeg and asked people whether Canada has a legal and moral right to this land, most would say yes. It doesn't — it has violated its own treaties, and Indigenous peoples had laws governing this land before settlers arrived.
This is exactly why pretendianism is so successful: settlers believe they have the same right to our stories, our bodies, our DNA that they believe they have to the land itself.
For Indigenous people, I want you to understand that even if we can't envision winning this fight, we have to show up every day and stand our ground. The settler may not be going away, but we don’t have to make the further appropriation of Indigenous identity, lands and resources easy for them.
And for those who haven't yet turned a family tale about Indigenous ancestry into an identity claim — many, many Canadians and Americans have a story like this. It doesn't mean you have to turn it into a claim for resources. You can investigate it, find it interesting and hold back.
Date: Thursday, September 10
Time: 12:00–1:30 p.m.
Location: Desautels Concert Hall
Doors open at 11:15 a.m. with a light lunch available (11:15 a.m.—12 p.m.). The talk begins at 12:00 p.m. and will run for approximately 45 minutes, followed by a fireside chat until about 1:30 p.m.
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