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

by Dina Gilio-Whitaker

An investigation into how Native American identity became a commodity, from cultural appropriation to ethnic fraud to disenrollment

Settler capitalism has been so effective that the very identities of Indigenous people have been usurped, misconstrued, and weaponized. In Who Gets to Be Indian?, scholar and writer Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes) explores how ethnic fraud and the commodification of Indianness has resulted in mass confusion about what it means to be Indigenous in the United States.

As an entry point to the seemingly intractable problem of ethnic fraud, Gilio-Whitaker critically looks to the film industry, including a case study of Sacheen Littlefeather, who is most known as the Native American woman that rejected an Oscar on behalf of Marlon Brando in 1973—though later revealed, she was not who she said she was. Gilio-Whitaker argues that this pretendian phenomenon originated in Southern California when the United States was forcing assimilation of Indians into white America culturally, but also into its capitalist economic system. With Indianness becoming a marketized commodity in the Hollywood film business, the field became open to anyone who could convincingly adopt an Indian persona.

Deeply researched using socio-historical analysis, Gilio-Whitaker offers insights from her own experiences grappling with identity to provide clarity and help readers understand how the commodification of Indianness have ultimately left many people of legitimate American Indian heritage to be disconnected from their tribes. Personal and compelling, Gilio-Whitaker takes settler capitalism to task and helps us better understand how we got here in order to counteract the abuses of pretendianism and disenrollment.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Adult, Indigenous, Politics, Own Voices, Native American

280 pages, Hardcover

First published October 7, 2025

About the author

Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes) is the policy director and a senior research associate at the Center for World Indigenous Studies and teaches American Indian Studies at California State University San Marcos. She is the coauthor, with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, of “All the Real Indians Died Off” and 20 Other Myths About Native Americans. She lives in San Clemente, California.

Reviews

[Colette Denali · Rating 5 out of 5]

outstanding!!

[Night · Rating 5 out of 5]

*I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. My opinions are my own.*

This was a very informative book that discusses the effects of colonization and capitalism on Native American peoples and their cultures. It discusses the concept of identity and what that means for Indigenous people in the United States who maintain a political relationship with the United States government and must navigate a world where people deny the existence of this nation-to-nation relationship due to deliberate attempts to erode Indigenous rights or out of complete ignorance of what it means to be American Indian/Native American and how tribes functions.

Dina Gilio-Whitaker focuses on the many complicated issues revolving around the idea of an American Indian/Native American identity such as stereotypes, blood quantum, people falsely claiming to be Indian for social, monetary, or spiritual gain, people who can clearly trace their descent from a tribal member but cannot enroll due to the enrollment requirements, and massive disenrollments of tribal members and their long past ancestors, often for political or monetary gain. That might seem like a lot, but it is very well organized, and Gilio-Whitaker defines these concepts and provides examples in her arguments which makes this book accessible to people unfamiliar with these topics and what it means to be Indigenous in the United States.

The book generally analyzes examples from South California as the author found that Hollywood and the historic migration of many Native Americans to California from their reservations as well as people who could not enroll in a tribe due to many reasons (stricter requirements or because they did not actually have proof of an ancestor who was actually from that tribe or even any Indigenous tribe) which created Neo-Indian communities which was linked to no tribe or culture and allowed non-Indigenous people to pick up aspects of different cultures to uses to pretend to be Indian or where they could spread disinformation about whatever tribe they were pretending to be a part of. I think this focusing in on California allows readers to not be overwhelmed with the many examples of pretendians (pretend + Indians), blood quantum, disenrollment, stereotypes, casinos, boarding school, assimilations, and extermination, while also showcasing how all of the concepts and movements play together.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to people who want to understand who want to understand where colonization, European values, and forced assimilation have affected Native American tribes and how Indigenous people now have to navigate the structures the Unites States have put in place while attempting to keep traditional values and defend their human rights, and the complicated spectrum of legitimate, tribal Indians to pretendians, and everyone in between. This book is incredibly important in drawing attention to the rights of Native American people are being eroded due to the lack of understanding of tribes as nations, protections put in place due to bad actors attempting to make money off of exterminating Native American tribes/cultures, and the political abuse within tribes used to expel thousands of Native Americans from their tribes, leaving many of these people jobless, homeless, and feeling the mental/emotional effects of having their community and family taken away from them or broken apart.

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

a well-researched and much needed book for anyone interested in ethnic fraud and pretendianism. i appreciated the explanation on native american identity as a citizenship rather than a racial category. i'm neither native or american, but see some parallels to ethnic fraud as well as anti-native american racism as it appears in my particular country, so this gave me much to think about. of course, this is an important issue well worth reading up on regardless if it affects one personally or not.

could have been edited a bit better (the author sometimes repeats certain phrases such as "faustian bargain" over and over again, and "sacheen" is spelled with three "e"s in multiple instances, for example), but overall a recommendation.

[Dylan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I decided to pick up this book after my tribe (after a hard fought battle spanning generations) was given federal recognition status. Gilio-Whitaker takes a very interesting and not enough discussed topic of native disenfranchisement and pretendianism head on. At first I enjoyed the book. I believe sharing the story of Sacheen Littlefeather and how it can impact tribes for decades to come is imperative to the discussion Gilio-Whitaker is trying to make.

Unfortunately, this narrative feels like an essay that got approved for a book deal and there was not enough content to create an in depth analysis the book claims to make. You can tell Gilio-Whitaker has a wide breadth of knowledge of the inner workings of California based tribal conflict and figures at the front of fraud. If that is the book you are looking for… that is what this book does best. If you are looking for a book to do what this book says it will do in its exposition (that is discuss the troubled story of dis enrollment, fighting for one’s own identity, the unique troubles of natives to have to explain their history and blood to any and all who ask) you are best served to look somewhere else.

Gilio-Whitaker uses the text more as a grievance list of those she believed have wronged native people instead of exploring the actual impact this has had for the wounded souls of those actually reading. This anger is directed almost all at California based politics. This goes as far to take aim at ideas Gilio-Whitaker has concocted, again instead of the multitude of problems natives face that could be explored in a text such as this.

For example, the author goes on for I believe the fifth time about California pretendianism to air grievances about potential college scams: “A comprehensive examination across California’s vast higher education system, which includes 116 community colleges, 10 University of California campuses, and 23 California State universities, would likely reveal a significant number of cases.” These baseless comments take the forefront rather than discussing native identity.

The attempts to discuss other tribes outside of California are not fruitful. The Lumbee tribe is mentioned shortly as only to say they are a controversial tribe because of their partial federal recognition. If Gilio-Whitaker had an understanding outside of California or intended on showing the briefest of interests on something other than scouting the next person to try to expose, she may have uncovered the long history of abuse the Lumbee have faced at the hands of the powers she claims to be fighting against. Instead this book aims to take a rapid fire approach of naming names instead of helping native people. The Lumbee are now federally recognized and I have found solitude in my identity… but this book was not the reason.

[Michael Daines · Rating 5 out of 5]

(4.5)

“Who Gets to Be Indian?” is an academic but highly approachable work digging into the questions around Indian identity. It explores the pretendian phenomenon, delving most deeply into Sacheen Littlefeather, whose claims of Apache heritage were not widely debunked until after her death a few years ago. It explores the roots of such claims in Hollywood. It also digs deeply into what it means to be Indian, with a strong assertion that Native identity is not a racial identity, a trap created by the white power structure. We see the toxic effect capitalism has had on all of this, from teaching Indians to be selfish up to casino capitalism.

If this subject interests you at all, I definitely recommend.

[Luc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding and deeply eye-opening. This author conducts thorough, extensive research over a significant period of time and - importantly - centering enrolled and recognized Indigenous citizens, scholars, and community members throughout. I might slightly argue with her claim that pretendianism and ethnic fraud began in California in the mid-20th century, since such misrepresentation seems to have had long-standing roots in white folks from the American South claiming falsely to be Cherokee. A minor point. This book is essential reading for anyone wondering about the complexities of Indigenous identity and why it is crucial to ensure truthful representation.

[Alyssa Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very insightful and well researched! The tone is somewhat academic, but the language is clear and easy to understand even if you are not coming from a related feild of study. Some points were somewhat repetitive; the author repeats some of the same information in different sections of the book. This could be intentional...I flew through it, but it is possible that it is not intended to be read straight through, all at once. I actually found the reiteration of some of the key arguments about kinship and tribal sovereignty was helpful as a reader to keep straight new terms and definitions introduced throughout the book.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75⭐

I have no idea how I missed the discourse on Sacheen Littlefeather not being indigenous. 

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this book after watching Drew Hayden Taylor's CBC documentary, The Pretendians. The content about disenrollment was most new to me.