Displacement is an Indigenous experience. Being disconnected is an Indigenous experience. Not knowing your ancestors by name is an Indigenous experience.

Creating a list of "Pretendians" based on fallible research of ancestry and blood quantum is a colonial project.

By doing this, you are doing the colonizer's job: gatekeeping Indigenous identity to those who meet such strict restrictions, many Natives who are in relation with their tribes do not make the cut.

Many of our relatives have been kidnapped by the state through boarding schools, adoption, foster care systems, and more. As Indigenous peoples, we should be welcoming back to our tribes and communities with open arms.

When you make a list that is based on strict qualifications, especially ones that are rooted in colonialism, you are harming your relatives, and ultimately, you are harming our sovereignty.