Besides being descended from and related by blood to one of the more than 566 tribal nations recognized by the US government, Natives today agree that blood quantum is not the sole determinate of Native identity: kinship is key, because no true Native is an island.
Others become Pretendians because they romanticize Native identity.
Native identity is the birthright of its bearers and no one else.
Mutual respect and an awareness of the privilege whiteness wields could help put an end to this epidemic of cultural tourism and the exploitation of Native identity.
"His opinions came at a time when native Hawaiians were beginning what is called 'the Renaissance' -- the rebirth of pride in native identity, language and culture," the dean of the law school, Avi Soifer, said.
When Pretendians seek to adopt Native identity to appear more exotic, or for some other perceived benefit, yet lack a genuine claim to Native heritage, their actions are little more than an extension of manifest destiny and colonial conquest – you could even call it racial identity theft.
If you've ever worn a feathered headdress, clad yourself in head-to-toe Navajo prints or claimed without evidence that one of your great-great-great grandparents had some Native blood as a way to derail an argument about your white privilege, you're the kind of person we Native Americans shame as seeking to co-opt Native identity.
A native identity on the blockchain will have a native identity that can be used to access anything that gets built on the blockchain.
I find blockchain-level native identity a worthy proposition because if there's no native identity, the teams that are solving the identity problem will make the ecosystem fragmented.
If Native Americans feel they have to set aside their Native identity in order to participate in STEM, then many will simply not engage in STEM learning.
Besides these Ethereum-specific disadvantages, it also faces the problems of the blockchain in general — slow speed and no native identity on the blockchain.
