Because of the racism experienced by bona fide Indigenous people, non-Native government has, per the charter, created a raft of programs and grants to try and level the playing field and make equality a reality. But where there is a dollar to be had, there will be an unscrupulous person eager to do whatever it takes to get at it.
However, Indigenous identity is no more confusing than getting a health card or a driver’s license. Each of the more than 600 recognized Indigenous governments in Canada have their own rules to determine who is a member. Most of them are codified, and some are even searchable online. Among real Indigenous people, there isn’t any grey area: it is clear who is Indigenous and who is not.
All the ambiguity on this issue comes from the Pretendians — a group that, being non-Native themselves, have a deep cultural understanding of how their people (the same ones who give out the grants) think. They know to appeal to long lost family histories, to talk of DNA tests and to push for self-identification as the gold standard for distributing resources.
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