Resisting Self-Indigenization in the US, Canada, and Globally 

This two-day symposium hosted by the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota will bring together leading experts and “first responders” to the global phenomenon of “self-indigenization.” Colloquially referred to in North America as “pretendianism,” this phenomenon reveals and reinforces the ongoing extractive relationship between (settler) colonialism and American Indian; Canadian First Nations, Métis, and Inuit; and global Indigenous sovereignties. Also referred to as “ethnic fraud,” this topic as it relates to Indigenous Peoples, is a growing concern in academia, government, arts and literature, museums and repatriation, television and film, foundations and other nonprofits, in the business world, and beyond. The symposium will invite speakers, panelists, and moderators from across the US, Canada, and globally to Minneapolis on March 18th and 19th, 2026, to discuss systemic and resource incentives to self-indigenization in the US, Canada, and other colonial states; accounts of tangible harms; strategies for change; and policy responses. Speakers and panelists will include tribal and other Indigenous government leaders, academic researchers and administrators, Indigenous community members, journalists involved in breaking self-indigenization cases, museum professionals, artists and writers, television and film industry professionals, and individuals with expertise from the Indigenous business sector.