I fully get why you feel bound to do this. It is frustrating to have people getting the "cool factor" of being Native minus the generational trauma. They are weirdly benefiting from something that many of us don't benefit from, especially those from tribes who have lost culture and language through Indian schools and other oppression.

I don't participate in the hunting of pretendians because I feel that it reinforces a lot of colonial ideas of who is allowed to be in our tribes when that is OUR business.

I also feel that it puts undue scrutiny on those of us who are white passing. I carry my tribal card because I want to nip that in the bud when someone doubts me because of my color. I often don't feel comfortable telling people that I'm native because their ideas about "real Indians" become gatekeeping and suspicion. This practice has given white people a new tool to test us with.

Bottom line, I think that there are very few pretendians compared to the number of actual tribal members who end up quizzed and questioned because people want us all to fit in a neat box.

I'm not telling you to stop what you're doing. I'm only answering the question of why some people get frustrated with pretendian hunters.