When using the term ‘Pretendian’, a mashup of ‘pretend’ and ‘Indian’, many Indigenous peoples will recognize it while some non-Natives may be left wondering. There are at least two different avenues leading to a Pretendian. We’ll be looking at the two most common. One will be familiar enough immediately. The second, not so much so despite her constant inflammatory pro-Trump rhetoric. Some of us have dubbed her ‘Pretendian of the year 2018’ though the year isn’t over, this one will be a hard Pretendian to top.   Senator Elizabeth Warren and the saga of family lore Ever since I was a kid, people have often told me, ‘my great great grandmother was Cherokee’. As a kid, it was just a weird thing to hear and something that seemed weird enough years later that it always seemed to be a grandmother and she was always Cherokee. Or more often than not, a Cherokee princess. It wasn’t until speaking with other Natives about it that I discovered that this seemed to be a thing with non-Natives, most …