Shannon Baker

Let’s hear some new pretendian stories because these ones are getting old. 🥱

Why do pretendian orgin stories always seem to be the same? They all seem to have miraculously heard from their dying grandparent, on their death bed, that they finally admit they have been living a lie of pretending to be white their whole lives, but are finally coming clean.

Pssst! 🤫 Guess what? You can be a Native ally and talk about Native issues without pretending to be us. 💁🏽‍♀️

One fountain said “whites” on it while the other said “Blacks”. My grandma drank from the “Blacks” fountain. I will always be proud of my Indigenous & Black lineage. ✊🏽🪶

My Indigenous Grandma married my Black Grandfather and she relocated from Canada to the United States when they married. There were two fountains to drink from.

Indigenous people are not “gate-keeping” in asking to keep some terminology like 2S for themselves since it is tied to their own unique traditional & cultural beliefs. It’s not “colonized thinking” for Native people to not want to share everything, including identity.

In my culture, Dakelh people could decide to live as a man or woman regardless of their gender assigned at birth. They were not judged for it. Queer Natives were highly revered so much that they could become a medicine man/ woman.

It's so cringey to see pretendians centering all their posts on being Indigenous and the fake hardships they face. 🙈

Halloween is almost here:
-Don’t wear a headdress 🙅🏽‍♀️
-Don’t be an “Indian Princess” 🙅🏽‍♀️
-Don’t dress up as an “Indian Warrior” 🙅🏽‍♀️

We are not your costume.

Tolerating racism IS racism. 💁🏽‍♀️

Indigenous women make up about 1/4 of human trafficking victims in the United States. In Canada, Indigenous people make up 1/2 of human trafficking victims. Compared to other races, Indigenous women are 2.5x as likely to experience sexual violence.

There are 8 Métis Settlements in Canada, all in Alberta. They are legislated & self-governing. 🪶✊🏽

The 8 settlements are:
Fishing Lake, Kikino, Elizabeth, Paddle Prarie, Gift Lake, Buffalo Lake, East Prairie, & Peavine.

Alberta is the only Canadian province with a legislated Métis land base.

Natives have been here for thousands and thousands of years and we didn’t need signs that say to not feed the bears. 🤦🏽‍♀️

The last residential school closed in 1998 and was called the Lebret Indian residential school.

White passing Natives experience less racism and discrimination than their Black and brown, or visibly BIPOC relatives. Their lives will be easier. Looking white does not make a Native person less Native but it does make them more privileged.

“But they are still your family”
is how abuse gets normalized. 🙄

Pretendians claiming they are Métis are the same people that have never heard of a Métis settlement. 💁🏽‍♀️

You can’t break a person who gets their strength from their ancestors. 💪🏽

Dear Natives,
We often hear that we have trauma in our DNA. Don’t forget that we also have strength. 💪🏽

Learn our history because we’ve spent our whole lives learning yours. 💁🏽‍♀️
-Indigenous & Black people

If bannock can rise so can you. 😜

In the Americas, no matter where you go.
There you are. On Native land.

No one gets angrier faster than a non-Native when you tell them they aren't two-spirit. 🤪

Some of you don’t know that in Canada our colonizers are either English or French. Not Spanish. Not all Native people have Spanish decent. Also, not all Natives have colonizer DNA in them.

MMIW: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

In Canada, you needed written permission from an Indian agent to leave the rez even for a funeral or wedding. (Some elders that have had to do this are still alive today).

In the U.S., punishment for being off reservation could include a hanging.

Stop saying “off reservation” as a punchline. 🙅🏽‍♀️

Indigenous people in Canada and the U.S. were forcibly put onto reservations, and legally were not allowed to leave.

Squaw is a deragatory term.
Esk*mo is a slur.

If you didn’t know before. You know now. 💁🏽‍♀️

IF 👏🏽YOU 👏🏽 ARE 👏🏽 NOT 👏🏽 INDIGENOUS 👏🏽THEN 👏🏽 YOU 👏🏽 AREN’T 👏🏽 TWO-SPIRIT 👏🏽

-We are still finding bodies of murdered Indigenous children in residential schools
-The last residential school closed in 1998
-There are thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women