WANNABE INDIANS

Although this term derives fromNativeAmericans(see principally Green 1988) who have criticized nonNative writers for marketing their work as if it were actually by a Native author—“simulations of tribal identities in the literature of dominance,” asGerald Vizenorhas put it—the “wannabe” label is sometimes applied to allneo-shamans, New Agers, Pagans, and others who can be seen by Native Americans as appropriating their spiritual traditions. Such well-known neo-shamanic writers asCarlosCastaneda, Lynn Andrews, andSun Bearhave been singled out for specific criticism as “wannabe Indians” by theAmerican IndianMovement.