tl;dr tallbear's post is a long-winded defense of keeler's list. i was debating engaging with it bc i don't enjoy being angry, & even less broadcasting that anger, but i find it intriguing how her defenders always lean on keeler's status as a "native woman who refuses to behave"– https://twitter.com/KimTallBear/status/1391623540441370627

–when many of the people she's placed on this list are, in fact, Native women who refuse to behave. Tracy Rector, for example, is a Black Native woman who created Nia Tero, an Indigenous production company uplifting and employing, by and large, Native women.

why is it Keeler is always the victim here? the "non-stoic" ndn who is supposedly being violently attacked by "faceless trolls" (most of whom are actually Native women). why are the consequences she faces "misogyny," but her endless vitriol for other Native women isn't?

ultimately, these questions can be simplified. keeler is irrelevant. she was fired from indian country today for biased reporting, but she never quite got over that high of briefly being labeled "a reporter." much like ben shapiro, tucker carlson, and other grifters–

–her response to this exile was to ankle bite. nothing sells quite like hate. nothing makes you look good like perpetual victimhood. for the past decade, keeler's brand has been to harass, bully, target and slander in group chats, in private. elders, women, children.

when it turned out you could just block her and go back to hanging out with your real life grandkids, she realized she needed to go bigger. she needed an excel spreadsheet and a word-of-mouth panic attack. hence the list was born.

the list isn't for us! for those of us in community, actually in community, we KNOW who the "fakers" are. more than that, we know the way to deal with them isn't through smear campaigns and subtweeting. it's through direct confrontation, through communication. through COMMUNITY.

community, something that keeler, her defenders, and many other traumatized, isolated ndns, lack. i say this not as an excuse, mind you. "hurt people, hurt people" no shit, sherlock. i've been fucked up severely, same as you, but at the end of the day, i still get up and try.

thanks for reading, congrats if you made it this far. go take care of yourself, take care of your family (chosen or otherwise) and don't take any shit.