We had a request from a hoop dancer who was quite good, he used 27
hoops, but he was not Indian, but a young white kid. He learned to
dance at boy scouts.  We put his joining to a vote of the whole group
and it was decided he could not join us. I remember we told him that
the intent of the group was to dance our own tribal dances by each
tribal member affiliated with that tribe. We wanted to be as true to
the dance as possible. But in the end he was quite hurt by it, and
after talking among ourselves we realized we did not want to appear as "apples", red on the outside, white on the inside, so we did not want him to dance.  Our group was truly native and that is what we did.

The group had the following tribal representations, Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, Ute, Southern Cheyenne, Cree, Crow, Apache, Northern Cheyenne, Blood, Paiute, Shoshone, Arapaho, Sac & Fox, Arikara, Chippewa, Pine Ridge Sioux, Assinaboine, Blackfoot, Ponca, Mandan,Lumbee, and Florida Cherokee, as well as a few Canadian Natives like Metis, Dene and two Alaskan Natives.  The group totaled 35 or so altogether.  We made our own outfits, learned dances from each other and allowed each respective tribe to display their own culture and that was what it was about. 

I am not sure what happened to the young man, but he did not join us.
I have thought about it all these years later and still feel we made
the right decision. There is nothing like watching your own people
dance and sing their own songs, and in that they speak for all of their
own people. These dances were tribal specific. I did not dance Northern style nor for any other tribe, and to this day don't believe in mixing tribal cultures. I have no problem with Pow Wow Dancing, it is to me a social dance. I would not dance though, because I have my own tribal ways, but that is my own opinion.

I have met a number of people wanting to be native, Indian or claim to be some tribe, and I think it is a sound all Indians, Natives or tribal members hear all the time and you know how it is. I find those people wanting to know more about a way of life that is diminishing. I look at myself and see that what I knew is not all that I remember.

I have seen some who are not Native who know more than the Natives
about their own culture. I have also seen our youth not wanting to know these things anymore and with the passing of the elders of our tribes and peoples we lose ourselves more so into the melting pot of America. 
I have seen some profess to know more about culture, Indian ways,
sings, sweats, pipe ceremonies and share these at a price, for a buck
and I wonder about them. 

I had a friend of mine who died not too long ago, he was a Zuni, we
were like brothers. We figured one day we would hit the road at 55 and become preachers and tell people they were going to hell and get paid for it, more or less becoming charlatans, flea bags and deceivers. It was a joke to us as we could see there are some preachers who go out like this, not all but there are some that are that way. In many ways Indian culture has gone down a similar path and there is exploitation from every angle.  I am not an expert in this field but I have seen some of what I am talking about.

I have met some fake Indians and at times feel sorry for them and yet
they look on me with pity, maybe they know something I don't. Anyway I am sitting at a computer and my children are scattered like sand in a heavy wind. I am a survivor of sorts for my family as many of the problems of reservation life have taken my aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers and many other people I knew that were good and kind. I can see that there is nothing to mark their time, other than they were Natives just trying to get by and in the way of life did not find a place to rest and call home. I think this restlessness is the same with non-Indians looking for some identity. I don't have any answers, I still have a lot of questions about life just the same as you I guess.
There are no secrets to life here, just alot of people trying to find
their own way....