Quote - Please, and this comes from all the Native American artists I know (and being in the Capitol of the Cherokee Nation I now a lot of them), take some time and don't try to pass of a European with a mild tan as a Native American.

And I might suggest that statement still implies a limited number view of what skin tones are present in the aboriginal populations of the Americas, especially after a few centuries of people doing what people have always done when they meet other people.

I live in an Inuit community, and amongst the Inuit beneficiaries (that is, recognized as Inuit under their land claim), there are several blond-and-blue eyed Inuit, others that look like they just came off the plane from Beijing or Tokyo, some that look stereotypically "Indian", and one who, were she in Toronto or New York, would be called black and no one would look twice.

(Which also leads to amusing things like one woman I thought for years was Inuit because she looked so stereotypically Inuit, and wondering why she had such a weird accent: she was actually born in Burma.)

I've seen the same thing amongst many of the other First nations people I meet and deal with regularly.