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In Canada, three women have been criminally charged after allegedly pretending to be Inuit in order to receive benefits from Indigenous organizations.

According to police, two 25-year-old sisters committed fraud by posing as adopted Inuit children.

The two sisters and their 59-year-old mother each face two counts of fraud. An Inuit group called the alleged deception “staggering.”

The accused are scheduled to appear in Iqaluit City Court on October 30.

In a statement, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Amira and Nadya Gill and their mother, Karima Manji, defrauded two local organizations of “funds that are only available to Inuit beneficiaries by obtaining grants and scholarships” between October 2016 and September. 2022.

Under a 1993 Indigenous land claim settlement known as the Nunavut Accord, members of Canada’s Inuit community living in the sparsely populated northern territory can receive benefits such as grants and scholarships.

Registration of Indigenous status is overseen by an organization called Nunavut Tunngavik Inc, or NTI, which represents Inuit in the territory.

In a statement released in March, NTI said it became “aware of possible fraudulent registration” of the Gill sisters after Ms Manji claimed they were adopted children and identified an Inuit woman as their biological mother.

They said the case was “the first of its kind” in the history of the organization’s registration program.

After investigation, the three men, originally from the province of Ontario, were removed from the list of NTI beneficiaries and the matter was referred to the RCMP.

The woman the Gills named as their biological mother, Kitty Noah, said before her death in July that she was not related to the twins.

In 2021, the Gill sisters, both graduates of Queen’s University in Ontario, launched an online business selling masks featuring designs by Indigenous artists.

He added that NTI would organize more training for registration committees in the future.

Mr. Kotierk called the alleged fraud “another form of colonization” and part of a broader trend of non-Indigenous Canadians reclaiming their Indigenous heritage.

“You wanted to take away our language,” he said. “You wanted to take away our culture. Now you’re trying to claim our identity? It’s just astonishing.”

In a statement, the NTI called the case “isolated” but said it was strengthening registration criteria and would require applicants to provide a copy of their detailed birth certificate.

In addition to money donated by the two local groups, the Kakivak Association and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, claiming Indigenous status also allowed the twins to receive scholarships from Indspire, a Canadian Indigenous charity, the electricity company Hydro One and the Royal Bank of Canada.

A spokesperson for the Royal Bank of Canada said that before 2021, scholarship applicants could identify as Indigenous, but the requirements have since been updated.

The BBC has contacted Indspire and Hydro One for comment.

Some Canadians have referred to those who falsely claim Indigenous ancestry as “pretenders.”

But Jean Teillet, a member of the Métis indigenous community, told Global News the term downplays the severity of the problem because it “seems harmless.”

“I prefer to call it fraud because the definition of fraud is intentional deception aimed at material gain and that’s what we’re talking about here.”

The three women charged could not immediately be reached for comment.