As we know Academia is a safe place for those who want to proclaim a Native identity, where no connection exists. I run a Native arts organization at a small public liberal arts college in the US. Our advisory board are all Native artists or Native art scholars. We give individual artist grants and require that the applicants provide Tribal ID or letter from the Tribe of descent to qualify for the grant.
One of the original advisory board members, who has since passed away, was investigated by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board for false claims of identity. She claimed Mi'kmaq and Onondaga. Apparently also St Regis Mohawk. She had also been a faculty member. She had a significant visual arts portfolio and writing.
The investigator researched those claims for her, her parents, her grandparents and great-grandparents on each side of her family and found no affiliation. By the time the investigator was ready to speak to the artist, she had passed away. Her friends claimed that she was 1st Nations and not tied to US Tribes. Her gallery glommed onto this uncertainty even after promising the investigator that her affiliation would simply be "American" on any artwork remaining.
There was one very famous Native artist who was spitting mad about it and called out the IACB. The person who hired her said "I hope this stays secret." Other friends spent lots of time processing their grief over the revelation and I spent hours of time on the issue. I finally hired a professional genealogist to see if there was any teeth to the 1st Nations claim. Her family was definitely from Quebec and were for generations. Most of the records were in French. The artist had fashioned detailed stories about her father and his profession, a detailed "family tree" but lacking specific names that allegedly tied her to the Montour family, etc. Ultimately, her only connection was to Jean Nicolet and specifically his daughter whose mother was Nipissing. Nine generations previous.
It is always interesting to me that the burden of both the knowledge and keeping the secret falls to Native people with no acknowledgement or awareness of the anger such falsehoods have on Native communities. Students studied with her because they thought they were studying with someone who understood their own experiences as Native students. What about the harm to their own educational career?
Hi Laura, this sounds like a familiar scenario. Studying and commenting on these cases for a decade now, i recognize the same patterns over and over. and you are right, the immense burden falls to Native people, especially women to document and deal with the fallout of these cases. Thank you for your insights, and for reading/listening.
As we know Academia is a safe place for those who want to proclaim a Native identity, where no connection exists. I run a Native arts organization at a small public liberal arts college in the US. Our advisory board are all Native artists or Native art scholars. We give individual artist grants and require that the applicants provide Tribal ID or letter from the Tribe of descent to qualify for the grant.
One of the original advisory board members, who has since passed away, was investigated by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board for false claims of identity. She claimed Mi'kmaq and Onondaga. Apparently also St Regis Mohawk. She had also been a faculty member. She had a significant visual arts portfolio and writing.
The investigator researched those claims for her, her parents, her grandparents and great-grandparents on each side of her family and found no affiliation. By the time the investigator was ready to speak to the artist, she had passed away. Her friends claimed that she was 1st Nations and not tied to US Tribes. Her gallery glommed onto this uncertainty even after promising the investigator that her affiliation would simply be "American" on any artwork remaining.
There was one very famous Native artist who was spitting mad about it and called out the IACB. The person who hired her said "I hope this stays secret." Other friends spent lots of time processing their grief over the revelation and I spent hours of time on the issue. I finally hired a professional genealogist to see if there was any teeth to the 1st Nations claim. Her family was definitely from Quebec and were for generations. Most of the records were in French. The artist had fashioned detailed stories about her father and his profession, a detailed "family tree" but lacking specific names that allegedly tied her to the Montour family, etc. Ultimately, her only connection was to Jean Nicolet and specifically his daughter whose mother was Nipissing. Nine generations previous.
It is always interesting to me that the burden of both the knowledge and keeping the secret falls to Native people with no acknowledgement or awareness of the anger such falsehoods have on Native communities. Students studied with her because they thought they were studying with someone who understood their own experiences as Native students. What about the harm to their own educational career?
Hi Laura, this sounds like a familiar scenario. Studying and commenting on these cases for a decade now, i recognize the same patterns over and over. and you are right, the immense burden falls to Native people, especially women to document and deal with the fallout of these cases. Thank you for your insights, and for reading/listening.
Kim TallBear
Circe Lannistern.