A run down of news about fake Natives and fake Metis across North America.

In Colorado Springs, Colorado, a man who often identified as a "Native American shaman," according to Colorado Springs police, was arrested for sexual assault and unlawful sexual contact.

The arrest happened on Sept 5, and on Friday police sent out a release stating there could be more victims.

Detectives first learned of 57-year-old Richard Ortega on May 30 when several women reported he sexually assaulted them during what Ortega claimed were "holistic healing sessions." Over five months of investigating, police gathered enough information leading to an arrest.

According to arrest records, Ortega is facing multiple charges including sexual contact during a fake medical exam and unauthorized practice of massage therapy.

Police believe Ortega met most of his victims through events and community groups tied to the Native American community.  

Read the original story Here

Passing off mass-produced tchotchkes as authentic Native American crafts could soon be illegal in Cherokee following Tribal Council’s unanimous vote to approve the Native Arts and Crafts Act last week. 

The legislation, submitted by the Office of the Attorney General with support from outgoing Wolfetown Representative Jeremy Wilson, states that it will be unlawful to “offer, display for sale, or sell any good in a manner that falsely suggests” it is made by Cherokee people or by Native Americans.

“The purpose of this is to take action on things that are being sold here on the Qualla Boundary that don’t identify who we really are, and I think if we’re going to be making the attempt to strive for more cultural appropriation for us, and our identity, then I think that actions like this are to be needed,” said Wilson. 

It is already illegal to dishonestly represent non-Native goods as indigenous creations. The federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act prohibits such actions. Nevertheless, the resolution accompanying the proposed ordinance stated, “these laws have not prevented inauthentic Cherokee goods and goods falsely purporting to be of other tribes from being displayed and sold.”

Read the rest of the story Here

Recently in Canada and the United States, a small but vocal minority of white French-descendants have used an ancestor born between 300 and 400 years ago to claim an “Indigenous” identity. Most of these claims are to a “Métis” identity, though many also claim “Abenaki” and “Algonquin” identities.

Since 2014, Professor Darryl Leroux been researching this shift into an “Indigenous” identity, which has been especially noticeable since a series of Supreme Court of Canada decisions between 1999 and 2003.

His new book, Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity, see his research into 12 years of online genealogy forums. One of the most surprising findings was how the same French women were transformed into Indigenous women on different forums in both French and English.

Learn More HERE

For many Canadians and Americans, there is something attractive about being a “little bit Indigenous” and being able to claim to be Indian or Metis. 

For instance, according to the 2016 Canada census, people claiming to be Metis rose exponentially from 2006 to 2016, with places like Nova Scotia seeing increases of over 200% and the overall indigenous population rising by over 500,000 across Canada. In the US, the 2010 census showed more than 5.2 million Americans self-identifying as Native American, but at the same time, data from the Bureau of Indian Affairs lists the total population of members and descendants of the 561 federally recognized Indian tribes to only be about 1.9 million. So, why the discrepancy?

The easy answer is that being Indian (or indigenous) is cool, but the actual answer may be more difficult and complex. 

For some, the claiming indigenous ancestry might be used as a way to further their career (like author Joseph Boyden, or US Senator Elizabeth Warren), for others it might be used to basis to apply for scholarships or to get minority status for their business, while others might have more noble (albeit misguided) reasons such as a retreat from white guilt. 

​A Māori tribe has banned a replica of Captain James Cook's ship the Endeavour from docking at its village next month, during a national commemoration of the British explorer's first encounter with indigenous New Zealanders.
 
The head of the Ngāti Kahu iwi, or tribe, said his group were not consulted by the government about plans to bring a replica to the region.
 
The ship is set to form part of a flotilla that will travel around New Zealand in October, under a celebration called "Tuia 250" or "Encounters 250."
 
"They never approached Ngāti Kahu," the iwi's chief executive Anahera Herbert-Graves told CNN affiliate RNZ. "I don't think it occurred to them to contact Ngāti Kahu."
 
"Cook never came into our rohe [territory], he sailed by, and apparently cast his eye to the port and said, 'oh, that's Doubtless Bay.' It's a fiction for him to 're-visit' us because he never came," she added.
 
"He was a barbarian. Wherever he went, like most people of the time of imperial expansion, there were murders, there were abductions, there were rapes, and just a lot of bad outcomes for the indigenous people.
 
"He didn't discover anything down here, and we object to Tuia 250 using euphemisms like 'encounters' and 'meetings' to disguise what were actually invasions," Herbert-Graves said.

Cook, the preeminent British explorer of the Pacific in the eighteenth century, has connections with many of the UK's former territories in the region, including New Zealand.
 
But his legacy, and that of the often brutal imperialism and colonialism which came in his wake, has long been opposed by indigenous communities and has increasingly come under wider scrutiny in recent years.
 
Following the announcement by the Ngāti Kahu iwi, RNZ reported that other tribes in nearby regions said they would not be holding welcoming ceremonies for the flotilla.

The Tuia 250 event has been organized by New Zealand's Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
 
The ministry's chief executive, Tamsin Evans, told RNZ it had thought it had support from the iwi for its plans, which had been discussed with the area's promotions trust, including with a representative they believed was liasing with the Māori tribes.
 
"We always knew that Tuia would cause some mixed responses. We fully appreciate the mamae [the hurt] that exists very strongly still in some communities. Our job is to open the books, let's look at all the history, and let's start to talk about this."
 
The event's website describes the Tuia 250 commemoration as an opportunity to "recognise and commemorate two extraordinary voyaging traditions and cultures -- each with their legacies and technologies, opportunities and vulnerabilities."
 
"But most importantly, Tuia 250 ki Tūranga will make room for conversations, some of them awkward, all of them vital to forging a shared future," it adds.

A new group calling itself the "The Turtle Island Tribal Nation" (Website Here) is causing a stir by promoting itself as a sort of all-encompassing tribe that will include anyone with a drop of indigenous DNA into their ranks.

To register for tribal membership in this new "nation" you must meet a 1% requirement.  They state that: [a registrant must have] "...1% of Turtle Island Indigenous Blood found within your DNA will likewise be found in the DNA of every cell of your body and therefore you are in-partitionable and fully indigenous and joint heir to Turtle Island."  

As a requirement, new members are supposed to complete basic/beginner language, culture and traditions training from a Tribal Elder within the first 2 years of acceptance, although it is not certain what tribe or who such elders might be.

Leadership of this new nation include a man named "Mide Ogichidaa Winini" who claims to be Grand Chief of an unknown "Peace Pipe, Friendship and Alliance Treaty", Tom Dostou, who is the "Sub-Chief of Grand Chief William Commanda", and Nenookaasikwe Shairl Acquin, who is designated as their "Traditional Chief of the Metis Peoples", among other leaders who are self-appointed to lifetime positions. 
​

The group's membership cards claim to provide the ability of a member to carry eagle feathers, a right that is only afforded to members of Federally recognized Indian Tribes - potentially setting up people who join and acquire such feathers to be subject to federal criminal charges.

The site is currently causing a stir on social media and among groups who work to combat cultural appropriation by non-natives.

Quite often, you will find various Facebook or Twitter posts by people claiming to be Indigenous (First Nations or Metis) whining about how their claims (almost always false or coming with zero connection to the nation they claim) are met with scorn or "lateral violence."

So what is lateral violence and do their whines of victimhood have any merit?

​​Lateral violence is displaced violence directed against one's peers rather than adversaries. Lateral Violence occurs within marginalized groups where members strike out at each other as a result of being oppressed. The oppressed become the oppressors of themselves and each other.

Using this definition, it would seem that many of the non-Indigenous people claiming to be victims of "lateral violence" or "racism" due to their false claims of indigeneity not being believed by the people they hope to be part of (i.e. Metis or Indian) are simply wrong. You simply cannot be laterally violent or laterally racist/oppressive against someone who is not part of your group. Considering that settlers making false claims to being Metis or Indian are not Metis or Indian, receiving criticism from actual Metis or Indians who oppose false claims of these settlers as part of their nations is justified.

​We would love to hear your opinion on this matter.

Some First Nations are tightening their membership and residency codes against the thousands of people across Canada who could potentially gain Indian status as a result of recent changes to remove remaining sex-based discrimination from the Indian Act.
Bill S-3 received royal assent over a year ago but some of its provisions aimed at eliminating all remaining sex-based discrimination before the creation of the modern Indian registry in 1951— the removal of what's called the 1951 cut-off —were delayed to allow for a year-long consultation process with First Nations.
The remaining provisions were brought into force by the federal government earlier in August.
The changes could extend eligibility for Indian status to potentially hundreds of thousands of people by opening up registration to descendants of women who lost their status due to marriage dating back to 1869.

READ THE STORY AT CBC INDIGENOUS