The Questionable Native: A Question of Credibility
by Ishgooda

Several mails have crossed my screen concerning various issues that have been muddied by those claiming to speak for Native people who have not been given recognition, let alone approval to do so by the communities they purport to represent.  Several times these communities themselves are apparently manufactured and the press eager for a voice that promotes the dominant society's agenda , or delves into the mystic realm of Native "shamanism"  quotes these individuals liberally, or invites them to speak as "experts".   [Note: a  few are mentioned below..sadly, there are many others..watch for links on this topic to expand...Ish]

In 1995 and 1996, a man by the name of Dale H. formed a tribe called "The Two Worlds Tribe", adopted an FM station manager and took to the airways via this station in Kalamazoo.  Performing adoptions on air, including the station manager) and conducting naming ceremonies, the station was thrilled to permit this very accommodating  individual to speak for the local Native community.  It wasn't until sufficient pressure was leveled against the station through several weeks of constant picketing by the local Native community and documentation placed in the FCC station files, that the station licensing came up for renewal , and this man was removed from the air.  Dale Hyatt is curently a member of the Southern Band  of Cherokee, a 501(c)3, non recognized nation.  One of the members of AIM Ohio is proud to have a family pet with "carded"membership in this nation..

More recently, in Ohio, a construction company finding artifacts and a burial urn is visited by the son of a former mayor claiming to be a chief of a Native community to "bless the ground and appease the spirits", in effect giving the nod to the construction company, and in the process appearing in the local papers as a representative of a "tribe" no one has heard of.  Only too glad to receive this approval the construction plans continue.
SEE:
Developer says Indian chief gave homes project his blessing

Most recently, a re-enactor and her husband from Northampton, Mass. who make a living by telling Native stories for a fee has begun a campaign to place a blessing on the word "squa*".  Recently appearing on WHYN Ch. 40 out of Springfield,Mass, the woman, a non Native
~ (or) born again Native has begun a one woman campaign to speak against a National movement of First Nations people to eradicate this disparaging term in geographic place names claiming it to be a respectable term in Algonquin.

Per lifelong Algonquin speakers in Maniwaki there are two terms/suffixes referring to woman or female...the first is -ikwe kwa, the second (rarely used anymore) is maji-iquaw (given by London and Glaston Collins English dict. as the root for the English term of disparagement).

For those of you unfamiliar with Algonquin pronunciations I will give an example phonetically.  My name "Ishgooda"  is often pronounced by non Algonquin speakers as "Ish good day"  or "Ish gu duh"..the correct pronunciation cannot be written in English...but is closest to "sh'gutay"  the first "I" is not really pronounced but is a guttural not found in English.  An Englishman hearing maji-iquaw  would have heard sh-quah...this means a "bad or fallen woman".   It is this term picked up by both English speakers and French trappers that made its way across the country and finding its way into geographic place names.

According to the Reader's Digest encyclopedia the "reconstructed" proto language which predicated the Algonquin (no speakers..and not reconstructed from any live speakers as it came long before modern Algonquin language) was in the Massachusetts dialect per the linguists (not the people)..-squa or eshqua.  This is the English speaking linguistic professors theory in reconstruction of a dead language.   Not necessarily approved by any living Algonquin speakers taught from birth to speak the language of their ancestors.

One woman whose daughter was recently abducted beaten and raped, tells me her daughter's attacker repeatedly called her a "f*k*n  Sqa**".  This is the common usage of the term in English and as such is not a viable geographic place name.

Recently, John Stossel of Sixty Minutes broadcast a special blurb entitled "Give Me a Break" (rebuttal and synopsis of the broadcast).
The effect is all too apparent when voices are silenced, ridicule results to the detriment of legitimate Native concerns.

In late December, NAC a web broadcast Native information and news station  hosted a guest Pat T. from Ohio, who goes by the professional name of Pa Ha Ri Sa (an exoticized version of Patricia one supposes as Tsalagi has no "R" in its alphabet) who runs the White Buffalo Society:

Domain Name: http://WHITEBUFFALOSOCIETY.COM
Billing Contact: Ha, Pa Ris (PRH6) parisha@ANCIENTS.COM 614-838-4033

Her web broadcast involved "dream interpretation" for callers.  This supposedly the "traditional" interpretation.  Any who have been raised within their cultures are well aware the sham this represents.  Dream interpretation is NEVER done sight unseen for someone with whom the interpreter is not intimately familiar, nor without the proper ceremonials exchanged, and is culturally tribal specific.  This is anything but traditional.  It is in fact fraudulent.
[information on Patricia T.]

Lastly, Mehl-M. is touring the country as a "medicine" man giving seminars at medical conferences and charging for participation.  Unknowing colleges and universities, clinics and other professionals seeking to enlarge their understanding of a variety of healing modalities have in good faith engaged this individual to speak as a representative of Native healers.  Instead he speaks on his own admixture of eastern meditation, western medical concepts and a smattering of Native justifications.  One university department listening to voices of the Native community cancelled his speaking engagement next week.

These are all instances of non-Native, or "born again" Native whose ancestors are several generations removed from tribal association who are speaking for Native peoples, and representing themselves to the dominant society  as "experts". This is fraudulent and  the effect is to silence the true the voices of  Native communities.
 

NEW...QUESTIONABLE NATIVE: AN IDENTITY CRISIS?
Ishgooda, Editor Native News
See: Playing Indian
       For All Those Who Were INDIAN In a Former Life