Tribal leaders in Wisconsin warn of ‘pretendians’ after Madison arts leader accused of pretending to be Native American resigns UW residency
A Madison arts leader has come under fire after allegations surfaced online that they fabricated their identity and claimed they were Indigenous. The clamor comes after an anonymous online researcher delved into the background of Kay LeClaire, who for several years claimed Métis, Oneida, Ojibwe and Cuban heritage and went by the name nibiiwakamigkwe.
LeClaire co-owned an Indigenous and queer art and tattoo space in downtown Madison but no longer has an ownership stake in the tattoo shop since the controversy came to light in late December, according to a statement the shop posted on Instagram.
Former friends told other news outlets that LeClaire used they/them pronouns and identified as two spirit, a term used by some Indigenous communities to describe someone who identifies as both masculine and feminine.
LeClaire declined to be interviewed, sending a statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that said they were processing information that had come to their attention late last month.
"I am sorry," LeClaire said in the statement, which did not specify to whom or what the apology was for. LeClaire did not admit to being white or falsely presenting as Indigenous, but said they will no longer use “the Ojibwe name given to me" and they are removing themselves from "all community spaces, positions, projects, and grants and will not seek new ones.” They also said they are returning culturally related items back to the community.
The questions about LeClaire's identity were first reported by the online news outlet Madison365 in early January. The article noted that LeClaire graduated from Hamilton High School in Sussex and has gone by Katie or Kathryn in the past. Their last name has also, at times, been spelled Le Claire.
Representing themselves as a member of the Indigenous community benefited LeClaire in many ways. In March, they began a 10-month paid residency at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where they helped students and staff “understand the stakes of cultural appropriation for Indigenous communities.”
They talked to numerous local media outlets from the perspective of an Indigenous person, criticizing UW-Madison for raising the Ho-Chunk flag as a purely performative gesture and urging a music venue to change its name from The Winnebago to avoid profiting from an Indigenous identity.
Last spring, LeClaire joined a state task force focused on missing and murdered Indigenous women. State Department of Justice spokesperson Gillian Drummond said LeClaire participated in some of the task force's data subcommittee meetings at the invitation of a task member, did not have voting power and stopped attending after a few meetings.
And a Madison nonprofit advocating for the LGBTQ community paid LeClaire $1,000 to speak at a dinner last June.
LeClaire's ancestry was put under the microscope in late November when an anonymous user posted extensive research about LeClaire on an online site called New Age Fraud Forum.
The research relied on obituaries and Census records, along with other publicly available records, to suggest LeClaire's ancestry is German, Swedish and French Canadian. The researcher could find no evidence of any Indigenous heritage.
The Journal Sentinel was unable to communicate with the researcher, though Madison365 and The Capital Times both did.
LeClaire isn't the first Madisonian to apparently falsely present as a person of color. CV Vitolo-Haddad in 2020 admitted she is of Italian ancestry despite pretending to be Black. The misrepresentation led Vitolo-Haddad to resign from her UW-Madison teaching position and lose out on a tenure-track job offer at the California State University, Fresno.
Fallout from 'pretendian' accusations
Last March, the UW-Madison School of Human Ecology hired LeClaire to serve as its first community leader in residence for the Center for Design and Material Culture. The job involved working with students and staff to encourage cultural appreciation, with the ultimate goal of the residency being the development of a toolkit and curriculum around cultural appropriation.
The position wasn't identity-based, though individuals from underrepresented backgrounds were encouraged to apply.
LeClaire received stipends of nearly $5,000 in private gift and grant money. The residency was scheduled to end Dec. 31, but LeClaire resigned Dec. 29.
The School of Human Ecology said in a statement that it has no plans to further collaborate with LeClaire and hasn't acquired any materials from LeClaire for its Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection, a group of textile artifacts spanning 16 centuries and more than 100 countries.
"We are deeply concerned about allegations that a community member with whom we have partnered misrepresented their identity and engaged in disingenuous actions," the school's statement said. "There is a long and painful history of erasure and cultural appropriation in the U.S., which has had an immense impact on the lives of Indigenous people. These latest allegations are a disturbing reminder of how this persists today."
LeClaire presented a jingle dress the as part of a 2021 exhibit at the Overture Center for the Arts. They also participated in an educational video and presentations at the Overture about the dress.
Overture Center spokesperson Shari Gasper said the arts center is "shocked and disappointed" by the evidence that LeClaire isn't Indigenous and is investigating.
The Overture is diligent in researching performing artists and never knowingly works with artists who misrepresent themselves, Gasper said, but "it appears that this person went to great lengths to deceive."
The person who made the dress told Madison365 they didn't know until recently that LeClaire had represented the dress as LeClaire’s own creation.
Overture staff have contacted the designer and are working with them to ensure they receive the proper credit and compensation for their work, Gasper added.
Indigenous artists feel betrayed
Indigenous artists in Wisconsin who have known and worked with LeClaire said they feel betrayed.
“Upon being told, my first thought was, perhaps there’s a mistake, ‘are we sure?’ I reached out to the person to get their side,” said Karen Ann Hoffman, a renowned Oneida bead artist whose work includes a permanent display at Chicago’s Field Museum. “But, as things went on, I became more convinced of this.
"Real damage is done by 'pretendians,'" Hoffman continued. "Opportunity is stolen, causes are damaged and communities are shaken. Going forward, I will be more careful, sadly less inclined to trust without proof.”
Hoffman met LeClaire at a throat-singing performance, a type of singing usually by Inuit women using their throat, belly and diaphragm, at an Indigenous art exhibition’s opening reception at which they were both showing work, she said.
“Not only did they usurp the performance platform from a truly authentic Native artist, robbing them of potential income, visibility, networking and economic opportunities, I am now disbelieving the history, cultural import and even the very melody of the songs they presented,” Hoffman said. “Was the information they shared with an attentive and interested audience as much of a lie as the lies they told about themselves?”
She said the message of the entire exhibition could now be doubted and that organizers at galleries, museums or other venues might be reluctant in the future to provide space for future Indigenous exhibitions if authenticity is questioned.
Melanie Tallmadge Sainz, who is Ho-Chunk, a professional artist, arts administrator and founding director of the Little Eagle Arts Foundation, said some museums and galleries outside Wisconsin that feature Indigenous artists require proof of tribal citizenship, such as at Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Autry Museum in Los Angeles and the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis.
But the requirement of proof didn't happen in the case of LeClaire.
"I was the only Native juror for a public art installation program in my area to which Kay LeClaire applied and was awarded a commission in 2020," Sainz said. "The organization in charge of this process provided all jurors with the application and images, but did not require proof of tribal enrollment. In hindsight, I wish I would have dug deeper and did my own research because these monies could have gone to a well-deserving Native/First Nations artist."
'Pretendians' a widespread issue
LeClaire is not the first person to purport an Indigenous identity for self-gain, Hoffman said.
“Adopting a Native identity might also be perceived by pretendians as ‘value added’ or a ‘competitive edge’ when they want to compete for, or steal, resources,” Hoffman said. “Those resources might be jobs, academic positions, scholarships, acceptance into art venues, policy-making boards, promotions and more.”
Certain scholarships, such as the Wisconsin Indian Student Assistance Grant and the First Nations' Native Agriculture and Food Systems Scholarship, and other financial benefits may only be available to applicants with proof of Indigenous ancestry.
Douglas Metoxen Kiel, an Oneida Nation citizen who teaches history at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, points to another recently outed white woman who purported to be Native for academic gain on his social media as Liz Hoover, a scholar at UC-Berkeley.
“No, family lore is not enough,” Metoxen Kiel wrote on his Facebook page last fall. “Genealogy websites are easy to use, and have millions of digitized records available to disprove your fantasies.”
In the book, “Great Vanishing Act,” Metoxen Kiel wrote that Indigenous nations can and should use the blood quantum qualification for tribal identity to help distinguish those who would falsely claim Indigenous ancestry.
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Blood quantum is based on a tribal enrollment policy that the federal government started imposing in the late 19th century in an effort to limit tribal enrollments. It examines the "Indian blood" of one's parents.
The use of blood quantum becomes controversial when it's required by the U.S. government as a sole tool for determination, undermining tribal authority to grant citizenship to people regardless of their ancestry, Metoxen Kiel said.
Sainz believes the phenomenon of "pretendians" will only increase in the coming years as Indigenous celebrities and culture become more popular.
"In a time when the Sioux Chef Sean Sherman is receiving accolades from James Beard and television series like 'Reservation Dogs' is nominated for numerous awards, the celebrity and Native/First Nations culture is again 'cool' and an economic engine," Sainz said. "We should expect more individuals like Kay LeClaire to seek the limelight as a Native American celebrity and cultural representative, and be prepared to question their authority."
Hoffman said more proof of tribal identity should be required for anyone purporting to be of Indigenous ancestry to receive special access or financial gain.
“As Natives, we often welcome other Natives into our circles with warmth, generosity and open-heartedness,” she said. “Perhaps we make it too easy for them.”
Tougher laws needed
Hoffman is advocating for the expansion of the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, which prohibits the misrepresentation in the marketing of Indigenous art and craft products in the U.S.
Anyone selling an art or craft product falsely suggesting it is Indigenous-made faces a fine of up to $250,000 or a five-year prison term. Businesses can face a fine up to $1 million.
Enforcement of that law appears to have increased in recent years as several people and businesses have been charged with violations across the country.
Examples include business owners of Sterling Islands Inc., in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who were ordered to serve five years' probation and pay a $300,000 fine after being caught selling Native American-style jewelry from the Philippines in 2019 in the U.S., and two Washington state artists, Lewis Anthony Rath and Jerry Chris Van Dyke, who were charged with falsely representing themselves as Indigenous artists in 2021.
There is no indication LeClaire will face charges of any kind.
Contact Kelly Meyerhofer at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KellyMeyerhofer.
Frank Vaisvilas is a Report for America corps member who covers Native American issues in Wisconsin based at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact him at fvaisvilas@gannett.com or 815-260-2262. Follow him on Twitter at @vaisvilas_frank.You can directly support his work with a tax-deductible donation online at GreenBayPressGazette.com/RFA or by check made out to The GroundTruth Project with subject line Report for America Green Bay Press Gazette Campaign. Address: The GroundTruth Project, Lockbox Services, 9450 SW Gemini Drive, PMB 46837, Beaverton, Oregon 97008-7105.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Madison pretendian: Kay LeClaire resigns UW residency amid accusations
