Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
This is one wild ride. I highly recommend reading the entire thing but there are some choice bits below in quotes.
And a post-publication correction that is just the icing on the cake:
Madison Indigenous arts leader, activist revealed as white
Early in 2020, an Indigenous artist urged the owners of a new music venue in town to change its name. It was called The Winnebago, after the street on which it stands. Many Indigenous people and allies let the owners know that wasn’t the best name for a white-owned music venue. One of them was n
madison365.com
Since at least 2017, Kay LeClaire has claimed Métis, Oneida, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Cuban and Jewish heritage. Additionally, they identify as “two-spirit,” a term many Indigenous people use to describe a non-binary gender identity. In addition to becoming a member and co-owner of giige, LeClaire earned several artists’ stipends, a paid residency at the University of Wisconsin, a place on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force and many speaking gigs and art exhibitions, not to mention a platform and trust of a community – all based on an ethnic identity that appears to have been fully fabricated.
“They claimed Métis (heritage)”, said Landsem, who is a member of the Manitoba Métis Federation. “I knew they were not. They didn’t know anything about being Métis. They told me incorrect things a lot. My assumption for the whole like last few years has been … they’re probably a disconnected descendant who has a complex about that. That’s what I assumed because I was giving them the benefit of the doubt.”
“I thought it was interesting how (they) often wore, it wasn’t like full regalia, but (they were) often wearing furs and clearly Indigenous-made clothing and it was almost like flying a flag. ‘Hi, I’m an indigenous woman.’ You don’t see that very often,” Goforth said. “Really, I don’t see that in my circles. I chalked that up to part of (their) role at the UW, bringing the exposure of culture forward, but now I look at it, and it was literally like a costume. It’s just so painful.”
Landsem also noted LeClaire’s frequent tanning, any mention of which Landsem said would bring accusations of colorism from LeClaire. Landsem said LeClaire used their high school senior photo as evidence that LeClaire’s mother forced them to “bleach” their skin and hair.
LeClaire provided a “jingle dress” to an exhibit at Overture Center, where patrons wrote thoughts and prayers onto small circles of fabric, which LeClaire then fashioned into the bells that adorn the traditional Ojibwe garment. However, LeClaire didn’t make the dress; they commissioned it from a person who makes powwow regalia as a “rush order” just before the exhibit opened in September 2021.
The person who made the dress asked not to be identified, but said they didn’t know that LeClaire had represented the dress as LeClaire’s own creation until last week. The maker also said she declined to work with LeClaire on future orders because something seemed “off”.
LeClaire also purchased birch baskets from a crafter who is not Indigenous, then apparently scratched that person’s name off and replaced it with their own, according to photos provided by Landsem. Landsem said LeClaire gifted some of these baskets to friends; if they sold any, it could be a violation of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990.
They noted that the self-identified Native American population grew by 85% between the 2010 and 2020 census, from just over five million to well over nine million.
“That’s not population growth,” they said. “It’s a major issue. The government needs to ask if you are an enrolled member of a federally recognized tribe.
“You can’t assume … that Kay LeClaire is an isolated incident … the pretendian problem is a long term, strategic issue,” they wrote in a later email to Madison365, adding that people who falsely claim Indigenous heritage are then passing that false claim on to their children, who may unwittingly accept it, perpetuating a falsehood through generations. “It’s a fight for our future and identity.”
And a post-publication correction that is just the icing on the cake:
NOTE: This story has been corrected. Multiple sources told Madison365 that after the Overture Center exhibit, LeClaire donated the dress to the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection at the UW School of Human Ecology. SOHE told us in an email Wednesday that isn’t the case.