Harjo: Fakers and phonies and frauds, egad: There ought to be a law

Posted: February 10, 2006
by: Suzan Shown Harjo / Indian Country Today

Another Indian impersonator is unmasked: Nasdijj, who masqueraded as a Navajo and made a pile of money from best-selling books about his life as a poor reservation kid with an alcoholic mother.

It turns out that Nasdijj is a very white man with some very dark secrets. He really is Tim Barrus of North Carolina. He did not grow up on or near any Indian territory. Neither parent is Navajo or Indian of any nation. His mother was not a drunken Navajo.

At the very least, Barrus and his promoters owe all Navajo people, especially the women, an apology.

Nasdijj's true identity was exposed by Matthew Fleischer in an extensive article in LA Weekly's Jan. 25 issue, ''Navahoax,'' which asked the question: ''Did a struggling white writer of gay erotica become one of multicultural literature's most celebrated memoirists - by passing himself off as Native American?''

The Nasdijj expose hit the stands the day before Oprah Winfrey's grilling of author James Frey about misrepresentations in his memoir. In less than one week, Random House's Ballantine imprint announced it would cease shipping Nasdijj's ''Geronimo's Bones'' and ''The Boy and the Dog are Sleeping.''

Nasdijj was the darling of publishing for a hot minute. He won a prestigious award intended for Native writers. Critics heaped praise on his writing; one called it ''achingly honest.''

Native people who read Nasdijj's work did not believe he was a Native writer because there was nothing familiar about the content. Non-Natives embraced his work because of its familiarity - it ''derives its special power from his ability to capture the universal emotions that we all share,'' as one book cover put it.

It is this very familiarity that allows pseudo-Indians to rise so far so fast in circles controlled by non-Indians. They write with what non-Indian reviewers like to call ''universal appeal,'' meaning that they appeal to other non-Indians because they are non-Indian.

Once these pseudo-Indians are revealed as the non-Indians they actually are, many of their enablers continue to support them, even chiding those who have brought the hoax to light as mean-spirited, small-minded or jealous.

And what happens to the posers? Like actors who've deep-ended in their roles, they either hold on to their fictionalized personae until the laughing dies down and then adopt a ''so what'' attitude - so what if I'm not actually an Indian? I'm now an Indian expert by virtue of having portrayed an Indian - or they shift into another shape to please a new audience.

And what happens to all the damage they caused and the money they made and the accolades they garnered under false pretenses? They abscond with the money and goods and leave the mess for the people they pretended to be.

The pseudo-Indians should not be held harmless. They should be made to pay. There ought to be a law, you say? I couldn't agree more.

During the hearings in the 1980s on amendments to the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, I testified on behalf of the National Congress of American Indians that Congress should establish a new law that would authorize a tribe to bring a federal action against those who profit from false claims that they are people of that tribe.

And what about people who don't profit from their false Indian identities? This is not the norm. In the vast majority of these cases, the non-Indians are pretending to be Indians for profit of some kind - for tenure, a job, a book contract, a record deal, a movie role. Look into the eyes of a pseudo-Indian and you see gold.

A new cause of action for Native nations should be more than a cease and desist order. Budding pseudo-Indians should know that there are potential consequences for identity theft.

There should be a law for Navajo Nation to sue Barrus for the profits he made while committing the crime of stealing tribal identity.

There already are ways for Native writers, who were finalists for the Native writing award that the Poets, Essayists and Novelists organization bestowed on Barrus, to seek redress. Both Barrus and PEN should hope that the snubbed writers don't use those laws to recover damages.

Some Native nations might not want to engage these fakers. Some may not consider this offense against Native people to be offensive; perhaps the same ones who think that the mascoting of their tribal identities and heroes is not a problem. So, they wouldn't sue the pseudos.

Other tribes could exact some of the profits the pseudos made off their good names and reputations, and could provide time in the slammer for the offenders to reflect on their next career moves.

Here are four ways Congress could legislate to address this problem.

First, enact a statutory cause of action for Native nations to pursue impostors across state lines, try them in tribal courts and impose triple damages against those found to be guilty. These are offenses against a particular people, who should have the authority to do something about them. This authority does not exist under current law.

Second, amend the Indian Arts and Crafts Act to include all artists, including but not limited to writers, dancers, singers, actors and curators. The law now covers only visual artists. When its penalties were increased more than 15 years ago, many pseudo-Indians traded their visual art careers for writing and curating careers, and continue to vex Native peoples.

Third, amend the Federal Trade Commission's Indian arts and crafts statute to include all arts marketed to the public. The FTC pursues these cases as consumer fraud and encourages arts and crafts outlets to clearly mark products as Native-made and non-Native made.

Bookstores do not differentiate between books written by Native people and those whose authors are not Native. Anyone can write about anything they want, but the public should be informed about which books are in a Native person's voice and experience, and which are not.

Fourth, enact an updated version of the pseudo-Indian act, which was first introduced in 1933, as part of the Indian Reorganization Act package. The bill would have made it a ''crime to represent one's self to be an Indian, and providing punishment therefore.'' Its language was simple and direct:

''It shall be unlawful for any person other than an Indian to represent himself to be an Indian for the purpose of obtaining employment or any contract for the rendition of services, or of obtaining pecuniary or other assistances, or of securing to himself or to any other person any of the privileges or benefits conferred by law upon Indians. Any person violating the provisions of this Act shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not more than $2,000 or imprisoned for not longer than one year, or both.''

Congress needs to enact new authorities and to remove present restrictions against tribes acting on their own in these areas. Congress also needs to exercise its oversight responsibilities and let the federal agencies know that this is a priority, and to provide monies to enforce existing laws.

Congressional members and staffers know what to do to properly address the Barruses who perpetuate a fraud on Native and non-Native people. The question is: Why don't they do it?

Suzan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, is president of the Morning Star Institute in Washington, D.C., and a columnist for Indian Country Today.