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Tribe of Many Colors or Tribe of Many Dollars
Kiesha Crowther AKA “Little Grandmother” has garnered a lot of attention, over a thousand followers, perhaps millions in cash, and even more controversy in less than two years. Falsely claiming to be the “shaman” for the “Sioux Salish tribe,” Crowther has gathered an all white, mostly European “Tribe of Many Colors” around her with bizarre claims. Native activists and former followers have vowed to oppose her and expose her.
Tribe of Many Colors or Tribe of Many Dollars?
By Dr. Al Carroll
Kiesha Crowther AKA “Little Grandmother” has garnered a lot of attention, over a thousand followers, perhaps millions in cash, and even more controversy in less than two years. Falsely claiming to be the “shaman” for the “Sioux Salish tribe,” Crowther has gathered an all white, mostly European “Tribe of Many Colors” around her with bizarre claims. Native activists and former followers have vowed to oppose her and expose her.
From Santa Fe to Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, and soon to that most “American Indian” of places, Palm Springs, Kiesha Crowther draws crowds of hundreds with each gathering of ceremony selling, charging from several hundred to up to $6,000 a person. Crowther is a small red haired woman of 33, yet looks young enough to be a teenager. Adding to the strangeness, Crowther calls herself “Little Grandmother” (she is not one) and often talks in a little girl voice with fanciful (and largely false) stories about her childhood.
Crowther mixes in stories of vulnerability with dire prophecies of doom and fantastic claims, none of which are true. She claims to be the “shaman” for the “Sioux Salish tribe.” She claims to be the descendant of famous Lakota and Salish leaders, with a “fullblood Indian mother” and a grandmother supposedly on the reservation. Crowther claims to be made “shaman” by an alleged Salish elder named Falling Feathers. She claims to be recognized by dozens of tribes from New Zealand to United States to the Arctic Circle to Scandinavia to Central America. She claims to have been recognized by Native tribes at as young as age eight and to be the fulfillment of a supposed prophecy about a “fair haired girl.” She even suggests in one video that she is the returned White Buffalo Calf Woman of Lakota prophecy, a claim sure to outrage the Plains Indian tribes that hold the prophecy sacred.
Yet not a single one of these claims are true. Most are extremely obvious lies.
Who Is The Real Kiesha Crowther?
The real Kiesha Crowther was born Kiesha Rae Kreps in Sanford, Colorado, to a white middle class background, with a truck driver father and a mother owning small businesses. Her mother’s maiden name is Rodda. The Salish tribe she claims to have ancestry from do not have a single known person named Crowther, Kreps, or Rodda, either enrolled or known to the small and close knit community. (Most Salish have Irish last names given them by missionaries. A few Salish have traditional names, but none are ever translated into English.) The Salish elders in fact issued a public statement, saying officially she is not their “shaman,” asking her to quit claiming so, and pointing out no Salish had ever even heard of her. Their statement in full is at the end of this article.
Contrary to Crowther/Krep’s claim of a “fullblood Indian” mother and grandmother, there is no evidence of any Native ancestry in her family line. Her family ancestry has been traced back to her great-grandparents from England. Every census form lists all of her ancestors as white. No one else in the family has ever claimed to be or identified as American Indian, including her mother and grandmother. The only Natives in the family are two children (with no relation by blood) adopted by an uncle near Missoula, Montana. Kiesha Crowther’s mother and other family members have in fact urged her repeatedly to quit lying about the family ancestry.
Kiesha Kreps was raised as a Mormon and baptized into the Mormon Church at age eight at the same time she claims to have been recognized by Indian tribes and living alone in the woods. Crowther was married in the Mormon Church in Littleton, Colorado, and was a practicing member of the church only two years ago. She is married with two children, but separated from her husband and estranged from her entire family due to her “calling.”
In fact, absolutely no one in her family backs her claims of Native ancestry or being a “shaman.” A source very close to the family called her a “fraud” and “elaborate liar.” Numerous stories Kiesha Crowther tells at paid ceremonies are described as “lies,” such as claiming to have lived alone in the woods, nursing a dying owl, and being recognized by tribal leaders. The young Kiesha Kreps was actually fairly popular in school and not the lonely isolated kid she claims. Crowther's stranger lies include once giving a "Viking treasure ring" to her sister, who then noted one could see the trademark symbol on it.
The same source close to the family also claims Crowther’s veterinary degree is fake and came from an online degree mill, with the "degree" printed in notebook style paper rather than the stock paper degrees generally come on. It was also confirmed an animal rescue group Crowther claimed to have started is phony. The same source says Crowther plagiarized the poems she claimed to write and largely copied the paintings and other artwork she did.
Even Kiesha Crowther’s online biography as an artist is filled with falsehoods. She claimed to have been awarded Poet of the Year in 2003, 2004, and 2005 in separate cities. The “awards” are given out by the International Society of Poets, a pay to publish outfit that will include you in vanity editions for twenty five dollars each. She claimed her poem “Reach For My Hands” was made into a song by the “Willow Folk Group.” There is no sign of such a group, but there is a Willow Folk Festival in England. She claimed one of her poems was published in a book, “Poems for Peace,” chosen by former First Lady Laura Bush. There is no sign of the book nor of Laura Bush’s involvement, unless one counts her refusing to show up at a gathering of poets reciting poems opposed to the Iraq War. Crowther’s bio also claims she was “awarded the Life Experience Bachelors and holds a Masters Degree of Art from Almeda University.” Almeda University is an unaccredited online degree mill. In a 2004 expose by CBS News, a reporter successfully got his dog awarded a degree from Almeda.
How It All Began For a Would Be Shaman
Kiesha Crowther/Krep’s claims of how she became a “shaman” have changed rapidly and dramatically in less than two years since she began. In April of 2010, Crowther made the claim she originally had gotten a phone call from a group of all the Salish elders who told her she was the “fair haired child of prophecy” and they had a sacred bundle waiting for her made centuries ago.
But in June of 2010, that account changed. She claims instead an unnamed “Sioux man” made her a shaman.
That same month, Crowther also claimed she was made shaman by a group of “grandmothers” of both the Salish and “Sioux” tribes.
(Note for non-Native people: Natives generally don’t refer to the “Sioux” since this is an outdated outsider’s term. The actual tribes are called the Dakota, Lakota, and Nakoda, often called collectively the Lakota. There are dozens of Lakota bands at reservations and reserves. The Salish is an entirely different people and culture.)
In December 2010, Crowther’s story changed dramatically. No longer was there any mention of groups of women elders, nor of “Sioux men.” Instead she now claims there was a single Salish elder she calls Falling Feathers who made her “shaman for the Sioux and Salish tribes.”
There is no evidence at all that Falling Feathers ever existed, other than Crowther’s claims. Crowther claims he was an important elder, so widely known she assumed he was speaking for all Salish elders. The Salish elders have never heard of him and neither have any other Salish contacted for this article. His alleged name does not fit typical Salish names, which are either Irish or traditional Salish names not translated into English.
Conveniently, Crowther claims Falling Feathers recently died. There is no mention on tribal sites of a prominent elder dying recently. Crowther’s supporter, manager, and longtime friend Jennifer Ferraro also claims Falling Feathers was a member of the “governing council” for the “Confederated Sioux Salish.” Neither of those exists, but there is a tribal council for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai. The Lakota bands and tribes, as mentioned before, are spread across over two dozen reservations and reserves.
Only a few days after her December statement, Crowther changed her story in the most drastic way yet. She now claims to have never been teaching Native ways at all. This despite dressing up in American Indian regalia (though it was a shirt only worn by Native males), using what she seems to have believed was American Indian face paint, using what she claims was a Native pipe, and claiming her initiation came from Native elders, or alternately, a single Native elder who has passed away no one else ever heard of.
Crowther has also continually claimed the endorsement of numerous indigenous elders and other religious leaders, without evidence. Many of those she claims are Native elders actually are imposters.
She claims the endorsement of Cherokee elders. None of the traditional Cherokee elders in the Eastern Band ever heard of her.
She claims to have been recognized as a shaman by “lamas of Nepal and Tibet.” There are hundreds of such Buddhist teachers, but the only one she ever named was Lakha Lama, whom she met in Sweden. Lakha Lama gave her a blessing when Crowther asked for one, but this is neither an endorsement nor recognition, only kind words. Buddhist lamas, like American Indian traditionalists, also condemn teaching for a fee, especially very high fees as Crowther does.
Crowther also for a time claimed Sammi elders in Sweden authorized and endorsed her. Then her claim was removed from her websites. She further claimed Inuit elders gave her a crystal “from the North Pole” and that she was “giving the crystal back to the Sammi” when she buried the crystal in Sweden. There is no land, only ice at the North Pole. Crystals do not form in ice, only in land. Geologists consulted for this story say it likely is an ordinary crystal bought in a shop for less than 200 dollars, one dug up by strip mining.
On one of her visits to Sweden she claimed all Native tribes recognized and endorsed her, and that she was shaman for all of them. Since there are over 500 tribes in the US alone, the absurdity of this claim is obvious.
More recently, Crowther also claimed she was made shaman by a “Sioux” named Grandmother Lota or Lootha. Crowther also claims to be related to “Sioux” she calls Ciqalah Lotah and Ciqala Jensen. Fluent Lakota speakers we spoke to pointed out those words do not exist in the Lakota language. No one in any of the Lakota communities we contacted ever heard of Crowther or the people she claims to be related to or authorized her.
Crowther also claims the endorsement of Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez, sometimes called Wandering Wolf. Perez is a Mayan leader who appears on a number of New Age sites. However, there is no evidence of Perez ever endorsing Crowther. Perez is actually on record as strongly disagreeing and even mocking the claims of Crowther and other that the world will end in 2012. The maker of a documentary on Perez and Crowther denounced in fierce terms the “exploitation” of Perez by New Agers such as Crowther.
Crowther also is an associate of and claims the endorsement of two imposters who falsely claim to be Native elders, Adam DeArmon, a white New Age operator in Sedona, and John Kimmey, a white New Ager barred from the Hopi reservation and condemned by Hopi spiritual leaders for selling ceremony and making false claims.
The (All White) Tribe of Many Colors
Why would a self styled “shaman” who spent most of two years claiming Native elders authorized her suddenly claims to have never been doing Native teachings? Numerous family and friends of Crowther’s followers, as well as former followers, began to ask Native activists about the authenticity of her claims. By September of 2010, the chorus of criticism began to rise and put Crowther and her management on the defensive.
Crowther’s following she dubbed the Tribe of Many Colors has some striking characteristics. It has absolutely no Native members at all (including Crowther.) Outside of a member of Crowther’s management team, all seem to be exclusively white. Much like the Tea Party, they are also prone to throwing around the claim that they are hated supposedly for being white.
Such a claim falls apart because many of her critics are themselves white, especially former followers. The claim is even more striking because of the racism in some of the imagery and words used by Crowther and her “tribe.” In one trip to Sweden, Crowther spoke about the alleged superiority of Swedish people over all others. Crowther frequently claims all Native elders, or even all Native people, are supporting her, waiting for her, and depend upon her and her message even for their very survival. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Most Natives never heard of her. Those that have are strongly opposed to her.
Who is behind Crowther’s rapid rise among New Age leaders? Our source very close to the family says Crowther has no computer skills nor business or organizing acumen, nothing that could account for her success except a vivid imagination. The same source attributes everything Crowther has done to two people and one group; Adam DeArmon AKA Adam Yellowbird, a white New Age operator in Sedona; Santa Fe Soul, which sponsors some of Crowther’s talks; and especially Crowther’s longtime friend Jennifer Ferraro. Our source described Fierro as a failed performance artist who claims to be Native but is actually Italian and Greek. Online discussions between Crowther and Ferraro seem to show Ferraro as the real brains of the operation, the power behind the throne, her manager, website operator, and even her director. Crowther defers to her in public talks, and Ferraro frequently talks in one messages to Crowther like a mother to a small child.
Our source close to the family is worried the Tribe of Many Colors will "become another Jonestown" and is at a loss for how her family can get her to see sense. Whether the “tribe” self destruct violently is yet to be seen, but they are extraordinarily intolerant of dissent or criticism of any kind. Its website was heavily censored, with any daring to question Crowther kicked out. Recently their website was so overwhelmed by dealing with criticism it was taken down entirely. Crowther’s inner circle, especially Ferraro, have begun throwing around legal threats at any who dare to critique Crowther. Ferraro, though she is not a lawyer, sent threats to sue to at least five people. The “tribe” also sent infiltrators to sites critical to Crowther to gather information on critics.
There are currently plans for a book by Crowther, and two documentaries, one favorable to her and one critical. There are also ongoing plans for protests of Crowther’s ceremony selling by Native activists and her many non-Native critics. The Salish tribal council is considering legal action. The controversy is not going away.
Dr. Al Carroll is a historian, professor, former Fulbright Scholar, and activist for Native causes. His first book is Medicine Bags and Dog Tags: American Indian Veterans From Colonial Times to the Second Iraq War from University of Nebraska Press.
Research for this article includes contributions by numerous activists, former followers, Sky Davis and T. Tavares, and a source very close to the Crowther family. Annika Banfeld translated articles and radio interviews from Swedish to English.
Statement of the Salish Elders:
"The Culture and Elders Committee of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation protect the intangible cultural resources of the tribes including language, songs, stories etc.
"No tribal Elders or elders have met with nor do they condone the claims and actions made by Kiesha Crowther.
"She is not their 'shaman', she has no right to claim this title and the Elders and elders of CSKT of the Flathead Reservation would like her to cease and desist immediately from making such false claims that erode the traditions that members of the CSKT Culture and Elders Committee are trying to preserve."
The posting of this statement came with the permission and urging of the Salish elders. Anyone doubting this message's authenticity can contact the Flathead Reservation.
By Dr. Al Carroll
Kiesha Crowther AKA “Little Grandmother” has garnered a lot of attention, over a thousand followers, perhaps millions in cash, and even more controversy in less than two years. Falsely claiming to be the “shaman” for the “Sioux Salish tribe,” Crowther has gathered an all white, mostly European “Tribe of Many Colors” around her with bizarre claims. Native activists and former followers have vowed to oppose her and expose her.
From Santa Fe to Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, and soon to that most “American Indian” of places, Palm Springs, Kiesha Crowther draws crowds of hundreds with each gathering of ceremony selling, charging from several hundred to up to $6,000 a person. Crowther is a small red haired woman of 33, yet looks young enough to be a teenager. Adding to the strangeness, Crowther calls herself “Little Grandmother” (she is not one) and often talks in a little girl voice with fanciful (and largely false) stories about her childhood.
Crowther mixes in stories of vulnerability with dire prophecies of doom and fantastic claims, none of which are true. She claims to be the “shaman” for the “Sioux Salish tribe.” She claims to be the descendant of famous Lakota and Salish leaders, with a “fullblood Indian mother” and a grandmother supposedly on the reservation. Crowther claims to be made “shaman” by an alleged Salish elder named Falling Feathers. She claims to be recognized by dozens of tribes from New Zealand to United States to the Arctic Circle to Scandinavia to Central America. She claims to have been recognized by Native tribes at as young as age eight and to be the fulfillment of a supposed prophecy about a “fair haired girl.” She even suggests in one video that she is the returned White Buffalo Calf Woman of Lakota prophecy, a claim sure to outrage the Plains Indian tribes that hold the prophecy sacred.
Yet not a single one of these claims are true. Most are extremely obvious lies.
Who Is The Real Kiesha Crowther?
The real Kiesha Crowther was born Kiesha Rae Kreps in Sanford, Colorado, to a white middle class background, with a truck driver father and a mother owning small businesses. Her mother’s maiden name is Rodda. The Salish tribe she claims to have ancestry from do not have a single known person named Crowther, Kreps, or Rodda, either enrolled or known to the small and close knit community. (Most Salish have Irish last names given them by missionaries. A few Salish have traditional names, but none are ever translated into English.) The Salish elders in fact issued a public statement, saying officially she is not their “shaman,” asking her to quit claiming so, and pointing out no Salish had ever even heard of her. Their statement in full is at the end of this article.
Contrary to Crowther/Krep’s claim of a “fullblood Indian” mother and grandmother, there is no evidence of any Native ancestry in her family line. Her family ancestry has been traced back to her great-grandparents from England. Every census form lists all of her ancestors as white. No one else in the family has ever claimed to be or identified as American Indian, including her mother and grandmother. The only Natives in the family are two children (with no relation by blood) adopted by an uncle near Missoula, Montana. Kiesha Crowther’s mother and other family members have in fact urged her repeatedly to quit lying about the family ancestry.
Kiesha Kreps was raised as a Mormon and baptized into the Mormon Church at age eight at the same time she claims to have been recognized by Indian tribes and living alone in the woods. Crowther was married in the Mormon Church in Littleton, Colorado, and was a practicing member of the church only two years ago. She is married with two children, but separated from her husband and estranged from her entire family due to her “calling.”
In fact, absolutely no one in her family backs her claims of Native ancestry or being a “shaman.” A source very close to the family called her a “fraud” and “elaborate liar.” Numerous stories Kiesha Crowther tells at paid ceremonies are described as “lies,” such as claiming to have lived alone in the woods, nursing a dying owl, and being recognized by tribal leaders. The young Kiesha Kreps was actually fairly popular in school and not the lonely isolated kid she claims. Crowther's stranger lies include once giving a "Viking treasure ring" to her sister, who then noted one could see the trademark symbol on it.
The same source close to the family also claims Crowther’s veterinary degree is fake and came from an online degree mill, with the "degree" printed in notebook style paper rather than the stock paper degrees generally come on. It was also confirmed an animal rescue group Crowther claimed to have started is phony. The same source says Crowther plagiarized the poems she claimed to write and largely copied the paintings and other artwork she did.
Even Kiesha Crowther’s online biography as an artist is filled with falsehoods. She claimed to have been awarded Poet of the Year in 2003, 2004, and 2005 in separate cities. The “awards” are given out by the International Society of Poets, a pay to publish outfit that will include you in vanity editions for twenty five dollars each. She claimed her poem “Reach For My Hands” was made into a song by the “Willow Folk Group.” There is no sign of such a group, but there is a Willow Folk Festival in England. She claimed one of her poems was published in a book, “Poems for Peace,” chosen by former First Lady Laura Bush. There is no sign of the book nor of Laura Bush’s involvement, unless one counts her refusing to show up at a gathering of poets reciting poems opposed to the Iraq War. Crowther’s bio also claims she was “awarded the Life Experience Bachelors and holds a Masters Degree of Art from Almeda University.” Almeda University is an unaccredited online degree mill. In a 2004 expose by CBS News, a reporter successfully got his dog awarded a degree from Almeda.
How It All Began For a Would Be Shaman
Kiesha Crowther/Krep’s claims of how she became a “shaman” have changed rapidly and dramatically in less than two years since she began. In April of 2010, Crowther made the claim she originally had gotten a phone call from a group of all the Salish elders who told her she was the “fair haired child of prophecy” and they had a sacred bundle waiting for her made centuries ago.
But in June of 2010, that account changed. She claims instead an unnamed “Sioux man” made her a shaman.
That same month, Crowther also claimed she was made shaman by a group of “grandmothers” of both the Salish and “Sioux” tribes.
(Note for non-Native people: Natives generally don’t refer to the “Sioux” since this is an outdated outsider’s term. The actual tribes are called the Dakota, Lakota, and Nakoda, often called collectively the Lakota. There are dozens of Lakota bands at reservations and reserves. The Salish is an entirely different people and culture.)
In December 2010, Crowther’s story changed dramatically. No longer was there any mention of groups of women elders, nor of “Sioux men.” Instead she now claims there was a single Salish elder she calls Falling Feathers who made her “shaman for the Sioux and Salish tribes.”
There is no evidence at all that Falling Feathers ever existed, other than Crowther’s claims. Crowther claims he was an important elder, so widely known she assumed he was speaking for all Salish elders. The Salish elders have never heard of him and neither have any other Salish contacted for this article. His alleged name does not fit typical Salish names, which are either Irish or traditional Salish names not translated into English.
Conveniently, Crowther claims Falling Feathers recently died. There is no mention on tribal sites of a prominent elder dying recently. Crowther’s supporter, manager, and longtime friend Jennifer Ferraro also claims Falling Feathers was a member of the “governing council” for the “Confederated Sioux Salish.” Neither of those exists, but there is a tribal council for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai. The Lakota bands and tribes, as mentioned before, are spread across over two dozen reservations and reserves.
Only a few days after her December statement, Crowther changed her story in the most drastic way yet. She now claims to have never been teaching Native ways at all. This despite dressing up in American Indian regalia (though it was a shirt only worn by Native males), using what she seems to have believed was American Indian face paint, using what she claims was a Native pipe, and claiming her initiation came from Native elders, or alternately, a single Native elder who has passed away no one else ever heard of.
Crowther has also continually claimed the endorsement of numerous indigenous elders and other religious leaders, without evidence. Many of those she claims are Native elders actually are imposters.
She claims the endorsement of Cherokee elders. None of the traditional Cherokee elders in the Eastern Band ever heard of her.
She claims to have been recognized as a shaman by “lamas of Nepal and Tibet.” There are hundreds of such Buddhist teachers, but the only one she ever named was Lakha Lama, whom she met in Sweden. Lakha Lama gave her a blessing when Crowther asked for one, but this is neither an endorsement nor recognition, only kind words. Buddhist lamas, like American Indian traditionalists, also condemn teaching for a fee, especially very high fees as Crowther does.
Crowther also for a time claimed Sammi elders in Sweden authorized and endorsed her. Then her claim was removed from her websites. She further claimed Inuit elders gave her a crystal “from the North Pole” and that she was “giving the crystal back to the Sammi” when she buried the crystal in Sweden. There is no land, only ice at the North Pole. Crystals do not form in ice, only in land. Geologists consulted for this story say it likely is an ordinary crystal bought in a shop for less than 200 dollars, one dug up by strip mining.
On one of her visits to Sweden she claimed all Native tribes recognized and endorsed her, and that she was shaman for all of them. Since there are over 500 tribes in the US alone, the absurdity of this claim is obvious.
More recently, Crowther also claimed she was made shaman by a “Sioux” named Grandmother Lota or Lootha. Crowther also claims to be related to “Sioux” she calls Ciqalah Lotah and Ciqala Jensen. Fluent Lakota speakers we spoke to pointed out those words do not exist in the Lakota language. No one in any of the Lakota communities we contacted ever heard of Crowther or the people she claims to be related to or authorized her.
Crowther also claims the endorsement of Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez, sometimes called Wandering Wolf. Perez is a Mayan leader who appears on a number of New Age sites. However, there is no evidence of Perez ever endorsing Crowther. Perez is actually on record as strongly disagreeing and even mocking the claims of Crowther and other that the world will end in 2012. The maker of a documentary on Perez and Crowther denounced in fierce terms the “exploitation” of Perez by New Agers such as Crowther.
Crowther also is an associate of and claims the endorsement of two imposters who falsely claim to be Native elders, Adam DeArmon, a white New Age operator in Sedona, and John Kimmey, a white New Ager barred from the Hopi reservation and condemned by Hopi spiritual leaders for selling ceremony and making false claims.
The (All White) Tribe of Many Colors
Why would a self styled “shaman” who spent most of two years claiming Native elders authorized her suddenly claims to have never been doing Native teachings? Numerous family and friends of Crowther’s followers, as well as former followers, began to ask Native activists about the authenticity of her claims. By September of 2010, the chorus of criticism began to rise and put Crowther and her management on the defensive.
Crowther’s following she dubbed the Tribe of Many Colors has some striking characteristics. It has absolutely no Native members at all (including Crowther.) Outside of a member of Crowther’s management team, all seem to be exclusively white. Much like the Tea Party, they are also prone to throwing around the claim that they are hated supposedly for being white.
Such a claim falls apart because many of her critics are themselves white, especially former followers. The claim is even more striking because of the racism in some of the imagery and words used by Crowther and her “tribe.” In one trip to Sweden, Crowther spoke about the alleged superiority of Swedish people over all others. Crowther frequently claims all Native elders, or even all Native people, are supporting her, waiting for her, and depend upon her and her message even for their very survival. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Most Natives never heard of her. Those that have are strongly opposed to her.
Who is behind Crowther’s rapid rise among New Age leaders? Our source very close to the family says Crowther has no computer skills nor business or organizing acumen, nothing that could account for her success except a vivid imagination. The same source attributes everything Crowther has done to two people and one group; Adam DeArmon AKA Adam Yellowbird, a white New Age operator in Sedona; Santa Fe Soul, which sponsors some of Crowther’s talks; and especially Crowther’s longtime friend Jennifer Ferraro. Our source described Fierro as a failed performance artist who claims to be Native but is actually Italian and Greek. Online discussions between Crowther and Ferraro seem to show Ferraro as the real brains of the operation, the power behind the throne, her manager, website operator, and even her director. Crowther defers to her in public talks, and Ferraro frequently talks in one messages to Crowther like a mother to a small child.
Our source close to the family is worried the Tribe of Many Colors will "become another Jonestown" and is at a loss for how her family can get her to see sense. Whether the “tribe” self destruct violently is yet to be seen, but they are extraordinarily intolerant of dissent or criticism of any kind. Its website was heavily censored, with any daring to question Crowther kicked out. Recently their website was so overwhelmed by dealing with criticism it was taken down entirely. Crowther’s inner circle, especially Ferraro, have begun throwing around legal threats at any who dare to critique Crowther. Ferraro, though she is not a lawyer, sent threats to sue to at least five people. The “tribe” also sent infiltrators to sites critical to Crowther to gather information on critics.
There are currently plans for a book by Crowther, and two documentaries, one favorable to her and one critical. There are also ongoing plans for protests of Crowther’s ceremony selling by Native activists and her many non-Native critics. The Salish tribal council is considering legal action. The controversy is not going away.
Dr. Al Carroll is a historian, professor, former Fulbright Scholar, and activist for Native causes. His first book is Medicine Bags and Dog Tags: American Indian Veterans From Colonial Times to the Second Iraq War from University of Nebraska Press.
Research for this article includes contributions by numerous activists, former followers, Sky Davis and T. Tavares, and a source very close to the Crowther family. Annika Banfeld translated articles and radio interviews from Swedish to English.
Statement of the Salish Elders:
"The Culture and Elders Committee of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation protect the intangible cultural resources of the tribes including language, songs, stories etc.
"No tribal Elders or elders have met with nor do they condone the claims and actions made by Kiesha Crowther.
"She is not their 'shaman', she has no right to claim this title and the Elders and elders of CSKT of the Flathead Reservation would like her to cease and desist immediately from making such false claims that erode the traditions that members of the CSKT Culture and Elders Committee are trying to preserve."
The posting of this statement came with the permission and urging of the Salish elders. Anyone doubting this message's authenticity can contact the Flathead Reservation.
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200-300 bucks a person X 200 people a gig= 40,000 an appearance. If she's charging 6,000 X 200 people that's 1.2 MILLION for one little fake- ceremony.
Yep, a mulitmillionaire con artist.
Ndnguest
THERE ARE "NO" AMERICAN INDIGENOUS "SHAMAN'S!"
Not one American Indigenous Nation (over 600 Nations) in North America, including canada, has "Shaman's!" Nor does one Nation have, conduct or take part in the Sacred (Siberian/Mongolian) Tangeriasm!
This is NOT Our Tradition, Custom, Pathway!
It is that of ONLY Siberians and Mongolians!
OH!
A FEMALE ShaMAN???? How did everyone MISS This One?
NO MORE NEED BE SAID HERE!
All must do their utmost, leave no stones unturned, no holds barred in putting this Cheat and Sharleton OUT OF BUSINESS and/or Behind Bars!
There are Federal Laws prohibiting the selling of non-indian items claiming same to be "Indian!'
We say, the same applies to those Claiming to be Indian! And, Conducting BUSINESS for profit, as Indian, when they are NOT! If it is not a Crime, what is everyone waiting for? Make it so.
Our Lawmakers work for us, not the other way around.
We call on the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) Warriors to put this woman permanently Out-Of-Business!
With Love and respect,
Ministress Priscylla renee (Noaker) ThunderWolfe & the entire Native American Embassy team
REFERENCE:
SHAMAN: CIRCLE Of TANGERISM http://www.nativeamericanembassy.net/Shamanism/Web-Reaped/www.tengerism.org/
To say that there are no Native American "shaman" today is false. Today, there ARE legitimate Native American Indians who DO wear the title "shaman" as they have borrowed the term and made it their own, with full approval of their community. By your criterion there would also be no "medicine men" as medicine and men are both English words, thus foreign terms that, by way of your logic, would be erroneous to use to describe any Native American Indian. Being a purist when it comes to historical language reflects more on one's rigidity and ignorance than on the topic they are purporting to be an expert in. Be forewarned: there are few absolutes in this world and trying to make a topic severely black and white, wrong or right, seldom leaves room for truth. It may allow you to live in the delusion that you are somehow on the "right" side, but that requires others to view the other side as "their" right side too! And we get no where.
See for yourself, everybody from AIM to the Fulbright to universities, museums, tribal councils, members of reserve government, traditional elders like Arvol Looking Horse.
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=1235.0
Groups and individuals that NAFPS Has Worked With, Including Those That Are Members of NAFPS and Other Activist Groups
American Indian Movement Chapters:
AIM Arizona
AIM Indiana
AIM Support Group of Northern Kentucky/Ohio
MASSAIM
New England AIM
American Indian Heritage Support Center
CERTAIN
Honor Nation
ICARE
Iron Lodge (Native Prisoners Support Group)
Our Red Earth
Red Road Collective
Albuquerque Indian Center (NAFPS members toured Europe on a speaking tour to raise funds for them.)
Native Issues Supporters in Europe:
World In Our Hands Foundation
Fourth World
NANAI
Sites that list NAFPS as a resource, work with NAFPS members, or whose members recommend NAFPS, in alphabetical order:
AllExperts.com
http://en.allexperts.com/e/s/sh/shamanism.htm
AmericanIndianPrisoners.com (Native Prisoners Support Group)
http://www.americanindianprisoners.com/Pages/Al%20Carroll.htm
Americas Indigenous People, New Age, and Cultural Appropriation
http://www.stelling.nl/simpos/native_americans.htm
Anthropik Network
http://anthropik.com/2005/10/neoshamanism-is-masturbation/
Blog Critics Magazine
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/03/24/094810.php
Blue Corn Comics
http://www.bluecorncomics.com/stype3af.htm
Care 2 Make a Difference
http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=10787&pst=773492&archival=
Curanderismo Research Project
http://www.ojinaga.com/phoneyshamans.html
Dakota Lakota Singing
http://drumhop.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.pl?board=BSA&action=display&num=1108616601&start=46
http://tinyurl.com/25ky4y
DBPedia.iorg
http://dbpedia.org/page/Shamanism
Do No Harm (Anishinaabe Activists)
http://www.donoharm.bravepages.com/OctoberActions.html
Reviewer on Ebay
http://tinyurl.com/37ppmf
Engler Refugee's Homepage
http://www.geocities.com/englerrefugee/
Guru Ratings (Provides Warnings on Dangerous Gurus, Kind of a Hindu Version of NAFPS)
http://www.globalserve.net/~sarlo/Ratlinks.htm
Health on Health
http://www.healthonhealth.com/Health-Reference/S/Shamanism
Indian Religion Beliefs
http://www.winzy.com/keyword/Indian%20Religion%20Beliefs
Internet Infidels Discussion Board (Skeptics Society)
http://www.iidb.org/vbb/archive/index.php/t-7950.html
Issues Affecting American Indians in Tennessee
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?disc=199489;article=16531
Journical.com
http://www.journical.com/article.php?q=Shaman
Kisikew Wiki, Indigenous News
(From 2007 to as late as June 2010. Then apparently a friend of the site's moderator Annie Childress or Totiake going by the ID of Dualbuster came to NAFPS.
Dualbuster claimed to be the Great White Savior of the Hopi. He also endorsed a fraud who calls herself Mary Summer Rain. Based on that, the KWIN site withdrew its endorsement and claim we engage in "unethical behavior".
That so called "lack of ethics"? Posting what someone has on their Facebook page. But apparently Dualbuster's being an imposter does not bother Ms. Tiotake. And more disturbing, she endorsed the libel put out by Nuage exploiters and white supremacists about NAFPS. Talk about naive...or poor research.)
Ladyhawk's Hogan
http://groups.msn.com/LadyhawksHogan/ndnissues1.msnw?all_topics=1
Lakhota.com
http://www.lakhota.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=2693
Library of Library.com
http://libraryoflibrary.com/E_n_c_p_d_Plastic_shaman.html+nafps
Native Culture Links
http://www.nativeculturelinks.com/general.html
NativePeoplesTribes.net
http://nativepeoples.tribe.net/thread/cbdbb78b-b006-4c95-a68f-ab3e6b46a199
Native Youth Magazine
http://www.nativeyouthmagazine.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=61
OccultForums.com
http://www.occultforums.com/archive/index.php?t-19575.html
PeakOil.com (Conservation board)
http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic14491-0-asc-75.html
Planet Twinkie
http://www.geocities.com/planettwinkie//Links.html
PrisonTalk.com
http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-142879.html
Raising Our Collective Voices (Native Woman Activist)
http://windthruherhair.tripod.com/fightback.html
Red Road Collective (Anishinaabe Women Activists)
http://www.geocities.com/redroadcollective/Books.html
ReligiousForums.com
http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-19940.html
Saponitown.com (Geneology Forum)
http://www.saponitown.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1734&page=3
Six Nations Reclamation Info
http://www.reclamationinfo.com/phpBB2/
Snopes.com (Urban Legend Debunkers)
http://msgboard.snopes.com/message/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/get_topic/f/21/t/001116/p/1.html
Tutor Gig Encyclopedia
http://www.tutorgig.com/ed/shamanism
Waldorf Critics
http://www.waldorfcritics.org/active/archives/WCA0401.html
Wayshelter
http://wayshelter.com/CulturalDirectory/Kitchen/Learning_Respectful.htm
Ironically, given how much personally criticized Wikipedia, they speak well of us.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAFPS
Wikivisual
http://en.wikivisual.com/index.php/Plastic_shaman
Yahoo Answers
http://answers.yahoo.com/
Kiesha, why don't you give up the lies and give all the money you made off Native Americans? Have a conscience, people on the reservations are going hungry and cold while you live it up in your big houses traveling the world.
SHAME ON you for lying about everything from your family to your phony "gift" to lying about Indian shamans who never heard of you!
SHAME ON you for profiting off of misery!
SHAME ON you for chargiing for what should be sacred and free!
SHAME ON you for being so racist and dressing up like what you think an Indian looks like!
SHAME ON you for not having the courage to tell the truth!
Ndnguest
She has an owl story fabricated from a movie. She claims to have a mother that is, in her words "Sioux Salish". Her mother is a white woman living and working in Santa Fe New Mexico as a "light worker" and "Quantum Reiki Healer". You can come by this information on your own with simple searches. Now, some say "It doesn't matter, Kiesha's message is love". Give me a break. You cannot be in a place of love when you are living a lie. You cannot be honorable when you have stolen your titles. Kiesha is running scared, claiming she's attacked. Again, give me a break. This woman brought this all upon herself by lying. Now when people demand answers about her titles, she runs and hides behind her love message and accuses her questioners as being dark and not living in light. That's an old new charleton's tactics to escape the truth. You see if you don't think with your mind you won't care about what is in front of you. Of course kiesha doesn't want you to think with your mind!! Then you'd figure out what she's really about. She says "Don't think just be in your heart" what a bunch of baloney. Creator didn't give us minds so we could toss them out the door and never make conscious decisions. You walk in balance with both.
I do not appreciate the labels that Kiesha has been placing on any ndn opposing her actions calling us low quality or dark. She tells her followers that we don't live in our hearts. This woman knows nothing about us ndns and she sure as hell does not respect us. If Kiesha had an ndn mother, that mother would have already told her to stop mixing up her new age belief structure in with ndn traditions. They do not go together. They do not belong together. What holy person of a tribe goes around talking about I AM presence, burying crystals and talking about Osho? I think it's plain that Kiesha is not ndn and has not been trained for anything but new age seminars. Who in the world digs up crystals so they can bury them back down into mother earth? Makes no sense. It's new age psychobabble she tries to mix up with this "shamanism".
At this point, I am seeing Kiesha's followers as complicit with cultural theft and contributers to cultural genocide. I say to Kiesha's followers, what right have you to take my beliefs and use them as you pretty please? well, you don't, so hands off. You wanna tell me I'm just another negative dark person? Go on ahead. I like living in reality and truth, not new age fantasy land.
Remember - Al Carroll's only book was banned from Amazon.com after the only positive reviews of his book were his own using fake ID's. He was caught posting his feeble attempts to counter the book's condemnation by legitimate and angry NDN Vets after he repeatedly used FRAUDULANT ID's - Al Carroll used NDN VETERAN's NAMES to pretend he was one, SHAMEFUL! CRIMINAL!!! FRAUDULANT!!!! And all for his own ego. Real NDNs outed him, proved what he had done! His book was yanked from Amazon's millions of titles! You want to trust the rants and raves of THAT kind of fake - one who says he wants to protect NDNs while he steals from them? (He's not even very original)
Here's the next title they can share: "Followers Disillusioned by Fake" - only I am not as positive about crowther being a fake (as much as being young and confused) as I am Al Carroll being a PROVEN (we still have the screen shots from Amazon) FRAUD with a flock of white & European, mainly female followers who will someday awaken to Al Carroll, the Fake and Fraud who abuses real NDNs. By the way, where's YOUR NDN Documentation Al? You demand it from others....while claiming you are some kind of expert "educated Indian" ....? End the controversy once and for al, Al. Let's see the expert NDN's creds! We're sure Fulbright and your Employers will want to see your "NDN credentials" too....there are alot of real NDN Vets who would like to see them...
Its wonderful that Indians can live in two worlds, most of us want to thrive to keep what we have left for our kids and Grandchildren, while we support people like you and others who really do us justice out there in the white world. This country was not established with Christian ideals, it was established with trickery and greed. We know who the greedy ones are and still are, and they are NOT the Native American Indians. We know who the wannabee trickters are. Thank you for all you do to preserve the Culture!
Tossing in a couple spelling errors, pretending you didn't put your target's picture with the story....falling back on racism "Indians can usually tell one another just by looking" ...nice touches; but they only further connect you to this smelly sock per your usual MO when you are caught lying. Darn your socks, Al. Darn it.
I did look up the "little grandmother", I could not listen long.....so much of her speech seems to be taken from what the real deal has tried to live by and white eyes want it all!
This country was not founded on Christian ideas and ideals, it was founded on GREED, not by the Natives either. The GREED goes on still to this day.
We have a theory about "OLD SOULS", these could also be white but we like to keep it Indian America. "OLD SOULS" to us are young people with the ideas of "OLD", ideas in which they grew up in and around and live by, not some young white woman who reads and uses the Indian myths, prayers, and beliefs for her WHITE PAYING AUDIENCE. I believe Al Carroll to be an "OLD SOUL", in a young body, he doesn't have to prove his Indianess, he just has to know it and respect it. Lots of wannabees like david yeagley do not have the Soul to be Native American, he has sold his soul to the likes of White eyes, thus he and Kiesha Crowther would make a wonderful couple, she could support this souless poor white man. I am Beverly Isaac a full Blood Comanche, who supports Al Carroll. I loath everything david yeagly stands for especially back stabbing the real Indian People.
I understand someone wanting to find allies to stand with, against someone you find reprehensible - a tip, just make sure you aren't allying with someone, like Al, who is actually worse than the person you both dislike. He'll rub his smelly sockpuppets off on you. And, of course, there is no way to prove you are not still Al writing as Beverly. But then, Al would counter and say there is no way I can prove I am not Yeagely....except, it's hard to believe Yeagely or anyone other than a real NDN Veteran would care enough to post these call-outs on Al Carroll the Poser.
By the way, do you not find it arrogant that he claims he is Irish and Mexican and of undocumented Apache descent, yet he posts on his forum as "Educated Indian"...a bit presumptuous to claim being an NDN while ignoring the other 17/16th of his genetics...(he certainly condemns others who are talking as Native American when they don't have documentation - why is HE exempt from having to verify HIS native claims!?! It was a rhetorical question, because knowing AL (and that goes for any of his puppets, sock or otherwise) he/you'd just have a snappy statement to draw attention away from the ongoing Al Carroll hyprocisy. Not interested, not until Al comes clean about his shameful egocentric charade and fraud. Not until he apologizes for all the libel and slander he has wielded against Native Elders too. If you are not one of his alter-egos, maybe you can be instrumental in getting him some help. You'd be helping make it a better world if you did.
yeagley likes to use names that sound "Indian", and rocky boy would fit like he uses "badeagle", therefore you could indeed be yeagley. Hey, watch your spelling..when he gets very angry, he misspells also and his statement are always to divide.
Most Indians just are, they don't have to prove anything, they don't push buttons for attention, but the Indian has every right to defend negative actions against themselves no matter what Nation, the the Real Deal defends any Nation agains the like of yeagleys' rants, racism and if you want to speak of the Elders....He uses and spits them out. yeagley took Sacred Native hyms and put them to orchestra music(at least he tried)...defaming the beautiful words and making them unrecognizable, beautiful words composed by MY relatives, he defamed and degraded their work, did he get permission? No, because they are all deceased, but their famliy, of which I am one hates the fact that he uses without permission......do we sue? No, thats a White mans way of working things out...that is his way. He knows this, but things may soon turn around......... This will be my last response, you pushed enough buttons.
He seems obsessed with this Yeagely character to the point of incorporating a slam againt Yeagely into what amounts to a distrubing amount of pages in his book. (I read the book but skipped over that cesspool of personal assaults on someone who didn't even seem real or relevant to the book's purported topic.)
Al Carroll's book was found deficient in every possible context. He is not an academic except by a piece of paper. He apparently isn't an Indian - by any piece of paper or relative willing to own him.
The notion he is an old soul in a young body is laughably "new-age-sewage" and is EXACTLY the type of hype HE attacks others for saying about someone who refuses to provide ANY proof of blood quantum OR indigenous community affiliation.
His book was yanked from Amazon.com - which hardly ever even happens - after real Indians caught him by documenting him using Sock Puppet ID's to post the ONLY positive comments about his book (and he accused them all of being Yeagely....yawn....).
Al Carroll committed FRAUD and is a disgrace to ALL Native Americans, Fulbright Scholars and ALL Veterans when he posed as a Lakota Gulf War Veteran. Furthermore, his racist hatred so taints his thought processes that he will not change his course when proven irrefutably wrong - even when he has been wrong about legitimate traditional Elders. I want to be there when he is confronted by both, an Elder and a Vet, with a legion of witnesses, maybe even you.
Finally, I googled the name Beverly Isaac, and I am sorry you/she have/has been given such a bad internet rap. I will not add to that disgrace. All women deserve respect, and an old woman (like B Isaac appears to be) deserves even more. An Old woman in an old body - whether her soul is new or old, should not be ridiculed and condemned like she has been on the internet. We can save that for those who deserve ridicule and condemnation for crimes against Native American Indians and Veterans: criminal Al Carroll.
Bottom line: when you read his articles about Frauds, know you are reading articles written by one.
Typical yeagley disrespectful response toward a woman, especially toward the Elders and Indian and remember the subject here was "Little Grandmother", not yeagly dodging himself by hiding behind a fake name, bringing himself up again and again then saying he doesn't know him. You like being brought up no matter how! "Erratum" On Page 183, lines 32-33, the text should read: "yeagley was not Comanche, according to several noted Natives." We should know....Good bye!
I began writing here for the same reason I am concluding: We ALL deserve to know the merits of an author - especially when they are trying to turn us against someone else. Al Carroll, the author deserves to be critiqued based on his own culpability - as a founder of a forum that exists to bash others via an extension of his own twisted ego, a coward who uses names of real NDNs to defend himself from being exposed as the liar he is.
And I meant only respect for ALL women, most especially old women - I love and respect my Elders. I am surrounded by beautiful old women - There is no shame in being one, only honor, and I DO honor old women, including the real B. Isaac if indeed that persona is an old woman. Sorry you missed the sincere compliment.
Since Al trivializes women, and Elders in general, I still suspect he used B's name here.
Ndnguest
How can anyone call him a fraud? Dr. Carroll has never claimed to be anything he is not. He's not a ceremonial leader, he's not an elder, he's never claimed to be any of those things. He has always been very open about having mixed ancestry and not being enrolled. What matters is Indian people who care about not selling out the traditions accept him and respect what he's doing. Not every Indian person likes him... Indians who sell out their own people don't like it when Al talks candidly about that and the damage it does.
The words of his attackers are very similar to the nasty posts about him in other forums and blogs. You know why? Because they come from the same small group of unbalanced, obsessive exploiters and pretendians who have had their livelihoods damaged by Dr. Carroll. They are furious that he has damaged their ability to pose as Indians, to sell ceremonies, to make a living off pay to pray. They stalk him around the web.
Hello, Al's stalkers :-) Try calming down. Try praying. Try listening to traditional people. Try learning some respect. Try working to stop exploitation instead of attacking the people doing the hard work of stopping frauds like Crowther.
Here's the text from their attack, and this is not the only guy they've banned out of total paranoia. When they don't ban you - they just edit your posts to fit their bigoted agenda (happened to others who sought out my Buddy to commiserate):
PaxMan
(MY BUDDY)
Hi. I was asked to post an intro because my posts reminded Educated Indian of a 'white supremicist troll' ? I am none of the above. Also, EI wanted to know why my email address and my ISP 'don't match.' Sorry, but I don't know what that means. My email address is hotmail cuz it's free. I use my buddyies' internet connections - because that's free too (at least for me) (ok, I buy the pizza) .
Beyond that, well, gee, I guess you will best get to know me by my posts - I think those speak more for me than me sitting here, kicking a clod of dirt (my buddy = not a good housekeeper) tryin' to think of something to say that is somewhere between bragging and b-o-r-i-n-g!
Maybe I'll think of something later.
Thanks.
____________________________________________________
THEIR RESPONSE to my Bud who is loyal, loving, trusting - and gullible back then:
By Barnaby_McEwan
Global Moderator
Posts: 875
Re: PaxMan
« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2008, 02:11:19 pm »
Quote from: PaxMan on April 20, 2008, 05:16:04 am
"I guess you will best get to know me by my posts..."
Exactly. Your posts, including this one, are what strongly remind us of someone who's attempted to cause trouble here before. You blew your chance to persuade us otherwise.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
educatedindian
Administrator
Posts: 2920
Re: PaxMan
« Reply #2 on: April 20, 2008, 03:17:13 pm »
His email to me, and refusal to explain himself, tell us that he is John Martin trying to be troll again.
___________________________________________________________
-My Buddy's shocked reply
"A White Supremicist troll?" I am speechless. The only trolls in my life were those fuzzy headed fad dolls in the 1960's! And please tell me just what I have said that even remotely resembles a white supremicist?
I am barely computer literate - (i.e. I know how to type these replies, that's about it. If an ISP is my internet service provider, it's via satellite dish, that's all I know, since I'm not the one who writes the checks to pay the bill for it.
___________________________________________________________
EDUCATED INDIAN - AKA AL CARROLL's reply:
The usual pattern he tried over at Indianz, blatant brown nosing, refusal to answer questions, exagerrated claims of ignorance. Even his misspelling of supremacist is the same as Martin's.
After a period of trying to ingratiate himself, he'd explode in usual racist rants, followed sometimes a string of libels. So we'll just spare everyone in here that.
Anyone else who joins with the same problems with their ISP will be given a chance to explain themselves, then barred if they refuse.
___________________________________________________________ My Buddy was BANNED BEFORE he could post any further explanation or question. Again, all his topic posts were earnest, honest, sensitive - like he is! He even wanted to donate money. Go ahead - look up his posts on the forum - unless Al removes them before you can.
So, that's Al Carroll and his value system - ban anyone who makes the same spelling mistakes as his enemy does. Rely on his flawed interpretation of how ISPs work. Ban someone who sounds nice, out of fear they will eventually turn on him? Huh? Pitiful. Pathetic. No wonder Al has enemies! Al has done this before and since. We heard from a long list who were either banned members or still members in hiding.
My Buddy never made ANY criticism. My buddy had never been to Indianz.com; clearly Al is scared of ANYONE who he fears might stand up to him. The irony? My buddy would never have. A Salt of the Earth Guy.
But here I am - looking into your twisted soul, Al. Your cover is blown. So is Kathryn's little game - look how she set up the new member "Passion" - a seemingly talented, skilled, sincere if naiive newbie. No WELCOME, just bait and a trap. Go ahead, read the vile posts in the MEMBER INTRODUCTION section and tell me how you'd feel being "welcomed" that way. Hell, they were so bile and pus filled in their vitriol they ignored the member and just went on spitting out their hatred for words she used - IN THE SECTION for new MEMBERS INTRODUCTION, in the thread for this woman's name!!! Take it to another thread people! That thread was for HER to introduce herself to you and you slaughtered her there then kept on bashing words and concepts, using HER SPACE as your very own lecture podium to stand on top of! Rude, arrogant, biased, bigots, ignorant and definitly NOT a forum BY NDNS or FOR us either. I notice more and more Europeans are members and only maybe a half dozen members may be NDNS!
There is more than a little group of NDN people who despise Al Carroll - there is a growing swell of us - and if we ever get to meet and compare notes...wonder what other crimes of fraud we will discover: Faking a Lakota Warrior Veteran ID to review your own book! LOL - you're a bad joke with no social relevance and all the socks in your drawer (or ignorant "defenders" of your sham) don't change the fact that you LIE and when you are caught you LIE more and when you are afraid you might be caught - you lie, lie, lie.
Nobody is sending you threats of any kind Al, nobody wants anything to do with you. You made that LIE up to glorify yourself and as camouflage for your grave misdeeds. ohoh, I used the word "grave" - now Al's delusional persecution complex will think that is a hidden threat to bury him. Relax, Al, you are already buried - in your own decaying bullshit, you just don't seem to know it yet.
There's nothing left to be done but let him rot, and step away, far, far away from his stink.
Actually if anyone had anything about what Kiesha claims as being true regarding claims of authority, commission, shaman-ness, it would be newsworthy. In fact Wondering Wolf has disavowed her and stated clearly she is not a 'Wisdom Keeper' and not any way related to the Continental Council (see facebook page of Shift of the Ages). Allegedly Kiesha's mother (Terri Kreps) and maternal lineage is not native in any way (unknown by name in Salish tribal roles). Falling Feathers is conveniently dead. It appears only Jennifer is standing with her saying she is shaman. Today on newagegraud.org, page 59 of the forum topic on Kiesha, some pretty disturbing information has come out on Kiesha's background. It's worth your time to read it.
Point after point every claim LG has made of being commissioned or an authority to teach and being uber-shaman is being dis-proven as the facts come out. And there is heavy editing of member comments in the tribe of many colors websites to try and keep a lid on this. Videos that are marked as being down for editing to remove any claims regarding tribal authority are still up elsewhere on youtube. That seems very duplicitous. You raise any questions on that site and you get warned and/or removed (thanks to 'Steve' the bouncer).
For folks who believe that only the message and not the messenger matters, that her message is only of love, are living in a personal fantasy island, seeing only what they want to see, are sharing many of the same characteristics as do cult members. To be a fully integrated human you must have your awareness open to everything. Kieshas background and her claims, her character, matter greatly.
You said:
"For folks who believe that only the message and not the messenger matters,... are living in a personal fantasy island, seeing only what they want to see, are sharing many of the same characteristics as do cult members...."
Perfectly fits Dr. Al Carroll and Kathryn Price-Make-Up-A-Name (while bashing others who do the same)
There you go, beware WHOM you follow anywhere - demand transparency from NAFPS members and Al Carroll, their cult leader.
While you may have concerns about Dr Carroll, I did not hear you refute anything he said in his claims about Kiesha. And that is the point of his posting, to bring out the facts regarding Kiesha.
If you, and others, have specific concerns about Dr. Carroll then you would help everyone by creating a similar document on him as he has done for Kiesha, post it to indybay, and simply leave a link to your article in the comments in this article.
Otherwise the detractors for Dr. Carroll would seem by many to be using a typical tactic by trying to distract away from the current facts and subject at hand involving Kiesha. Nothing about Dr. Carrolls past takes away from the facts he is posting about Kiesha. And that is something that Kiesha defenders just don't get.
Example post from TOMC of typical Kiesha follower:
"Just as an aside...the comments around that are supposedly from Native American sources...are not...they are just people who have not yet found love in their hearts trying to discredit the light."
This is hogwash. The Elders Committe of the Consolidated Salish and Kootenai Tribe are clearly Native American and they have disavowed Kiesha. So has Wandering Wolf who is Mayan. Plus the countless other Native Americans posting on NAFPS, Youtube, facebook and other sites who have determined Kiesha is pulling a fast one. The people speaking out about Kiesha, from all races and backgrounds, are no less loving or enlightened than those who are swallowing Kiesha's message. Those speaking out are apparently more concerned about the truth.
The truth matters especially in spiritual topics when they are 1) claims about authority and 2) commission especially when said person is 3) charging money for 4) fake ceremony, 5) dressing up indian, 6) claiming native heritage, and declaring they are 7) setting up their 'own tribe' which is ridiculous in all respects. The latest posts on NAFPS (newagefraud.org) are very disturbing because they get into an alleged history of financial legal judgments involving her. These are all matters of character, motive, purity and trustworthiness, key traits of anyone trying to be a leader, especially in matters of personal development and spiritual initiative.
Talk about Kiesha on the Kiesha post and Dr. Carroll on the Carroll post. And if you had documentation about Dr. Carroll to the level that exists on Kiesha then that would be helpful. Otherwise it comes across as a smokescreen of whining and propaganda trying to stave off something that is now inevitable.
Religions, cultures, mores have ALWAYS morphed and evolved...Navajo's never wove in the patterns and palette we all think of today - until whites asked them to - for money! (Just a fact, not a value comment at all!)
Who can possibly endorse Native Tribes now selling whiteman made chemically poisoned cigarrettes on the rez "tax free" just because treaty law allows them to? But they do. I have sat at the feet of Elders who carry such shame and rage over that - they put their liveson the line to gifht for traty rights only to have this generation use them for cheap (and sacreligious) smokes and gambling....but we have done it to ourselves or allowed it to change us.
While we are all jumping around here trying to "save the cultures" let's acknowledge that they always have evolved - sometimes naturally, other times by force....Think: advent of the Horse and how it changed our world here...think Christianity - and though I refuse it, who among us NDNS doesn't have a respect Elder who clings to the Bible!!!!????
Look past our up-in-the-air or glaring downward noses - see ahead 7 generations -everything is merging - like it or not. Infusing some honor in the process may be the best gift we can give to those who are yet to come. We NEED people to teach us about Love and Peace - and we need it by example. Al Carroll and NAFPS are the perfect example of "How NOT to be Human-beings; How NOT to treat others." The Elders of the tribe Crowther claims handled it - its a pity their own Tribal Authority didn't even know the Elders had issued a statement - again, we have much to do to clean up our own messes before pointing at others. We do NOT need self-appointed vigilante Al Carroll and NAFPS to wage war on individuals or organizations for us. He does so with no honor - he does so with NO Native Tribal endorsement nor affiliation - he lists facts in Crowther's article then makes up "Sources close to the family." He does what Crowther appears to be doing - gives scared people what they want, in his case - validation that their paranoia about anything new age is accurate, and then makes up associations to validate his claims.
THAT, Jim, is why I continue to post HERE. See the obvious - that in our attempts to find truth we need not rush to the opposite side of the ship. Indeed, the Truth is found alittle in both sides - and it is up to us to sift and sort to find that which we need in order to feel safe in our own skins, in our own judgements, in our own world - because both sides are still polluted with deceit.
Also the rush to judge Crowther based on bankruptcy is a petty leap to arrogance - who doesn't know someone who has hit hard times. Maybe her "NM" house is owned by her parents. Maybe her spouse at the time ran up gambling debts.....etc..... we just do not know. And the ensuing two legal issues most likely followed her from the FIRST event. There is NOTHING that supports those two filings belonging to anything other than the primary Bankruptcy. The dates imply that it is actually from earlier debts than the Bankruptcy - it takes time to get a creditor to the point of expensive legal action!
So back up everyone - we can use BOTH Crowther and Al Carroll as teachers - illustrating how they each carry an amount of facts, some truth and some delusions - now, pick and choose which belong in your own make-up.
If you come from Love, seems to be more of that in the Crowther camp - you will have to work around her own ego issues and those of her promoters to find it - but now might be a good time for finding love and peace in your own hearts and sending some to her - support her as she finds truth among the ashes, hold her to accountability, but do so in love. If Fear and Hatred are your chosen emotions - then Al Carroll and NAFPS are your gang - you'll never be fooled by anybody - outside of Al Carroll and NAFPS - and yourself, when you align with them - because they doubt everybody, and those they can't doubt due to the person's esteemed and Traditional Status, they explain away as being Elders who must be have been "manipulated by some non-Indian exploiter"....so add Patronizing Racism to the list of Fear and Hatred there.
We DO know that whatever is planted in your garden is what you are most likely to harvest...we can expect more and more hatred AT Al Carroll and NAFPS as the harvest of their spewing the same.
Crowther is at a turning point - what a great teaching she could offer her followers if she can shed her own delusions. So far, Al Carroll still clings to his delusions and lies - and rebuttals such as this are just a part of his eternal harvest.
So here's to life's menu - ala carte....bon appettit!
And know that you can always walk away from BOTH Crowther and Carroll...the same opportunities to align with Love and Peace or Fear and Hatred are everywhere. Some want teachers, some are Do-it-yourselfers...I've heard it said that there were never any wars among NDNs about religion, spirituality, nor about how each person, each culture views their world. I for one refuse to let non-Indian Fraud Al Carroll start one.
He is not my enemy as that requires honor on his part; but some blood-sucking mosquitoes deserve a smackdown on occasion. This is one.
You said: The truth matters especially in spiritual topics when they are 1) claims about authority and 2) commission especially when said person is 3) charging money for 4) fake ceremony, 5) dressing up indian, 6) claiming native heritage, and declaring they are 7) setting up their 'own tribe' which is ridiculous in all respects....
Re: #1 Claims of Authority; that sounds like what the earlier posters are trying to do by exposing the truth abuot Dr. Al Carroll and his forum New Age Frauds.
Re: #4 want to clarify that, having not been familiar with the Keisha Crowther "ceremonies" that they are hardly "fake" - I mean, they have everything that constitutes an actual "ceremony," right? Just because you don't agree with it, it's still a ceremony that others apparently do believe in. Please, lets' be tolerant of other's ways while we are challenging their right to appropriate SOME cultural intellectual property - a concept btw that never existed traditionally. But these days a tribe or nation or coporation or person has the right to stak a claim on SOME elements, but not all.
Re: #7...you think building their own "tribe" is "ridiculous in all respects" - WHY? That at least keeps them out of our hair! And just how do you think the over 400 tribes of Native American Indians were conceived - SOMEBODY has to start each one...just because that was before your time does not erase that fact that groups of people organzied. And if you want to talk about "cultural purity bleh bleh bleh just look at the Iroquois (and many other tribes and nations )who kidnapped thousands of NOT-Iroquios people, more than there were Iroquois!, adopting them to BECOME Itoquois in EVERY WAY THAT MATTERED TO THEM!!! BYW, You think NONE of those adoptees' ways ever infiltrated any village and changed the culture? Well, glass beads did. Metal did. bleh bleh bleh...with trade comes change...of mind, heart, spirit as well as pocketbook.
And what of all the blending of religious ways like the Seneca (can't think of his name...) who "had a dream" and changed the old traditional ways to a more Christian set of rules. People forget that the Seneca Longhouses today aren't Seneca at all (in the "traditional" sense), but a compromised religion blending old and new. You think that doesn't happen ALL the time in Indian country? And nearly everywhere else? How could it not? We don't live in little vaccums.
The Ghost Dance was something pretty controversial in its day. Do you think every Elder was ready to just set down the ways they learned for some new "dreamer's?" But they did.
I'm just saying that we all need some persepctive here. Life changes. That's what makes it LIFE! Dr. Al Carroll seems intent on locking us in some mason jar, "preserving our culture." But what era of our culture? It has ALWAYS changed and will not stop changing now! I'm not saying it is changing for the better or worse, but at least I see the Emperor, in this case, Dr. Al Carroll, has no clothes on and somebody ought to throw a blanket on that ugly sight-site!
Let the not-Indians have their new ways. Let them wear leather and play drums and put paint on their faces. Let them be. EXCEPT when they purport alliances to or connections with or say they are a member of any group that they are not. That would be false so CORRECT THEM. No need to tear down all the other aspects of their existence! THAT'S not Indian!
Of course, that riles the new feud of who is and who isn't (anylonger) a tribal member. While we are examining what money is doing involved with spirituality, we also have to examine what all this new casino money has done to Native communities. Turning brother against brother, literally. all over casino benefits. Go to bed Indian, wake up no longer Indian, just so others can scarf up more money. Someone once said that reservations are glass fishbowls and now that there is outside money pouring in, and no one cleaning the bowl, it's murky and mired and looking in from the outside isn't anybetter than the corrupted view from the inside. I don't have answers but I am sure Dr. Al Carroll and New Age Fraud is also not the answer. Have you actually read that forum? Sick, sick, sick the way they witchhunt and annihilate anyone who ever....took a Reiki class...with the most inane excuses for evidence to condemn them. Talk about a disgusting fishbowl!
This little white girl has an only white paid audience, badeagle has only a white euro following, yet they use Native American theme for profit. Why is this OK, yet the Real Indian Activists use their Indian experience in their lives to speak up for the misuse of our ways. Why doesn't this little girl just claim being a Poet or such, leave the Native Spiritual theme alone, why does badeagle use the Indian name, yet denigrades the Native men and women. yeagley has only one Indian sioux friend, betty ann owens gross. They both fight for the rights to use the mascot which degrades the Indian image, and she wants to legalize alcohol on the Pine Ridge reservation. He wants all Indians to quit crying around about the past, forget it, stop crying over spilt blood! Yet he praises the white eye, white euro blood is the purist he says. They sicken me, yet they use, and misuse the image of the Indians and for some this is OK???? Whoever sides with the likes of this type, cannot have the best interest of the Native American in mind.
About a white girl dressing up like an Indian in front of other white people for a ceremony...gee, where have I heard that before...oh wait...Campfire Girls, Brownies, Girl Scouts, and boys had Y-Indian Guides and Christian Spiritualist Churches have their version, and on and on... bottom line like others have said: "NOBODY CAN STEAL YOUR SPIRITUALITY OR YOUR RELIGION - it's who you ARE - so if you lose it, it's because YOU let it leave your life. It is not a commodity that can be stolen - yes, it can be imitated, even poorly, even insultingly, but it can NOT be STOLEN as it is YOUR THOUGHTS and YOUR FEELINGS, and if anyone else has the same, similar, or otherwise, THOSE are THEIR THOUGHTS and FEELINGS. If your spirituality can't withstand other people's ignorance - or your own - then it must not be much in the first place."
Native born, never have to prove anything, they just live their life until they realize these fake Indians are making money off of ME, MY Heritage, MY Spiritualism, My Ancesters, they sneak in on the Tribal Rolls, and take, take and spit on the Real Deal. They use their WHITE side to get their foot in the doors of opportunity, because they ARE WHITE they know they can! They Laugh at the way Indians do things on the up and up it may take a longer time, but Indians can be Proud they did the right thing....the wannabee rides the tail coats of the Real Indian, because they dare to, they have no scruples.........just my observation of knowing an unscrupulous wannabee...........
"Wenn im Folgenden nur von männlichen Schamanen die Rede sein wird schließt das weibliche Schamaninnen nicht aus. Nach Schmidt ist der weibliche Schamanismus sogar älter, da der Ausdruck für eine Schamanin (udahan, udagan) den Jakuten mit den Mongolen, Burjaten, Altaiern und noch weiteren sibirischen Völkern gemeinsam ist (Schmidt 1954: 272). Eine Schamanin ist nach Jochelson zudem auch mächtiger als ein Schamane (Jochelson 1933: 105)"
http://www.grin.com/e-book/78558/der-schamanismus-bei-den-jakuten
Al Carrol is an Apache descendent and community college professor.
We have zero connection to Kiesha Crowther. Her online talks are not based in any kind of authentic knowledge from this tribe, or as far as I can tell, any tribe. The statement that's floating around was first shared on a website called Plastic shamans. I have not been able to trace the exact origin of the statement but I strongly suspect it was given by a member of our community who was so outraged by Kiesha that they took a personal risk in giving a statement they claimed was from our elders. However, the statement is very similar to a statement the elders will soon release, which will be authentic, official and posted on our web site.
I've been contacted by people from Hawaii, Spain, Denmark, Switzerland and Germany who appear to have given her great fees to speak. Zero dollars have come to support our language, culture, safety net programs of this reservation. We have no record of the family names she's shared in her many biographical posts. Nothing about her stories feels remotely authentic as pertaining to Salish, Lakota, or general Indian culture or beliefs.
Rob McDonald
Communications Director
Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes
(406)675-2700, ext. 1222
robertmc [at] cskt.org
So please, refresh my memory, was this post supposed to be about Kiesha and her doings and the lies she has spread, or about Al Carroll? There are MANY points in the article that you can actually look up from other sources than from him.
If Al or other people feel a need to go after the woman fine with me but to be honest here i don't care much. Seems like a waste of time for me. I honor my traditions and all and we are not living in fear of this woman Kiesha. We laugh at her.
And it is the Al Carrolls of this world who are the posers to beware of! They hide their fraud and mind-control behind mock indignation and finger-pointing at others. Admit it. Keisha is so OBVIOUS that she posed no real threat to us....but the sinister Al Carroll who would have you believe he is on the "inside" and has the right to speak against others on behalf of real NDNs, when nothing could be further from the facts, now that's a crazy dude to stay away from. Just try to find a tribal Traditional Leader who endorses Al Carroll and his mob hit squad of slandering thugs! The aforementioned posting about a Robert McDonald endorsing him has already been proven fraudulant online. So come on Al, who among REAL NDNs will validate YOU! The last time we dared ask, you in your egotistical arrogance replied, in print, that you didn't need any Elder's approval to do what you do because you are "right." Well then, guess that makes ALL the Elders wrong - as they won't even acknowledge you.
I bet you picked on girls as a little Mexican-Irish Punk too.
The market bears "saviors" in many forms, Keishas and Tebows and Obamas and all sorts of people with passionate messages... These people are all still people who are not perfect. Perhaps she has made poor choices. Perhaps she has not been the smartest in moving her message... I don't know and I don't care. Her message rings true. If one feels the need to give money to that, that is their path. If those people feel betrayed, that is their path as well.
Consider this too... that which you hate, you make stronger... All the controversy and hate that I have read in this thread makes her message all the more pertinent to our world.
THIS is exactly why you do not see real NDNS of any generation older than this current (and the most nonTraditional generation yet!) complaining about Crowther, et al. One's spirituality just isn't any of our business - and if it mocks your own - well, what does that have to do with YOU or YOUR OWN spiritual beliefs as an NDN!!!! NOTHING!
All this hullabaloo boils down to simply nonNative belief systems and egotism (acting out by alleged NDNs) against some "offender"....but I don't buy it. It's all about power and money. If money were not involved, these "new Natives" wouldn't care about Crowther....so SHE mixes spirituality and money. So what. So she's wrong about some things, So what. I suspect greed is as much a motivator for her critics as they allege it is for her! Both just hide behind their own camoflage of righteousness.
...and THAT'S why no real traditional NDNS are involved with either side, not with Crowther and most especially not with her critics like NDN-poser Al Carroll and all his wannabes and tokens!
REAL NDNS with Traditional Values do NOT engage with NAFPS. Elders just turn away from NAFPS and its flimsy, faulty pretense that they are somehow relevant to Native America. They are not. They may save some of their own white brethren from spending some money on a "Medicine Show" but they are not helping real NDNs at all. Sadly, New Age Frauds and their ilk have hurt real NDNs they targeted as Frauds. But the real ones seem to have survived intact - are even stronger, so much for NAFP's "power."
I don't know how it could be proven fraudulent. It's still sitting in my email. I don't care about Al Carroll. I care about my girlfriend. She was about to spend money to see the fraudulent Kiesha Crowther. I listened online for a half hour and smelled a rat. In my research I saw a lot of attacks on Al Carroll. So, I wrote the tribe for the truth.
From: "info [at] therezweliveon.com"
To: xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tue, February 1, 2011 12:22:59 PM
Subject: Re: shaman
Al Carrol is an Apache descendent and community college professor.
We have zero connection to Kiesha Crowther. Her online talks are not based in any kind of authentic knowledge from this tribe, or as far as I can tell, any tribe. The statement that's floating around was first shared on a website called Plastic shamans. I have not been able to trace the exact origin of the statement but I strongly suspect it was given by a member of our community who was so outraged by Kiesha that they took a personal risk in giving a statement they claimed was from our elders. However, the statement is very similar to a statement the elders will soon release, which will be authentic, official and posted on our web site.
I've been contacted by people from Hawaii, Spain, Denmark, Switzerland and Germany who appear to have given her great fees to speak. Zero dollars have come to support our language, culture, safety net programs of this reservation. We have no record of the family names she's shared in her many biographical posts. Nothing about her stories feels remotely authentic as pertaining to Salish, Lakota, or general Indian culture or beliefs.
Rob McDonald
Communications Director
Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes
(406)675-2700, ext. 1222
robertmc [at] cskt.org
Again - doubt me? click a little further...read your own post again...don't you see that the email address that contacted you is NOT the same as Robert McDonald's! It's all right in front of you - in your email box! What legitimate "Communications Director" would email you from the account of a sham website! Go to that fake website (http://www.therezweliveon.com) where the email to you came from and look at it! Disgusting. Plus, legitimate tribes do NOT use ".com" as that is for commerce. If it were for legitimate tribal use it would end in ".org" which indeed, Robert McDonald's REAL website and email address DO! Look at the REAL Salish and Kooteni website (linked from the fake one) CSKT.org You won't find any mention of Keisha Crowther there, or any accolades for Al Carroll either! They have enough on their tribal plate to deal with - and have no time, interest in chasing white girls around the world. This is a war of egos between Al Carroll the Fraud and Keisha Crowther who is more famous and possibly more wealthy than Al (he can't stand that!) Get it yet? The very people who bash Crowther for theft commit the very same crime - ripping off and misrepresenting REAL NDNS! tsk tsk Alvin!
________________________________________________________________________________
YOUR POST:
disproven email
by truth seeker
Tuesday Feb 15th, 2011 10:23 PM
"The aforementioned posting about a Robert McDonald endorsing him has already been proven fraudulant online"
I don't know how it could be proven fraudulent. It's still sitting in my email. I don't care about Al Carroll. I care about my girlfriend. She was about to spend money to see the fraudulent Kiesha Crowther. I listened online for a half hour and smelled a rat. In my research I saw a lot of attacks on Al Carroll. So, I wrote the tribe for the truth.
From: "info [at] therezweliveon.com"
To: xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tue, February 1, 2011 12:22:59 PM
Subject: Re: shaman
Al Carrol is an Apache descendent and community college professor.
We have zero connection to Kiesha Crowther. Her online talks are not based in any kind of authentic knowledge from this tribe, or as far as I can tell, any tribe. The statement that's floating around was first shared on a website called Plastic shamans. I have not been able to trace the exact origin of the statement but I strongly suspect it was given by a member of our community who was so outraged by Kiesha that they took a personal risk in giving a statement they claimed was from our elders. However, the statement is very similar to a statement the elders will soon release, which will be authentic, official and posted on our web site.
I've been contacted by people from Hawaii, Spain, Denmark, Switzerland and Germany who appear to have given her great fees to speak. Zero dollars have come to support our language, culture, safety net programs of this reservation. We have no record of the family names she's shared in her many biographical posts. Nothing about her stories feels remotely authentic as pertaining to Salish, Lakota, or general Indian culture or beliefs.
Rob McDonald
Communications Director
Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes
(406)675-2700, ext. 1222
robertmc [at] cskt.org
_____________________________________________________________________________
Again, please don't feel stupid for thinking you actually heard from Rob McDonald....Al Carroll has nearly perfected his fraudulant activities and his little mob play all kinds of games like this online. Delinquent children with too much time on their hands; what are you going to do....
Bottom line is the large fees to tell people what has been said Traditionally by so many...why would a sincere person lie about their origins/heritage?
Yes, I take the message; but not this Messenger. I had put her link all over my website...and now have taken them down.
In these times, it was told that All Masks will Fall...
If she would just own up to her thievery and racism and come clean, admit that she is just a misguided white woman and a non-practicing Christian Mormon this would probably all go away. Something to think about Kiesha Crowther.
Ndnguest
Paying to Pray is up to those who engage in that activity. Not for me, I would find it offensive to personally engage in - but I think "eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ" is sickening too. Each to their own and let them be! Dr. Alvin Carroll is merely playing Cowboys and Indians and guess which side he's shooting FROM - it ain't the Indians! We don't want his lying non-Indian ass near us!
Ndnguest
I send a question about Kiesha Crowther to this e-mail adress thisrobertmc [at] cskt.org and received the following answer:
"In recent months, employees of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes began receiving numerous phone calls and emails regarding someone who claims to be a shaman, who claimed to receive their training from a Salish elder named Falling Feather. This self-proclaimed shaman, Kiesha Crowther, who calls herself Little Grandmother, first came to our attention because of these calls. We have no record of the family names she's shared in her biographical posts on the Internet.
To make it clear to others who contact this Tribal nation, the Salish and Kootenai have absolutely no connection to Kiesha Crowther. Her numerous video talks posted online are not based in any kind of authentic knowledge from this tribe.
We have been contacted by people from Hawaii, Spain, Denmark, Switzerland and Germany who appear to have given her great fees to speak. Zero dollars from those arrangements have come to support our language, culture, or safety net programs of this reservation. At best, she is a stranger to us. At worst, she has used our name to promote a profitable image.
In recent months, employees of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes began receiving numerous phone calls and emails regarding someone who claims to be a shaman, who claimed to receive their training from a Salish elder named Falling Feather. This self-proclaimed shaman, Kiesha Crowther, who calls herself Little Grandmother, first came to our attention because of these calls. We have no record of the family names she's shared in her biographical posts on the Internet.
To make it clear to others who contact this Tribal nation, the Salish and Kootenai have absolutely no connection to Kiesha Crowther. Her numerous video talks posted online are not based in any kind of authentic knowledge from this tribe.
We have been contacted by people from Hawaii, Spain, Denmark, Switzerland and Germany who appear to have given her great fees to speak. Zero dollars from those arrangements have come to support our language, culture, or safety net programs of this reservation. At best, she is a stranger to us. At worst, she has used our name to promote a profitable image.
Robert McDonald
Communications Director -- CSKT
robertmc [at] cskt.org
406-675-2700, Ext. 1222
cellular 406-249-1818"
If you don't believe me, it's not hard to check it by yourself.
I am white and I publish an international magazine called Sacred Hoop. Sacred Hoop is a new-age magazine I guess, but not full of the sort of new age crap I have read about on this page, and to be honest not full of the sort of new age crap I generally see coming from America either.
I know many native people who read this will not like me for what I do (publish the magazine and teach some of the things I have learnt over the years from Native teachers).
But despite what you think of me and those like me in the UK and other places, there are very sincere people that work in good ways, helping people who need help, with skills they have learnt from Native American and other traditional people.
These folks don't rip people off, making false claims about being a 'shaman' and charging large amounts for workshops or ceremonies etc (personally I have never charged for a ceremony or a healing in my life).
I've worked with Native American teachers as well as shamans from Nepal and other cultures for 25 years, and worked hard to put out accurate information about the medicine and shamanic traditions of the world to educate people here (who had their own traditions ripped away by the church centuries ago) about living in a sacred way with heart and honesty and with a connection to spirit.
People like her give those of us who try to do things with heart a bad name.
You can look on Native activist sites and you'll see me and my magazine (black)listed with all sorts of people like Wallace Black Elk and Sunbear and Bear Heart and many others - and many of those people I have met and worked with. Those teachers may have their critics and people have the right to say what they think about them 'selling medicine' to white folks - but my goodness they pale alongside the stuff I have heard today.
Don't tar us all with the same brush and thank you for putting this page up - I will alert people I know, here in the UK and beyond about her.
Peace and Blessings,
Nick
But all of that does not mean that the truth is not true! The "universal" truth is that we all are one, made of the same "light" or high frequency energy as is everything else in the universe (and this is scientifically proven!).
Also true is that the only reason we are destroying the earth is because we have lost the contact with that "sacred" spark within us and now desperately seek replacements to fill in the hole: money, power, sex, chocolate, name it yourself.
Find the spark in your heart again, embrace it and live from it and you'll have peace of mind and you'll stop your mindless consuming. That is how simple it is and it is that same truth that is hidden in all the big religions, many NA lessons and even in Kiesha's talks.
the more they say she bad the more people love her
and more money new fraud age makes
there the motor behind her fame
love allways over comes hate
they fake they hate her
and she makes the money to pay them
to draw more people into her cicle
Annika Banfield, a swede who has proclaimed herself a "activist" for the Natives, has not been honest either. She claims that she is married to a Native, yet her husband never ever supports her, stands up with her, or states that he has any interest in what she does, in her "activist" work against frauds. She has used Arvol Looking Horse's name until it wears out. She did a documentary once, and never once gave a penny she made off of that to the people. She is another white woman who we call an "indian collector". She goes all over looking for Natives she likes to put in her collection of friends, and goes after every single fraud out there. When she was once called out about why her Native husband doesn't support her, she backs off and says nothing. There's a deep dark lie going on with this one, that has yet to be fully investigated and needs to be.
Kathryn NicDhana, another white woman who has proclaimed herself to be an "activist" for Native peoples as well. She is a pagan witch/druidess who spends her time hunting and scouring the internet for people she can harass. She's been into trouble already for personally harassing other people who are truly Native.
These are two of Al's main supporters, who do nothing but harass people and take advantage of them. All of the other people on that site are mostly posting from Sweden, Norway, Britain, etc and are WHITE. These people have chosen to insert themselves into other's lives, and have proclaimed themselves as activists. When you come up against them and question what they are doing, they single you out and harass you back. They are the worst type of estalkers you can come across.
Please watch out for Annika Banfield. She likes to get ahold of Natives to put in her documentary stories, and she keeps all the money for herself. She's as bad as Kiesha Crowther if not worse.
Crowther is a horrible liar too, but let's continue separating the wheat from the chaff here.
There are some dangerous liars out there and we need to be aware of who they are. Sky Davis claims she is Native too but she's as white as Crowther.
All I can say is watch out and do call the Salish rez if you have personal questions. They will set you straight. It's amazing to me what a big bunch of liars run on the internet can do.
So while people like Sky Davis go off on people like Kiesha, Sky Davis herself is perpetrating the lie of claiming Native ancestry when the woman is NOT.
I got tired of waiting and phoned up there to the rez myself. It took a few times but I finally reached a Rob Mc Donald who told me himself that he did NOT know a Sky Davis and never spoke with her personally and that there never was a "statement" being released on their website.
You bet your bottom dollar that Sky, Al, Annika, and the rest are frauds. Annika is notorious for collecting ndns and filming them to take back to Sweden, show off and make money. Over in Sweden, they do love to collect and emulate ndns.
As mentioned above, correctly, his group are a bunch of euros who gang up on other people along with Al. These people, while trying ro stop Kiesha Crowther, have also been found to be frauds as well. They completely fabricated the story of Rob Mc Donald releasing a statement from the Salish/Kootenai tribe. No such statement was released by him. Sky Davis made claims that she was given this statement on the phone. She then went to NAFPS and Al Carroll and proclaimed they had this genuine statement. Other ndns believed this, except a small few who began to question if there was an actual document thar could be shown to the people. Due to growing questions from ndns, nons, and Crowthers crowd, Sky lied again and said she spoke with Rob Mc donald again, and said within two weeks that statement would be up on the Salish official page online. People waited, and waited, and questioned. That statement never appeared on their site. Why? Because her entire story was a lie.
Yes, Crowther should be held accountable for her misdeeds, but Al Carroll and his euro bunch online have no place in handling these matters. This is for the tribes to tend to. If they see a need, they will. In the meantime, Al Carroll needs to stop his lies as well.
THAT THE ONLY HATER
AND FRAUD IS
DR AL CARROLL (uneducatedindian)
he attacks even the dead, this man is sick and needs help, please see this in ALL his texts
Personally, I don't care for the word "Shaman" because of all the commercialized twists. People claiming to be of Native American lineage making tons of money and exploiting a heritage that has had enough. That said, it would appear, that at least the Cherokee called their medicine people Shamans, if the Mooney papers are/were accurate. I've always heard it referred as healers/medicine people/spirit walkers.
If the person is Native American lineage, then they may indeed been born with the gifts of a "Shaman". However, it is against the ways of the old to do any healings, blessing for money. That stated, it is described in the Mooney collection on how Shaman's were paid. In a way, it was monetary. It's all very difficult to explain, as I'm sure it would be to go back in time and explain to the elders. At that time, clans took care of each other. These days a Shaman could not keep shelter, clothing, food if all they were was a Shaman and did blessings, ceremonies and healings at no monetary exchange.
So in that respect, how can true Native American healers help anyone if they are to starve and become homeless? I doubt the welfare system would care, nor the majority of the people in society, on why they can't pay their bills? Anyway, it would be nice if things were like the old, but it isn't reality for true healers anymore.
Anyway, I'm disappointed in people like Crowther, etc. An I'm grateful for the internet, so we can more easily find out who is fake. At the same time, we all need to stop getting so angry about other people. It is one thing to call someone out on a lie or several lies, it is another to be hateful and cyber bully. That isn't the ways of the old and shouldn't be how we act today.
She's exposed for her lies, it's water under the bridge. Any claims she had about other things only make them questionable (at the least) because she lied about her lineage. She should be ashamed. But the hating and cyber bullying individuals should also be ashamed and self reflect.
-Justine Baker
http://www.Cherokee.org
Citizen (White & Blue Card) of the Cherokee Nation
I suspect they(Al, Kathy, Sky) are also at a fake NDN site called Village of First Nations.
(so called shaman).
However, reading your statement regarding the (Now) location of shaman practice in this
world requires editing. Yes it is true that Shaman practice originated in Siberia, Tibet.
There other locations such as:Africa,(Maya Peru-rain forest), Korea, etc.
The Peruvian Shamans recently written about in the titled Book "Sacred Science"
& (dvd)Three seed Documentary Films produced by Nicholas Polizzi and Dan Bailey
2011. There are other links that support Peruvian Shamans
This is what the Quilo (Wasichun) does. That any persons calling themselves "Indian" or "NDN" doing this, Stealing, makes them NO BETTER Than the White man who stole from the Indian and then made what belonged to the Indian His Own!
Two wrongs, still, do not make Right, nor makes an untrue thing True!
Even the Indian cannot do this!
Contact Any Mongolian (Shaman) or (Society), or Any from Siberia. They will tell you the same, and they have every and the only right to. It is THEIR TRADITION & MEDICINE! And, THEIRS ALONE, unless they Choose to share it, and, that most probably will never happen because not only does one need to be born with the medicine, one additionally has to be seriously TRAINED by one before him!
This is all need be said and all that I am going to say.
I have Spoken!
With Honor & Respect,
I remain,
Minister ThunderWolfe
Earthw7 is Debbie Four Swords of Standing Rock. Just part of the echo chamber and someone who seems to take Vine Deloria a bit too seriously.
Kathryn Price is another NAFPS echo chamber mouthpiece who has so many identities it is hard to keep track.
Keisha Crowther I know nothing about, but whatever she is the people slinging the mud af NAFPS are know frauds.
Of the 50+ alleged organizations and web pages that mention NAFPS here are the results:
42 do not exist
7 mention NAFPS - 2 are personal homepages in Europe that contain a link to NAFPS in a long page of links. 5 are websites NAFPS members posted on - of those two are about a 2003 High School play - others are a book review on Amazon, a link on a ComicBook page, and the last is a post by Al Carroll himself.
The remainder on the list mention NAFPS in a very unfavorable light:
calling their site "a witchhunt" saying the engage in "unethical behavior" and more...
"a hate campaign directed by an unidentifiable organization and person or persons unknown are masquerading around message boards and chat rooms spreading venom "
"When I expessed an opinion online in a NAFPS forum, I became the target of one of the foremost
"Cyber bullies online. Even though I have been extremely careful about giving out personal information, someone was able to find out where I lived through voter registration information. They contacted all my neighbors and told me that a relative had died and insisted that I I googled the phone number and found out that it was a person pretending to be a private investigator who wanted to threaten me with bogus lawsuits to keep my mouth shut."
So in summary not a single organization in this lists mentions NAFPS in a positive light, although some mention them in a very negative light, and some are posts from NAFPS members themselves.
That so many racist whites attack him is all the proof of just of how much good he's done and how good a man he is.
http://alcarroll.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Al-Carroll/e/B00IZ4FY1S
https://www.facebook.com/alcarlcarroll
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/al-carroll/13/846/52
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/AlCarroll
https://www.blogger.com/profile/13672833987617527859
http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Medicine-Bags-and-Dog-Tags%2C673393.aspx
http://www.laprogressive.com/author/al-carroll
http://www.alternet.org/authors/al-carroll-0
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/999723.Al_Carroll
http://www.quora.com/What-would-have-been-the-greatest-event-in-history-but-barely-failed
https://www.crunchbase.com/person/al-carroll
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/tags/al-carroll
http://www.free-ebooks.net/profile/499030/al-carroll
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/AlCaroll
https://foursquare.com/dralcarroll
http://www.slideshare.net/AlCarrollHistorian
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/05/how-would-you-change-the-constitution
http://newspaperrock.bluecorncomics.com/2009/08/al-carroll-on-tarantinos-scalping.htm
http://alcarroll.net/
http://matthewf.net/2014/07/03/episode-338-with-gaius-publius-and-al-carroll
http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/156038
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/medicine-bags-and-dog-tags-al-carroll/1018187857?ean=9780803216297
https://plus.google.com/111649492436377790503
https://twitter.com/DrAlCarroll
How NAFPS and Al Carroll Are Under Attack by White Racists...Again
by Native Americans Against Discrimination
Native Americans have been fighting for their spiritual traditions for decades against New Age cultural appropriation and commercial exploitaton. NAFPS and Al Carroll have been at the forefront, and for that, white racists have always hated them, slandered them, and demonized them. The good news is, the racists have always failed.
In its nearly 20 years, New Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans (NAFPS) have an enviable record as a deeply respected human rights organization, one founded by and made up of mostly American Indians, and widely used as a resource by tribes, universities, museums, other activists, and people from all walks of life. It began as a Yahoogroup, founded by members of Our Red Earth, a support group for the American Indian Movement or AIM, the best known Native warrior society from the Red Power movement.
NAFPS was founded to combat cultural appropriation, a current hot topic on social media. But NAFPS was doing so long ago, back in the days when internet sites on Native topics were dominated by New Age imposters posing as Native American spiritual leaders. White posers sell false versions of Native ceremonies for huge profits (sometimes in the millions of dollars), and actual Native peoples are outnumbered, shouted down, and frequently threatened with violence. When New Age leaders, anxious to hold onto their huge fortunes and cults, cannot silence them by threats, they resort to censorship, making up claims of TOS violations and “libel.” Nervous ISPs, more concerned with lawsuits than with the truthfulness of claims, easily fold.
NAFPS supporters described early on a vicious reign of terror aimed at them by New Age cults. Death threats came on a monthly and even weekly basis. Threats came not just through email. NAFPS members saw their home addresses and phone numbers published online. Police investigated phone threats to “shove a shotgun up your *** and pull the trigger” and emails sent with graphics lynchings. In the early days of the internet, when few police were clear about jurisdiction, such threats went unpunished.
Some NAFPS members were stalked in person. NAFPS member in Arizona and Massachusetts both saw their family members threatened, including an elderly grandmother. At one protest, the German “security force” of the Deer Tribe cult tried to break into the car to get at a Native woman. Yet NAFPS members bravely never once backed down. They have an enviable record of success:
- Suraj Holzwarth, a white woman calling herself “White Eagle Woman” and inventing claims of being a Mohawk messiah, saw all of her ceremony selling tour dates canceled due to NAFPS protests outing her false claims.
- Kiesha Crowther, a white woman falsely claiming to being the messiah for the Salish and Lakota tribes, also saw her ceremony selling tour ended after her claims were exposed. She gave up and fled to Europe, removed her claims from her website, and apologized.
- Robert Franzone, an Italian American long falsely claiming to be a Lakota medicine man named “Ghostwolf,” gave up ceremony selling due to being exposed by NAFPS, and died in obscurity.
- Charles Storm, one of the oldest and most notorious frauds, a German-American long posing as a Cheyenne medicine man named “Hyemyehosts,” remains in hiding after NAFPS exposed him as a serial rapist. Former members of his cult came forward to describe his raping many of their children. He remains at large, his ceremony selling ended, even his internet presence gone. A faux civil rights group he set up, NAMA, shut down after NAFPS criticism.
-The Erie Moundbuilders, a Black supremacist cult begun by James Johnson III (AKA Tecumseh Browneagle) shut down entirely, its attempts to start a casino with an organized crime figure exposed by NAFPS. Nothing remains of the group but the shell of an unmaintained website.
At the center of NAFPS was Dr. Alton Carroll, or more often, Al Carroll, a history professor, author, and tireless human rights activist on this and other causes. Al Carroll was perhaps the bravest of all NAFPS members, personally being threatened the most of any of them. More attacks have been aimed at him than any other NAFPS member because he has used his academic credentials to bolster Native human rights and protect Native spiritual traditions. His research skills have also exposed more imposters and cults than any other, almost 4,000 posts of research, nearly triple that of the next most prolific NAFPS member.
But Al Carroll is certainly far from alone at NAFPS. It has over 2,000 members from dozens of tribes, including indigenous peoples in Latin America, Hawaii, and Australia. Some of its more notable members include:
Dr. Richard Allen, policy analyst for the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
Mike Two Horses, Lakota professor in Virginia
Ladonna Allard, member of Lakota tribal government
Ric Richardson, member of Metis band government in Canada
Huhanna Hickey, Australian Aboriginal disabled rights activist
Bryant Holman, curandero researcher
Maria Blanco, community organizer
Sky Davis, Cherokee member of the American Indian Movement and Iron Lodge Prisoner Support
Bee Niedlinger, Munsee member of the American Indian Movement
Debbie Redbear, member of NDN-AIM
Albert Running Wolf, Kiowa member of the American Indian Movement
But Al Carroll wound up being targeted the most. Over the years his attackers and libelers have been a rogue's gallery of the worst of New Age culture vultures, abusers, and other racists:
A racist pagan supporter of Brooke Edwards, an imposter posing as a Crow medicine woman named “Medicine Eagle” who uses spray on tanning makeup and a “tribal enrollment certificate” clearly made at Kinko's.
“Looking Back Woman,” a hairdresser claiming to be a Lakota messiah.
David Yeagley, a white supremacist and longtime associate of neo Nazis, enrolled by mistake in the Comanche tribe through an ancestor listed as an “adopted Mexican.”
Paul Robin Denton, a convicted serial rapist, Scientology cult member, and leader of the Rainbow Tribe, a white Englishman posing as the leader of a tiny fringe political party in South Africa.
The latest attack was posted on Portland Indymedia, taking advantage of the lack of oversight on open source media to prevent such defamation. The falsehoods begin in the title:
“How Al Carroll formed NAFPS author: DG Hooper.”
Dr. Alton Carroll did not form NAFPS alone. He was one of dozens of members of the AIM support group Our Red Earth that formed NAFPS. The interesting thing is the author's choice of name. DB Cooper was a thief who got himself killed during a failed hijacking.
So the author wants to be thought of as a failed thief? One who was very incompetent? New Age leaders routinely kill their hapless followers with poorly run sweatlodges. The author seems to be Paul Robin Denton, the already mentioned convicted serial rapist and Rainbow Tribe cult leader. The Rainbow Tribe often runs poor imitations of Native sweatlodges, sometimes killing its members.
The defamation continues:
“Al Carroll began identifying as 'Indian' in graduate school.”
Just one problem: The article then goes on to quote sources showing he identified as not just American Indian, but Apache, many years before that. Not only did Al Carroll identify as American Indian, everyone else identified him as one, outside of New Age exploiters.
“...when he began using monies from fellowships dedicated to minorities”
False on two counts. One, he is not just a minority, but a double minority, both American Indian and Mexican. And he was never awarded fellowships for minorities, but based on merit.
“...his wife would file for divorce.”
False. Court records online show Al Carroll filed for divorce from her, citing abandonment and adultery on her part. He was the aggrieved party.
Paul Robin Denton then goes on to get angry about the age difference between the couple. Apparently he is horrified that a woman in her early 20s married a man in his early 30s. It's worth noting that Denton was 46 when he repeatedly raped a woman of 32, 14 years younger than him.
“Al Carroll would meet fellow "blogger/cyberstalker" Robert 'Rob' Schmidt”
So Mr. Denton is now defaming any associate of Al Carroll. Rob Schmidt is pretty well known as an author of Native themed comics, and as an activist for Native causes. Both Schmidt and Carroll are often attacked by New Age exploiters, and both are supporters of human rights causes. Those are their only connections.
“...who 'interviewed' him on his website in April 2002.”
No such interview exists. Al Carroll often contributed to the Blue Corn Comics site, where both wrote analysis of racism, stereotypes, and promoted human rights.
“Al Carroll would later create a GeoCities website called Our Red Earth Organization in March 2003.”
Our Red Earth actually began five years earlier, as a Yahoogroup, and never was on Geocities. Al Carroll had no part in either. Why the paranoid tendency of Mr. Denton to see Al Carroll's hand in everything? Seems like he is admitting how effective Dr. Carroll was in exposing Denton. Paul Robin Denton, himself a convicted serial rapist, then goes into a bizarre bit of psychological projection to falsely accuse Al Carroll of being a serial rapist.
It's worth noting where Denton gets these claims. White supremacist David Yeagley and his fellow neo Nazis originally made them up on his website. Even more bizarrely, they claimed Al Carroll is a Russian porn star. Denton is willing to dig through the worst, lowest, and least reliable sites for his mudslinging and defamation.
“Al Carroll traveled to Europe in 2005 and 2006 to lecture”
Very sloppy. There was no travel in 2006. Al Carroll went on a speaking tour to raise money for charity, the Albuquerque Indian Center's Powwow Academy. It's a drug prevention and gang intervention program. So now Paul Robin Denton is smearing very worthwhile Native charities. The academy went on to invite Al Carroll to be an honored guest at their powwow, since the tour kept the center open for another year.
“Around this time he would start a short period of employment at St Phillip's College in San Antonio.”
If by “short period,” one means “five years.” If by “employment,” one means an adjunct professor.
“During this time he began recruiting for "GENUINE Native Americans" to appear in Swedish director Annika Banfield's 800,000 krone movie project”
The director of Spirits for Sale was actually Folke Johansson. Banfield was just one of several writers. Al Carroll did no “recruiting.” Johannson did. He found a number of famed American Indians to appear in the film. Andrew Thomas is Director of the Albuquerque Pueblo Indian Center. Arvol Looking Horse is a highly respected Lakota elder, the Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Bundle for the tribe, a position held in his family for 19 generations.
As for 800,000 krone, a krone is worth about 15 cents. This was not a “movie,” but a low budget factual documentary about spiritual exploiters and imposters, like Paul Robin Denton.
Spirits for Sale also won a number of awards and received nothing but praise in reviews:
"... a good and heart-felt piece of work and would make an impact on students and the general public."
Anthropology Review Database
"A very moving and interesting documentary of the commercialization and ignorance surrounding Native Americans and their culture...highly recommended." EMRO
Denton's failed effort at defamation continues:
“He began making false claims about having been a professor at ASU.”
Actually both ASU's site and Al Carroll's own online resumes show him listed as Teaching Instructor while at ASU. Nowhere did he claim to be a professor. He is also shown as having been “Editor” for the prestigious H-Amindian academic listserve, and “Researcher” for the equally prestigious Labriola American Indian Data Center. His bosses at the two institutes were themselves very prestigious, Joyce Kievet, an Eastern Band Cherokee, and Patricia Etter, a Pottawatomi Indian.
Denton also fails to mention Al Carroll's other prestigious mentors. At Purdue he was trained by a Choctaw Indian professor, Donna Akers. Ay ASU his teachers included James Riding In, a famed Pawnee historian, and Angela Cavendar Wilson, a Dakota Indian professor.
Denton goes on to claim:
“Other people active with NAFPS at or before this time include Brent Michael Davids, Cinda Hughes, Vance Hawkins, Debbie Redbear Moran, and Ladonna Allard.”
Denton does not mention who these notable people are. Davids is from the Stockbridge tribe and a famed composer and artist. Hughes is a Kiowa Indian disabled rights activist. Hawkins is a Cherokee Indian activist. Redbear is a member of NDN-AIM. Allard is a member of Lakota tribal government. That's pretty prestigious company Al Carroll is keeping.
Denton's failed defamation and sloppy research and falsehoods continues:
“In 2008 Al Carroll padded his PHD dissertation from ASU to book length, releasing it as Medicine Bags and Dog Tags.”
Actually Al Carroll did not release his book. The University of Nebraska Press did. UNP is the most prestigious of academic publishers of American Indian Studies. Let's take a look at the reviews for his book, all found at the UNP website:
"Al Carroll has written a cogent, readable, scholarly, and comprehensive study of Native American veterans from a Native perspective." Gretchen Healy, Tribal College Journal
"An interesting and provocative book, Medicine Bags and Dog Tags succeeds in providing an Indian perspective on military service and its effects on cultural renewal and perseverance." Thomas A. Britten, Great Plains Quarterly.
"[This book] should be in the hands of not only Native but non-Indians veterans and service groups, in order to better understand why we serve, fight, and die in the service of the United States, and how best to honor Native soldiers and veterans." Debra Utacia Krol (Salinan/Essalen), Native Peoples magazine.
Denton does not mention that Al Carroll has gotten three more books published since then. One of them is Presidents' Body Counts: The Twelve Worst and Four Best Presidents Based on How Many Lived or Died Because of Their Actions. Let's take a look at reviews for it:
“This is a brave and magisterial work that will make you look again at American history and the Presidency. It’s a real eye-opener to anyone who thinks they know everything there is to know about U.S. history. It is the truth that you won’t hear through your mainstream media.” MWB Reviews
“Dr. Carroll is well known in Indian Country. He has fought for many years to protect our sacred ways from the wasichu colonial spiritual invaders. I am glad he represents an Indian point of view. The words you have written are very good Dr. Carroll. I hope many heed them.” Sam Bear
“It is a devastating critique of the presidency and its failures, contrary to the sunshine patriotism view one gets (mis)taught. A search for him online shows he's American Indian, very well respected by most but deeply hated by racists and religious exploiters. He has my respect, and I expect this book will be much used as a resource by anyone wanting an antidote to all the hazy president worshipping bios.” John Martine
Another of his books is The New Age Speak to Plain English Dictionary, a collection of humor. Let's take a look at the reviews:
“Excellent and necessary. Cultural misappropriation (aka cultural appropriation) from Native Americans is a serious problem. The newage market is full of non-Natives spouting bafflegab. Usually they rely on Noble Savage stereotypes, which, despite the newagers' claims to "admire" Natives actually disenfranchise and denigrate the very people being "admired." This handy and entertaining book cuts through the bafflegab. It will save you time, money, and brain cells. Don't feed the frauds. Arm yourself with the translation!” Redwing44
“Hilarious and dead on target. Funny funny FUNNY in how it takes New Agers to task for their pompousness, their mock profoundness, and their cultural appropriation and casual but also deep seated racism, bigotry, cultural imperialism, greed, and sometimes sexual abuse.” American Man
A fourth book of Al Carroll's is Survivors: Family Histories of Surviving Colonialism, Genocide, and War. It's a collection of accounts from wartime and genocide survivors. The book won Al Carroll an Award for Scholarly and Creative Engagement from his university.
What all of Al Carroll's books share in common is a concern with human rights. His whole career and life seem dedicated to that, and it has won him much praise and prestige. But what does Denton go on to smear Al Carroll with?
“Comanche David Yeagley in early January 2009 Carroll was sued for libel/slander in Oklahoma Supreme Court.”
Supreme Court? For a libel suit? How clumsy a lie is that? Yeagley also sued Google. He sued Amazon. He also sued ten other people and institutions and civil rights groups and activists.
What did he sue them for? He sued on behalf of American Renaissance, a white supremacist organization he was long part of. Yeagley was a white supremacist and neo Nazi, a long associate of Storm Front, neo Nazi skinheads, and other white supremacists like One Nation, White Boy Society, and VDARE. Yeagley was openly an admirer of Hitler, Columbus, Dracula, Custer, and the Shah of Iran. He called for Obama's assassination and genocide against Mexicans, Muslims, Arabs, gays, and pagans.
Yeagley sued all these people and organizations for pointing out he is a white supremacist and NOT Comanche. His father was German. His mother was a Mexican, born in Mexico. His ancestor was mistakenly enrolled in the Comanche tribe, and listed on Comanche tribal rolls as “adopted Mexican.” He was a truly bizarre character, a gay man who hated other gays, a Mexican who hated other Mexicans, and who posed as Comanche to spread white supremacist hatred and calls for violence. THIS is the source that Denton relies on for his smears.
Yeagley was also repeatedly defeated in court. Every single lawsuit was thrown out, without exception. None of the people or organizations he sued even had to defend themselves in court, including Al Carroll. That's in the public record, but Denton never mentions that.
Denton goes on to claim:
“Carroll left the country. Some said to avoid further scrutiny and lawsuit. He would travel to Indonesia to lecture about Native Americans.”
False. Al Carroll went to Indonesia as a Fulbright Scholar, one of the most prestigious awards in America for teachers and scholars. That puts Al Carroll in some amazing company, alongside dozens of presidents and prime ministers, Nobel Prize winners, and hundreds of other revered scholars.
Besides teaching, Al Carroll described his work for the Fulbright this way:
“One of the things I'm doing over here is trying to help as many Indonesians as possible get advanced degrees in the US. This includes students from Indonesia's tribes, who make up about a fourth of the population here, Dayaks, Bataks, Papuans, and Torajans. Right now they have me mentoring eight Indonesian students who want to be in Master's or PhD programs in the US. This includes two in heathcare, a mining engineer who want to study environmental science, two economics students (including one who studies poverty reduction through microfinancing), two agriculture students, and one studying how to improve fishing yields for fishermen without depleting the oceans.”
That's enormously impressive and noble, in line with everything else Al Carroll has done in his life as a humanitarian. But what does Denton go on to defame him for?
“On May 12th he was cited in Loudon County for an expired registration.”
A parking ticket? Denton, a convicted serial rapist, is trying to smear a human rights activist as a bad person for an expired sticker? What else is Denton desperate enough to claim?
“By 2010 Alton Carroll had begun working for Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) as an assistant.”
By assistant, he mean assistant professor. It's also worth noting just how prestigious a school NOVA is. It's consistently ranked the best community college in all of America. Obama has given two speeches at NOVA, touting it as a model for the whole country.
What else can Denton come up with?
“The school was not aware of Al Carroll's background at the time they engaged him.”
We can be pretty sure they were very aware of his background, the Fulbright Scholarship, an outstanding record as a scholar and human rights organizer, and highly praised books. Not only are they aware of it, they eagerly sought him out for it, and they keep giving him awards for it.
The attackers going after NAFPS and Al Carroll and other Native human rights activists share three things in common:
They are mostly anonymous, unsigned, or with obvious fake names. That destroys any credibility in the articles and tells readers the authors are cowardly, the kind of losers others tell to get a life.
They are obvious smears, filled with falsehoods anyone can easily find and pick apart. This has the effect of making the readers side with those being attacked.
They have all failed repeatedly with their attacks. During the 20 years of defamation and demonization, NAFPS went from a little Yahoogroup to a highly respected resource for tribe, universities, and the public. During that same 20 years, Al Carroll went from an unknown college student to a revered and highly awarded scholar and activist. At this rate, this latest round of attacks may get Al Carroll a Nobel Prize to go along with his many other awards. He would deserve it too.
-Signed and Authored by, Native Americans Against Discrimination
Anyone can find out the truth about NAFPS, Al Carroll, and its other respected leaders just by going straight to the source, instead of anonymous smears.
http://www.newagefraud.org/about.html
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=1235.0
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=1234.0
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=1.0
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=1710.0
http://alcarroll.com/
http://about.me/alcarlcarroll
http://alcarroll.net/
https://plus.google.com/110662984397851927823
http://www.academia.edu/7338107/Franklin_Roosevelt_and_the_New_Deal_Compared_to_Obamacare
http://www.academia.edu/14825444/Survivors_Family_Histories_of_Surviving_War_Colonialism_and_Genocide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ikwshoJelU (Interview)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/al-carroll-05284613
http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Medicine-Bags-and-Dog-Tags%2C673393.aspx
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/999723.Al_Carroll
http://www.amazon.com/Al-Carroll/e/B00IZ4FY1S
http://www.amazon.com/review/R29ZE99GF7FVVC
http://www.amazon.com/Presidents-Body-Counts-American-Because-ebook/dp/B00IYX12PW
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/medicine-bags-and-dog-tags-al-carroll/1018187857
http://www.alternet.org/12-most-inhumane-american-presidents
https://www.laprogressive.com/most-inhumane-presidents/
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/AlCarroll
http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/156038
http://proposednewconstitution.blogspot.com/
http://www.quora.com/What-would-have-been-the-greatest-event-in-history-but-barely-failed
http://www.quora.com/Why-didnt-the-Native-Americans-ever-advance-technologically-over-thousands-of-years-while-Europe-and-Asia-advanced-dramatically/answer/Al-Carroll
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/AlCaroll
http://www.startribune.com/jon-tevlin-a-closer-look-contains-hints-of-sham-artist-not-a-shaman/44755337
http://www.articlesbase.com/journalism-articles/how-presidents-and-the-public-have-ignored-right-wing-terrorism-6981936.html
http://www.indianz.com/News/2014/015425.asp
http://www.rawstory.com/author/carroll/
http://superchangeyourlife.com/interviews/interviews-al-carroll/
http://matthewf.net/2014/07/03/episode-338-with-gaius-publius-and-al-carroll
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/01/11/18668858.php
http://newspaperrock.bluecorncomics.com/2009/08/al-carroll-on-tarantinos-scalping.htm
https://twitter.com/DrAlCarroll
http://newsle.com/alcarroll
http://authorsdb.com/authors-directory/11648-al-carroll