By Chris Gerbasi
Charlotte County attorneys plan to seek an injunction to force Robert Chancey Sumner to correct building and zoning violations at his residence and auto junkyard on Taylor Road in Punta Gorda. Sumner says he is a member of a legitimate tribe--the Pembina Nation Little Shell Band of North America. The Anti-Defamation League, however, describes it as a fake tribe concocted by anti-government extremists to help them avoid paying taxes and other fees.
Mark Pitcavage is director of investigative research for the New York-based ADL, which monitors extremist groups. He said the Little Shell Pembina Band of North America, as he refers to it, was created by Ronald K. Delorme of North Dakota. In 2001, Delorme claimed Indian ancestry and sued the U.S. government for appropriations, but the case was dismissed and the group is not a federally recognized tribe, he said. Pitcavage says that in 2003, Delorme's band became a sovereign citizen group, accepting members for a small fee whether they have Indian ancestry or not.
"It's completely dysfunctional," Pitcavage said. "Anybody can now claim they're in the group."
I hate to reiterate the obvious, but this is another result of Native stereotyping. People use stereotypes to create this scofflaw environment. The process goes like this:
Real Indians vanished long ago. Now Native beliefs and attributes belong to everyone. We're all Redskins, Blackhawks, Fighting Sioux, et al. We all have the right to be Indian.
Thus, we get Hollywood casting anyone with brown skin in Native roles. The Dudesons mocking Indians for fun and profit. James Ray inadvertently killing three people in a Native sweat lodge. And these criminals using their alleged Indian ancestry to avoid paying taxes.
For more on the subject, see Self-Proclaimed "Indian" Secedes from City and "Grand Chief" Webber Sent to Jail.
Below: "Robert Sumner, 74, says he is a member of the Pembina Nation Little Shell Band of North America, a group the Anti-Defamation League describes as a fake tribe." (E. Skylar Litherland)
8 comments:
This is a perfect example of a white person trying to steal a native identity for their own personal gain. Of course the authorities are on to the scammer, but none the less, it doesn't make me feel any better.
This Pembina group is nothing but a bunch of white supremacists/militia group. They have been around a long time with their phoney baloney thieving ways. If anyone is interested here's some good info on them. http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=789.0
Anonymouse
Because many tribes were exterminated over the last 500 plus years and the US Government seems to be the deciding authority on who's legitimate and who is not; and there are more than a few tribes that ARE NOT "granted" federal recognition, this is a grey area.
Language, cultural factors like dances, songs and customs, religious ceremonies and most important, historical context, both before Anglo arrival and after, are all factors in what makes Indian nations legitimate.
Some tribes, like the southern Comanches and Cheyennes in Oklahoma; Cherokees, Choctaws, Apaches, Navajos and many other tribes were either branched out of other larger nations or have close kinship with other tribes.
Complete tribes were exterminated in California during the gold rush years.
The above comment appears to equate fake tribes and neo-Nazi wannabe's with actual Indians.
And, the first sentence of the first comment deserves comment. It appears to be a use of the word "Steal" without regard to meaning:
This is a perfect example of a white person trying to steal a native identity
Can you name a victim of this theft? Or anything that was taken? Of course you can't.
Just because something is bad does not make it "theft". Making a fraudulent claim of being an Indian is no more "theft" than burning someone's house down. Pointing out that words have meanings is not an attempt to justify what this faker has done. Just try to be accurate from now on.
"Steal" may not be the best word, but I think we know what Anonymous means. The fakers are adopting Native identities and appropriating Native rights, thereby weakening both.
Actually, steal is an appropriate term. The history of the Pembina Band of Ojibwe Anishinaabeg was terminated by the illegal, unethical, and unjust McCumber Treaty of 1892. Originally Turtle Mountain Reservation, as spelled out in the Pembina (not sure exact name) Treaty of 1863 was for the Pembina Band of Ojibwe Anishinaabeg (Chippewa). Chief Little Shell, our last true leader, refused to sign the McCumber treaty, so the entire Pembina band walked out of the negotiations for the McCumber treaty. Senator McCumber's assistant then went up to Winnepeg, in Canada, and found 32 men (most of them Metis, the rest white) who had "Indian" wives. Some of those wive were in fact Pembina women. These 32 men were the first signees of the McCumber Treaty, whom were then given what remained of Turtle Mountain Rez after majority of it was given to white ranchers. The real Pembina band, along with Chief Little Shell was then forced to experience several rounds of deportation back-n-forth between the US and Canada. Neither country wanted us. These deportations happened between 1892 and 1924. After 1924, majority of the Pembina band was basically dropped off along the Montana/Canada borderline. Some Pembina families were given land claims in and around Turtle Mountain are, some Red Lake, some Ft. Peck, some Ft. Belknap, some Crow, and some on N. Cheyenne Rez. What's significant, a large number of Pembina families were paired with a Cree band, and Rocky Boy Chippewa Cree was established in the 2st decade of the 1900's. After all of this, 112 Pembina families remained faithfully following Chief Little Shell. These 112 families are now known as the Little Shell Band of Montana. Our fight for re-establishment of our stolen federal recognition has been ongoing since 1892... several groups in and around the Turtle Mountain Rez area (all of them white families leasing our land for pennies per hundred acres per year, for their fat cattle ranches), such as this new one, have gotten in the way of my people being able to regain our stolen federal recognition. They parade around pretending to be us, because they don't want o have to pay the leases... though, these leases are cheap as hell. These Heckamis give my people a horrible name, because we get "white supremecist" and "anti-government racists" attached to our good name.
Detailed above was a form of land theft through fraud. Yes, actual theft occured.
The full extent of the original theft by the McCumber Treaty of 1892 is that Turtle Mountain Reservation's original boundaries took up almost half of present day North Dakota. I'm astounded by the ignorance and savage greed of these racist white families feeling they need to steal my people's identity, heritage, and legacy. It's bad enough we have to deal with our tribal councils problems (look up John Sinclair and his embezzleement of funds for our tribe from Montana gov't), but to have to deal with these ignorant ass racists STILL trying to steal our identity, STILL trying to steal our land, STILL leaving my people wrongly and ignorantly associated with the racism and greed my people have been victimized with since 1892 is more than any group of people should ever have to deal with! THIS IS WHY I SUPPORT THE IDEA OF ALL NON-NDNS BEING DEPORTED BACK ACROSS THE DAMN OCEANS FROM OUR LAND! Should you want to know about more racial supremacist groups trying to become "federally recognized Native American tribes", look into the Nuwabians, the Nation of Gods & Earths, the Moorish Science Temple, the Northeastern Band of Muslim Cherokees of NYC, and many more. All of them non-NDNs, all of them racist, all of them needing to be deported along with any and all other non-NDNs from this land of our ancestors!
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