For years, Heather Rae Bybee was considered one of Hollywood’s most prominent Native American directors. He described his mother as Cherokee, sported a tattoo of a Cherokee goddess, told stories of indigenous characters in his award-winning films, and was a member of the Indian Alliance of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
But the film industry faltered earlier this year when Rae accused her of being at most 1/2048 Cherokee, prompting her to publicly acknowledge that she is, in fact, not indigenous.
“I’m still in this process [of getting into the history of my circle of relatives],” she admitted to The Hollywood Reporter, “so for several years I considered myself an ally. “
Behind this explosive accusation, a little-known organization of known cowards who banded together to create an organization of whistleblowers vowed to get out of what they call red-faced fakers who “actively contribute to [indigenous] erasure/genocide. “
The Tribal Anti-Fraud Alliance (TAAF) has been around for about a year, but has caused a sensation by trying to reach out to suspected racial counterfeiters who the organization says appropriate Native American cultures and stereotypes for economic and professional gain.
“This is the final nail in the coffin of our genocide because those suitors are literally erasing us, literally replacing us,” TAAF director Lianna Costantino said in an interview with The Daily Beast.
Costantino, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, said she and a few others shaped an unofficial center for Native Americans when they saw they had many or thousands of mutual friends on social media. For years, they provided tribal resources for Native Americans, educational equipment for Native American history and genealogy, and encouraged Native Americans to advance their professional endeavors. However, in May 2022, the organization went a step further and founded TAAF to tackle installers within their communities.
“We were quickly inundated with other people telling us their stories, telling us we had an effect on the statements, asking for help in real-life conditions where they were actively injured by suitors and suffered the consequences of those suitors’ bad behavior,” said Costantino, a chaplain and educator, referring specifically to breed dealers who claim to be non-secular doctors and healers who would possibly end up doing so. damage. serious harm.
Heather Rae Bybee.
According to TAAF’s website, the organization, comprised of Native American investigators and allies, law enforcement officials and more than 50 members from across the country, alleges “ethnic frauds posing as Native Americans or ‘tribes’ when they are not. “
TAAF says it is not involved with other people who have Native American ancestry based on an “unfounded circle of family traditions,” but rather with “Americans, groups, and [societies] that misrepresent Native American cultures, histories, and practices and/or falsely claim Native American identity as Americans for benefit or fame. “
The organization maintains a healthy list of alleged “suitors,” as well as genealogical reports compiled through its members, as well as organizations that allegedly falsify indigenous people.
“The representation is because it shapes the way the general public perceives the world,” the TAAF website says. “American Indians have long been underrepresented in American culture, and much of what Americans know about American Indians is based on monolithic stereotypes and lies. Allowing non-American Indians to market themselves as having a Native American identity continues this evil by perpetuating stereotypes and silencing genuine American Indian voices.
The work of proving that someone is a race manipulator is intensive. TAAF’s investigations come with compiling complete fan graphs of the alleged perpetrator’s genealogy, which identify the user’s ancestry all the way back to the country of origin or far enough away to discredit their claim to an express tribe. They also look for letters from tribal offices stating that the user, or a family member whose user claims to have Native American ancestry, is not in their database.
For the protection of other members, Costantino acts as the face of the TAAF.
“No one can do anything to harm me,” said Costantino, who said he felt an ethical duty to divulge racial counterfeiters, especially as indigenous populations have declined.
Lianna Costantino, founder of TAAF.
A professional genealogist who works with TAAF and wanted to remain anonymous due to safety considerations and concerns of being misled, told The Daily Beast that the procedure of investigating a “suitor” requires a “group effort on board. “
The genealogist, who knows First Nations history and is a member of several ancient societies, said that when the organization starts an ancestral tree, it structures studies to determine if the user has Native American ancestry “beyond doubt. “
“If we locate conflicting or contradictory information, we talk as a group, describe the conflict, analyze the conflict, and solve the problem,” the genealogist explained. “We will then consult with the respective sovereign nations that the user has claimed, offering them [the] call or calls from the user or users to be verified. . . As sovereign nations, they have the final say on who is associated or not, citizen or descendant of their people. They have the last word. His word is the ultimate test.
The genealogist began his own ancestral excavations about thirteen years ago before voluntarily starting the TAAF. “I discovered that he had a talent for researching, identifying and resolving genealogical issues and general tree development,” they said. “Genealogy is my passion. “
They said a TAAF report on a user takes 30 to 50 hours, infrequently longer.
Drew Hayden Taylor, a Canadian First Nations who painted with Constantine in the documentary The Pretenders, called the group’s paintings “admirable. “
“In this day and age you need an organization that has the functions of studios to investigate those accused of being suitors,” Taylor told The Daily Beast.
The organization has already made some eye-opening discoveries. In their most recent investigation, they alleged that James Russell “Owl Goingback” Heidbrink, a prominent author, is an “ethnic scam. . . of European descent” for allegedly claiming to be “part Cherokee and part Choctaw”.
According to Goingback’s website, he has been a professional editor of children’s novels and books for over 30 years, with many of his books focusing on Native American culture. He has won literary awards, as well as being a winner of Lifetime Achievement at the Bram Stoker Awards, has been featured as a “powerful voice in fantasy and horror” at the World Fantasy Convention, and has praised his paintings on the acclaimed literary podcast Book Riot. In June, he was introduced as a guest of honor at StokerCon in Pittsburgh.
After noticing Goingback’s growing popularity, Costantino said TAAF contacted him to offer him a chance to reveal his identity. But when he ignored several requests, TAAF members made the decision to dig deeper.
(Goingback told The Daily Beast that he did not respond to TAAF’s questions because the organization “had no genuine authority to make such requests, and it’s foolish to argue with trolls. “)
According to TAAF, Goingback legally repositioned its James Russell Heidbrink call. The Daily Beast showed through online court documents from Seminole County that this took a stand in 2000. TAAF also compiled a tree circle of relatives that the organization said showed most of the lines of his father’s circle of relatives in Europe, and his mother’s appearance was classified as “white” in U. S. census reports. U. S.
The TAAF also included letters from the Cherokee and Choctaw tribes saying that neither Heidbrink nor his ancestors were descendants of registered members. Goingback told The Daily Beast that her family is not registered recently because she “doesn’t need to be seen as the guardianship of the government,” even though indigenous nations are sovereign for the government.
Erika T. Wurth, an acquaintance who describes herself as an “urban local of Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee descent” “also continues to simulate an indigenous identity for non-public benefit,” TAAF said.
Costantino told The Daily Beast that early conversations with Wurth on social media were nice, but the talk took on a negative tone once he tried to get straight to the point and verify Wurth’s ancestry.
“In reality, Wurth’s circle of relatives consisted of white settlers from the eastern United States, who settled in Texas in the nineteenth century. NONE were American Indian,” the TAAF report alleges.
In a request for comment, Wurth’s literary agent responded to TAAF’s claims, but said the organization was engaged in “tools of manipulation and unwarranted persecution of Native Americans. “
In its investigation of Rae, the director, TAAF found that her ancestors married and lived in Indian territory, but were not members of the tribe.
Although Rae later stated that she was not Native American and attempted to “reframe” who she is, TAAF says she has yet to acknowledge the privileges that were gained by claiming Native American ancestry.
“Just delete ‘Cherokee’. . . is enough, because her ‘mark’ is that of a Cherokee woman,” according to the TAAF report, “based on years of paintings in American Indian-like films. “
In addition to writers, TAAF has conducted research on elders and self-proclaimed tribal educators, among others, and the organization plans to publish more reports in the near future.
The goal, Costantino said, “is to end fraud and all its forms. “
“The fact that we can’t turn in any direction without falling on them mocking us, occupying spaces meant for us, silencing us, replacing us, distorting our histories, our languages, our ceremonies, we are fed up,” he said, taking the project personally as an act of injustice.
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