There is no end to the many ways in which a fraud can manifest itself. I must admit, that in my profession as a business ethics keynote speaker and business ethics consultant and an ethics book author, I thought I had heard them all. The charge of “Pretendians” (Pretend Indians), surprised me.
The term given by several Native American Tribal Leaders based in Wisconsin, has been used to describe Kay LeClaire, who is accused of pretending to be from a Native group of tribes, but is, in reality, white.
For this story, I will be using quotes from a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel piece by Kelly Meyerhofer and Frank Vaisvilas (January 11, 2023).
Because she could
If a person such as LeClaire so loved Native culture that she attended events or celebrated culture or even wore a few items of clothing or jewelry, I don’t think anyone would have been much bothered. However, as the authors of the article described:
“A Madison arts leader has come under fire after allegations surfaced online that they fabricated their identity and claimed they were Indigenous…who for several years claimed Métis, Oneida, Ojibwe and Cuban heritage…”
It is not important to this discussion to describe other aspects of the art dealer’s life, so much as the fraud was allegedly used for profit. LeClaire’s background was found-out by an online researcher. She had no choice but to apologize however, even that apology was stilted.
“I am sorry,” LeClaire said in the statement, which did not specify to whom or what the apology was for. LeClaire did not admit to being white or falsely presenting as Indigenous, but said they will no longer use ‘the Ojibwe name given to me’ and they are removing themselves from ‘all community spaces, positions, projects, and grants and will not seek new ones.’ They also said they are returning culturally related items back to the community.” (Note that the plural pronouns used were from the authors of the piece).
What are you apologizing for?
Before claiming identity as a “their, they or them,” and long before taking on an Indigenous name, the person who was perpetrating this fraud, was known in high school as Katie or Kathryn. As a business ethics keynote speaker and business ethics consultant and ethics book author, neither sexual orientation nor how a person assigns themselves pronouns, are at-all relevant to me. I would never expect an apology or seek an apology for those aspects of a person’s life, no matter how unethical they were.
However, as part of the scam, LeClair secured a 10-month paid residency in the arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where outrageously LeClair “helped students and staff ‘understand the stakes of cultural appropriation for Indigenous communities.’” It was the height of hypocrisy. Allegedly the residency paid out about $5,000.
In addition, LeClair served as spokesperson to local media outlets, joined a state task force on missing and murdered Indigenous women, “participated in some of the task force’s data subcommittee meetings at the invitation of a task member,” and took more money (as a presumed Native person) from an advocacy group, all while the truth of the matter is that LeClaire is exclusively of European ancestry.
The Arts
Karen Ann Hoffman, who is “a renowned Oneida bead artist whose work includes a permanent display at Chicago’s Field Museum,” stated “Real damage is done by ‘pretendians.’ Opportunity is stolen, causes are damaged and communities are shaken. Going forward, I will be more careful, sadly less inclined to trust without proof.”
While I can certainly understand Hoffman’s pain and hurt in a cultural appropriation sense, as an ethics speaker and consultant, I am more inclined to focus on the fact that LeClair was not-at-all afraid to fashion a false identity in order to capitalize on funding that should have gone to Indigenous people.
LeClair had no trouble taking the money. LeClair created a fake world, sucked others into that world and stole their funding for personal gain.
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