Here Comes Your Next Liz Warren Or Rachel Dolezal…
The lying cultural Marxist baton has been passed again. First there was Rachel Dolezal, a white woman that felt the need to claim she was bi-racial. Then along came the infamous “Pocahontas,” formally known as Elizabeth Warren. Warren repeatedly lied about being a Native American over her educational and professional career.
There is only one reason a person would fraudulently make a claim to be from a racial or ethnic group that isn’t their own in today’s America. In order to benefit from affirmative action or other programs created for underrepresented groups, such as Native Americans, African Americans and in some cases Hispanics.
Now, a new fraud has stepped forward. A woman named Kay LeClaire has spent at least the last five years masquerading as a Native American cultural figure. LeClair, like Dolezal and Warren before her, exploited her assumed heritage for personal gain and prestige.
In November, Tone Madison, an Independent publication, and Madison 365 a non-profit news outlet, both out of Madison Wisconsin, did some research on LeClaire. What they found was disturbing.
“In my opinion, based on publicly available information: Kathryn Elizabeth LeClaire was born and raised in southern Wisconsin by her parents, Brian, and Carol (Johnson) Le Claire. She graduated from Hamilton High School in Sussex, Wisconsin.”
In tracing her heritage, it appears that LeClaire is Swedish, French Canadian and German. She is obviously a white woman and is not Native American. Although photos of her show a startling change in her hair, eyebrows, and complexion, all have which have darkened over the time period between 2012 and the present.
Before settling on her lie to be of Ojibwe heritage, LeClaire tried out a few others. Since 2017, she has claimed at one time or another to be Métis, Oneida, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Cuban and Jewish.
LeClaire claims to be a “Two Spirit” Native American. The term “Two-Spirit” is a direct translation of the Ojibwe term, Niizh Manidoowag. “Two-Spirited” or “Two-Spirit” is usually used to indicate a person whose body simultaneously houses a masculine spirit and a feminine spirit. Traditionally, Native American two-spirit people were male, female, and sometimes intersexed individuals who combined activities of both men and women with traits unique to their status as two-spirit people. In most tribes, they were considered neither men nor women; they occupied a distinct, alternative gender status.
LeClair, who goes by the Ojibwe nickname of Nibiiwakamigkwe (Good luck pronouncing it) used her special “Two Spirit” status to co-found a “queer indigenous artists” collective tattoo parlor called “Giige.”
According to Madison 365:
“In addition to becoming a member and co-owner of Giige, LeClaire earned several artists’ stipends, a paid residency at the University of Wisconsin, a place on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force and many speaking gigs and art exhibitions, not to mention a platform and trust of a community, all based on an ethnic identity that appears to have been fully fabricated.”
On the subject of those art exhibitions, Tone Madison wrote this:
“LeClaire is accused of buying art from Etsy merchants and passing it off as her own, authentically Native work.”
LeClaire was not happy just to con her community. She also used her phony elevated status to attack another local business. In 2020, she demanded the owners of a new music venue change its name from “The Winnebago” because the name was offensive to her ostensible people.
The actual meaning of Winnebago is “people of the dirty water.” It is actually the name of a Native American tribe who lived around Wisconsin’s Fox River, which is known for being muddy. Anyway, having been properly chastised, the owners eventually changed the name to “The Burr Oak.”
So a conniving woman, lying about being indigenous, shames a business into changing its name. She then writes an accusatory editorial that condemns others for exactly what she herself is doing.
“I’m glad the owners have decided to no longer profit from the identities of Indigenous peoples. I’m glad the name is going, but I’m not happy the institutions that allowed it to be stolen in the first place remain. For over 500 years, Indigenous Peoples have not controlled our narratives and representations. Our exclusion has been built into inclusion for others.”
When confronted with her lies, LeClaire Offered this statement as an apology.
“I am sorry. A lot of information has come to my attention since late December. I am still processing it all and do not yet know how to respond adequately. What I can do now is offer change. Moving forward, my efforts will be towards reducing harm by following the directions provided by Native community members and community-specified proxies. Currently, this means that I am not using the Ojibwe name given to me and am removing myself from all community spaces, positions, projects, and grants and will not seek new ones. Any culturally related items I hold are being redistributed back in community, either to the original makers and gift-givers when possible, or elsewhere as determined by community members. Thank you.”
I have given apologies in the past and I’ve heard my share. This is not an apology. Her opening line disqualifies it. “A lot of information has come to my attention since late December. I am still processing it all and do not yet know how to respond adequately.”
What information just came to her attention? She made the whole thing up!
Meanwhile, the tattoo parlor Giige has cut all ties with her and her problems may be just beginning.
Dawn Moneyhan is a tribal member of The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. Her assessment of the situation is as follows:
“My opinion starts with “Wow” but no surprise. I see someone who appears to be mentally ill and to have committed a federal felony in profiting from claimed indigenous-made art, as well as a potential form of identity theft that needs to be prosecuted and held accountable for their actions while receiving treatment for their mental illness.”
She then added:
“Mentally healthy people just don’t do something like that.”
Yes they do Dawn, they’re called liberals. Although I agree with you, they aren’t all there mentally.
