Author Topic: Serle Lovell Chapman aka Rain Bear Stands Last, claims Romani, MMIW Filmmaker  (Read 10464 times)

Offline Bahesmama

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Recently profiled in this article:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/filmmaker-inspiring-change-through-documentaries-on-missing-murdered-indigenous-women-and-girls/ar-AASoON0?ocid=hplocalnews&fbclid=IwAR35vQwsB4A_dVVpk0cWtTEdm9bzZKXhVcHTDDf2NEo3MU58irzK-LuwjAE

Claims on his website to be:

Rain Bear Stands Last

Rain is the director of the trending documentary Somebody’s Daughter which focuses on the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis. One review describes the film as “among the most important documentaries made on not only MMIW, but also on Indian Country in the twenty-first century.” His previous film, Not In Our Name, had the distinction of being entered into the Congressional record at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing in May 2019. Rain is a member of the Strange Owl family from Birney and Lame Deer, Montana. He is also Romani and is often listed among “notable Romani people.”

https://www.houseofthemoon.org/presenters-1/rain-bear-stands-last-

Offline Bahesmama

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The shameless self-promotion on the Somebody's Daughter website. Nuts!

https://www.somebodysdaughter.com/rain

Offline Diana

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Yeah, who is this Rain person? I saw him on the Dr. Phil when they did a show called Missing and Murdering Montana. S20 E40. He was on there and seemed to dominate the conversation. He claimed to be Tribal and from the Romany Tribe..? that's what he called them. Even though he had blond hair and blue eyes. He came across as very strange and seemed to be trying to hide his identity with his big hat. I really couldn't see his face. He was dress kind of weird. Like he was at a circus. Anyway that's the impression I got. He was very out of place for something like that.

I tried to look him up after the show and couldn't find anything about him. What gives about this guy? And who is he and where does he come from? It's like he's a ghost. Why is this white guy attaching himself to this very devastating situation to Native Americans?

Offline educatedindian

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On several sites he describes himself as Romani, even wearing a t shirt saying Gypsy. Lame Deer is the Northern Cheyenne rez. Perhaps he married into them. Dressing up like Billy Jack is strange, though. Here he says he is Cheyenne and Arapaho also.

Offline Diana

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On several sites he describes himself as Romani, even wearing a t shirt saying Gypsy. Lame Deer is the Northern Cheyenne rez. Perhaps he married into them. Dressing up like Billy Jack is strange, though. Here he says he is Cheyenne and Arapaho also.

Hmmm, I'm not sure about that. From what little I could see of him on the Dr. Phil show, he wore a ton of eyeliner and mascara. He appeared very feminized.

Offline cellophane

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A Google search shows nothing of him under that name before 2014. In 2015 he appears as a co-founder of "Guardians of Our Ancestral Legacy" (GOAL).
https://wyofile.com/tribal-alliance-fights-to-maintain-yellowstone-grizzly-protections/

The webpage for goaltribal.org appears to empty throughout its existence, since 2014.

Offline cellophane

  • Posts: 56
He also seems to be behind https://www.alter-nativemedia.com (unrelated to www.alter-native-media.com). More self-promotion. Most of the website is placeholder text. It promotes this book (with over the top testimonials):
https://www.alter-nativemedia.com/copy-of-psychopathogen
It gives a contact address as "Box 101, Billings".

Offline cellophane

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GOAL, dedicated to protecting Grizzly bears, was founded by the late Don Shoulderblade, of the Northern Cheyenne, together with Rain:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/05/new-fire-in-the-battle-for-yellowstones-grizzly-bears/

Rain has referred to Don Shoulderblade as his uncle, for example here:
https://aplaceforgrizzlies.com/grizzlies-lost-a-champion-this-week/

Rain says that Don Shoulderblade has bestowed his own name on him:
https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/northern-cheyenne-sun-dance-priest-don-shoulderblade-leader-of-grizzly-bear-struggle-passes
Quote
Uncle Don’s contributions will live on in the community, and his cultural knowledge will reverberate for generations,” film director Rain told Native News Online. Shoulderblade bestowed his traditional name, Náhk?xho’óxeóó’?stse (Bear Stands Last), upon the filmmaker when they worked side-by-side on the grizzly issue.

Rain is not among the list of nephews or other relatives in Shoulderblade's obituary:
https://stevensonfuneralhomes.com/obituaries/donald-shoulderblade-of-lame-deer/

I am allowing myself to guess that if Rain had biological Native American ancestry, he would have mentioned it. I hope someone more knowledgeable than me could explain if and how Rain might be acknowledged as a member of the Northern Cheyenne.

Offline Smart Mule

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I've been told this is him, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/dec/15/society Serle Chapman, a white guy from England who was "adopted".

Offline educatedindian

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Chapman looks much like RBSL. Here he claims Cheyenne descent.

------
https://www.devanstuartlesley.com/touching-indian-ways
....His own forebears include legendary frontier scout Amos Chapman and Mary Chapman, also known as Long Neck Woman, the daughter of Southern Cheyenne Chief Sleeping Bear and adopted daughter of Chief Stone Calf.

------
But here he claims adoption.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/dec/15/society
....For most of the year he lives near Bear Butte, the sacred mountain of the Cheyenne, and has an adoptive Cheyenne "mother", educator and campaigner Dr Henrietta Mann. But his accent has a mid-Atlantic twang, and he cheerfully admits that he was born and raised in West Yorkshire.

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Mann, to put it wildly, is very well known. Chapman's work would be very laudable. So would RBSL (if he's not the same person) if it weren't for the name and his cosplay causing some deliberate confusion. He (they?) aren't anything like the usual exploiters we look at. There is some self promotion getting in the way, drawing attention away from pretty damn important issues. But you can't point to direct profiting or harm as we're used to seeing.

Offline Bahesmama

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Yes, it appears Rain Bear Stands Last is Serle Lovell Chapman. Author of several books.

He goes from not claiming Native in a 2001 Guardian interview (he's from Yorkshire, England) to falsely claiming in his 2004 book on the Bozeman Trail to be of Cheyenne descent through a US army private in the Indian Wars. We have done his tree and he has no American ties. Strictly English with some Scottish and Irish ancestry.

I wonder if he went underground after he was accused by AIM of being a government informant in the trial of Richard Marshall for the murder of Anna Mae Aquash? (See here: https://www.lakotatimes.com/articles/is-aim-being-pushed-over-a-cliff/)

I heard his wife is also falsely claiming to be Alaskan Native. She is also from Yorkshire.

Offline cellophane

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Bahesmama, is the Romani ancestry claim supported?

This article:
https://billingsgazette.com/news/features/magazine/author-photographer-documents-indian-culture/article_a17520f6-9f10-5eea-a625-f190b72d1a00.html

says, "His biological father, Thomas Howard Chapman, is a decorated World War II Air Force veteran, and his birth mother is Margaret Elizabeth, a member of the European Kalderas tribe." The Kalderash are a Roma subgroup.

Offline Diana

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Cellophane,  you need to post the article. It won't let anyone read it unless you pay a subscription of $5.99. We always post the articles in full. A lot of times the links to the original article often disappear or are archived by the magazine, newspaper or author. This way we will always have them. Thanks 😊

Bahesmama, is the Romani ancestry claim supported?

This article:
https://billingsgazette.com/news/features/magazine/author-photographer-documents-indian-culture/article_a17520f6-9f10-5eea-a625-f190b72d1a00.html

says, "His biological father, Thomas Howard Chapman, is a decorated World War II Air Force veteran, and his birth mother is Margaret Elizabeth, a member of the European Kalderas tribe." The Kalderash are a Roma subgroup.
Recently profiled in this article:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/filmmaker-inspiring-change-through-documentaries-on-missing-murdered-indigenous-women-and-girls/ar-AASoON0?ocid=hplocalnews&fbclid=IwAR35vQwsB4A_dVVpk0cWtTEdm9bzZKXhVcHTDDf2NEo3MU58irzK-LuwjAE

Claims on his website to be:

Rain Bear Stands Last

Rain is the director of the trending documentary Somebody’s Daughter which focuses on the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis. One review describes the film as “among the most important documentaries made on not only MMIW, but also on Indian Country in the twenty-first century.” His previous film, Not In Our Name, had the distinction of being entered into the Congressional record at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing in May 2019. Rain is a member of the Strange Owl family from Birney and Lame Deer, Montana. He is also Romani and is often listed among “notable Romani people.”

https://www.houseofthemoon.org/presenters-1/rain-bear-stands-last-

Offline Laurel

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Here's the article text:

 Author/photographer documents Indian culture

 CHRISTENE MEYERS of the Gazette Staff Nov 16, 2002

 Author and photographer Serle Chapman has created a photographic homage to the Native American culture with two handsome and thought-provoking coffee-table books.

"We, the People" and "Of Earth and Elders" are two very different books with a common theme.

"Of Earth and Elders" has entered a second edition after five reprints.

The recently published "We, The People" is attracting attention for its gorgeous portraits and moving documentation of the contributions, hardship and triumph of native peoples.

From graceful young dancers to wrinkled and wise elders, from Oklahoma to Washington to an Alaskan village and the Flathead Reservation in Montana, Chapman and his tape recorder and camera have documented the frustrations, hopes, anger and insights of Indian people.

Many of his subjects have connections to Montana, either by birth or relatives or through visits on various circuits, including Writer's Voice.

Musician and poet Joy Harjo, for instance, played her saxophone, sang and lectured here. Artist Kevin Red Star maintains his gallery and family connections to Montana. With more than 35 years of experience in art, Red Star's observations represent the earnest and dedicated sense of survival inherent in much of the culture today.

Chapman captures that spirit, both in his portraits and his well-chosen quotations from both famous and little-known Native Americans.
Redstar

Red Star was born in Lodge Grass on the Crow Indian Reservation. He reflects on the artistry of his mother, a bead worker, whose beautiful designs on moccasins, vests and hair barrettes inspired his early-day drawing. His policeman-game warden dad was a moonlighting musician, who with his buddies formed a band called the Reservation Hot Shots.

In Chapman's book, Red Star recalls his dad and the guys "playing all those old Hank Williams honky-tonk and country songs … I was a young guy surrounded by music and art and that combination is still with me when I work."

The book is both a visual and literary assemblage of contemporary Native America, and the author lets the people take their own time, often getting close to the bone in their observations of broken treaties, lost land and life.

Chapman takes an unhurried look at dozens of Indian lives, from author Vine Deloria Jr. to activist Russell Means, tribal chairmen, composers, lawyers, actors, poets, educators, students, journalists, historians and more.
Find out more Kibler & Kirch Gallery, 2815 Second Ave. N., carries "We, The People" and "Of Earth and Elders," royalties of which support tribal colleges of the American Indian College Fund. Call 238-9955.

The Gallery also handles Kevin Red Star originals and prints. Both Red Star and writer Serle Chapman will be at the Dec. 6 Artwalk.

The books are published by Mountain Press of Missoula, 1-800-234-5308.

Whether Pulitzer Prize winner, descendant of a great chief, pageant-prize winner or college drop-out, the insights are thought-provoking, occasionally raw and sometimes troubling.

The diversity of his subjects immediately fascinates. Their observations range from blunt to eloquent, controversial and angry to touching.

The thoughts are as varied as insights into the family structure, the meaning of sacred dances, thoughts on war, observations about the corruption of the younger generation and cryptic criticism of the American obsession with money and profit at the expense of the planet.

"I feel that we will see a great resurgence of our people and I believe our spiritual struggle will prevail," writes Floyd Red Crow Westerman, an award-wining film actor, musician and activist.

He relates the Native Americans' struggle for spiritual and cultural survival to the need to preserve the land.

Their politics range from mildly conservative to militant, but there is a moving undertone of commitment to the culture.

Grace Thorpe reminisces about her father, the legendary athlete Jim Thorpe, and talks of her own efforts to fight the placement of nuclear waste on Indian land.

Chapman took three years to compile "We, The People."

He is a world traveler and adopted son of Cheyenne teacher Henrietta Mann, endowed chairman of Montana State University's Native Studies Department. His biological father, Thomas Howard Chapman, is a decorated World War II Air Force veteran, and his birth mother is Margaret Elizabeth, a member of the European Kalderas tribe.

The family traces its lineage from Europe to the Dakotas, and one of Serle's greatest influences was the late Dakota elder, Fern Eastman Mathias.

Based near Cody, Wyo., Chapman is recently back from Paris, where he finalized a contract for a French-language edition of "We, The People." That will be published in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Quebec and Africa.

"Of Earth and Elders" showcases more of Chapman's gorgeous photographs, but with the bonus of an originally conceived portfolio of animal photos - fox, bighorn sheep, moose, elk, bison, coyote and antelope. Christene Meyers may be reached at 657-1243 or at cmeyers@billingsgazette.com.

Offline cellophane

  • Posts: 56
Thanks, Laurel, you beat me to it.
The article also has a photo of him seated in front of what seems to be a Northwest Coast totem pole: