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NO LONGER A MATTER OF CONCERN Karen Bethann Farrington AKA Kasmira Ann McCann

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Piff:

--- Quote ---Kasmira Ann McCann
September 13 at 9:33am ·

Dear Family & Friends...

I am coming out of the Lavvu Closet...

Yes, I drum. Yes, I Yoik. Yes, I practice Earth Medicine. It is in my Blood.

All these decades I have been called weird...crazy..so on. I know you don't know this, but I heard you. My Heart heard you.

So here it is.... It is in my Saami Blood to be who I am. No, you didn't know. I was told to keep it a secret by my Grandfather. No more. You judged me by your own standards. And look at the world now.

"Indigenous People are Awakening... Our Mother Earth is awakening all Indigenous People all over the Globe.... Much damage has been done.... Much is now needed to heal"

~ Kasmira
--- End quote ---

This bit concerns me. Is she saying decades of her bad behavior must be excused now that she's discovered her supposed heritage? Doesn't she sound sorta paranoid with the claims that we all have been talking trash about her for decades?

What's with  "I was told to keep it a secret by my Grandfather."?

And what the heck?: "You judged me by your own standards. And look at the world now."

Her birth name is Karen Bethann Farrington. Since she identifies publicly as "Kasmira [Saami Lineage]" - we get to fact check. I figured out her birth name through scattered hints on Facebook , googling, and newspaper research. Found her newspaper engagement notice.

Her married name Karen B McCann can be found in corporation documents, also "Kasmira Ann McCann" on etsy.com is https://www.etsy.com/people/mccannkb

Defend the Sacred:

--- Quote from: Piff on October 01, 2017, 10:29:13 pm ---Is she saying decades of her bad behavior must be excused now that she's discovered her supposed heritage?
--- End quote ---

I'm not buying it. I think she's copying the stories she's heard from Saami people.

She tried joining Saami groups online. She was spotted as a fraud and kicked out. That's why Saami people have come here to warn about her. Even the descendants groups, the ones that welcome people with only distant heritage, considered her offensive and invasive and wanted nothing to do with her. So she started her own, pay to pray group.

I think some pretendian newagers are now trying to claim Saami because they see photos of "white-looking" Saami and mistakenly think that will be easier to fake than Indigenous heritage that is associated with higher melanin levels. But those frauds, and those who patronize them, don't usually know it works the same way as it does on Turtle Island - the person needs to be from their community, know their language, have Elders and relatives, etc. Not just be some American newager banging a drum they bought on eBay, wearing a costume they concocted from some photos on pinterest, selling the usual newage bafflegab just in newer, more unusual drag.

emj023:
Thank you so much for all the diligent work on exposing this fraud!

I love the expression, "pay to pray!" I also truly hope that Sami Americans will pursue these leads!

But I would like to say a few words about Sami identity to people paying attention to this thread. Sami political rights, that is, the right to vote in the Sami parliaments of Norway, Sweden, and Finland, is primarily tied to the historical or current use of one of the Sami languages. In America, we often hear references to our pigmentation (or lack thereof) by well-meaning Indigenous people and their allies. I hesitate at times to fall back on our shared experiences of racialized oppression, but here goes. Despite that some of our people are fair-skinned, we have been historically raced and racially categorized going way back in history. The experiences of racialization of the Sami in Europe is similar to the Jewish experience. In America, with race codified by color, most Jews and most Sami Americans are recognized as white and with all the privileges that are entailed in a white supremacist racial hierarchy. However, we need not look back very far in history to see the murderous consequences of racialization of difference in Europe. I note, that the Sami were on the list of "inferior races" the Nazi regime devised. As a descendant of people with direct ties to the Nazi occupation, I shutter to think of what could have come of us had the allies not won the war...but I digress.

Our people were habitually targeted by eugenicists and other powerful outsiders who sought to register our racial inferiority through color but other "differences." Take for example this photograph by Bonaparte and his companions. The photograph is titled "Measuring Lapps" and most people would agree that the Sami woman who is being forced to endure this humiliation, would "look white" in America: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Bonaparte#/media/File:Bonaparte-groupshot.jpg

Some Sami are more "brown" than others. But that is never a determining factor of Sami belonging in Sápmi. It has, however, been a factor in determining identity by colonial regimes. Our differences are marked by our connections to areas where Sami people live, for example, from the north. Our dialects set us apart, and other features that internally are considered prized and beautiful, like high cheekbones, turned up noses, and short stature, have been disparaged by racial discourses of Scandinavian "whiteness."

Here is another article, you can glean a lot of what it ways using google translate, The title is "Beautiful--that they are not" (in other words, they said the Sami were ugly): https://www.nrk.no/sapmi/xl/_vakre-er-de-ikke_-1.13560415

Sadly, many Sami American descendants who are seeking something meaningful in their lives glom onto gurus. Some gurus have followers of other fake Sami Americans. They are caught in narratives of victimization and they seek a saviour. There are also descendants who have done the work, that is, they have learned the history, done their family genealogy, connected with relatives, and sought to understand Sami history and contemporary Sami culture, which is a living culture, not a relic of the past with drumming ancient ones on the tundra. One of the reasons I take this so seriously is because the fake gurus who use highly fictionalized renditions of Sami culture for personal gain, and their unsuspecting followers, cast a negative light on the Sami American descendants who have done the work or are transparent and well-meaning.

So, as one of the moderators pointed out, the Sami descendant communities in North America are easy targets for fraud. Many of these fakes have already made the rounds in Native communities, and when they are detected, they move on into Sami American networks because nobody is going to point out if a person is "too white" to be a descendant of Sami immigrants.

One more thing about Sami American communities. There are always people in these groups who make dubious claims to identity. It is an extremely challenging issue to address, namely, because colonialism had an enduring impact on records themselves. Nobody wants to go around pointing fingers all the time when it is not always easy to find Sami ancestry in records. People who have been told they have Sami heritage are welcomed, even without genealogical records. People who suspect Sami heritage are welcomed. But importantly, there are no particular benefits to being a Sami American descendant and being in a local group is really about a common interest in building community, supporting Native rights, and understanding history. The problem is when people are not transparent, and they try to make money fraudulently, or go around acting like dispensaries of a highly romanticized version of Sami culture when they have dubious are totally fabricated ties to Sami communities in Samiland. There are no membership groups with actual rolls in North America, these are more informal communities. Two groups have actual by-laws and voting which takes place at their annual or biannual meetings, thereby there are some checks and balances. They also regularly consult with culture-bearers in Samiland. Facebook groups are quite open which makes them easy targets.

Ok, so much for this long thread. Again, thank you to this group. It is a relief to know that there is diligence!

Defend the Sacred:
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this!

educatedindian:
I also really like your post. I think we should make a copy of it and pin it somewhere as a ready reference.

I'd like to add what I recall from my brief time in Sweden and meeting several Sami there. (I've usually seen this spelling. Is Mcann's just another Nuage attempt to seem more authentic?) I remember them telling me that while some may look white to Americans, they are still seen as different enough esp around the eyes and cheekbones that bigots in Scandinavia will target them on sight, including with violence. People also get targeted for traditional dress.

Even within Scandinavia, there's enough problems with forced assimilation that one Sami told me a story of another who'd been drawn into a Deer Tribe meeting with a fake sweat lodge. Luckily there was a power outage so the sweat ended with everyone just getting the chills.

My understanding is that one is defined as Sami legally if at least one grandparent spoke the language. Who the community regards as can obviously be different. But McCann isn't by any definition except her own.

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