General > Research Needed
Lelooska Foundation - "Chief" Lelooska - Ariel, WA
Shredbones:
When I first moved to Washington, I joined my schools multicultural club which took various trips around the area in hopes of broadening horizons and such. The one Native-centered event that the club participated in was the Lelooska Fire-lit "Ceremony", presented by The Lelooska Foundation.
I am originally from Colorado and the tribes that I belong to are from Northern Montana, so I love to learn about other tribes cultures and customs, especially here in the Northwest, where my knowledge of the regional tribes is minimal at best. When we arrived at the Lelooska museum/long house, my sensors started to go off and I brushed it off as being overtly curious. I had noticed that in the museum, Northwestern tribes were large underrepresented as far as spaces and items go. The majority of pieces in the museum appeared to be purchased Lakota, Crow, Cheyenne beadwork, pipes, war bonnets; stuff belonging to Northern Plains Tribes.
When the performance (I am being especially careful and adamant not to call this a "ceremony") started I was so confused. There didn't appear to be a single Native involved but knowing the history of the nearby Cowlitz tribe, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I don't want to go into too much detail about the performance but after it was finished, I was left scratching my head.
Everything seemed so gimmicky and corny. I was reminded of the goofy outfits I have seen on hobbyists at powwows. The Lelooska dancers' masks weren't what struck me as inauthentic, it was the whole way they carried themselves and way of dancing, if you want to call that "dancing". It was all just so...white.
I knew this wasn't right so I started doing research and was able to track down journals written by a couple nice ladies that work in the American Studies/History/Native Studies Departments at Yale and the University of Rochester. It confirmed my suspicions and provided me with so much more information. They seem to be celebrated here in the Northwest which is kinda mind boggling.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0-mV8EyxXGULW5RS2hDU1djMVpuWVNTMzFoNHBZek56YUpr/view?usp=sharing (Masking Identities: Anya Montiel)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0-mV8EyxXGUaDF4d19UQ3ZCQkp6VEhyX0xtQjU4WFY1MENr/view?usp=sharing (Slideshow)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0-mV8EyxXGUczRMRTF4Y1UtNmt6ZUc1akx5TDFSUDlaOUlZ/view?usp=sharing (The Vexed Identity of Don “Lelooska” Smith: Janet Catherine Berlo)
Sandy S:
We drove by the Lelooska Foundation in Washington state today, it is still active: https://www.lelooska.org/
--- Quote ---The Lelooska Family began sharing educational programs in the 1960's. In 1977, the Lelooska Foundation was organized to preserve and encourage the study of the rich and diverse cultural heritage of the Native Peoples of North America through sponsoring living history programs and performances and operating the Lelooska Museum.
For over 45 years the Foundation has served as an educational resource for students, parents, teachers and the general public of Southwest Washington and Oregon.
The Lelooska Family was formally adopted, named and recognized as members of the House of Sewide of the Qwe’qwa’sot’enox and Mamalequla of the Kwakwaka’wakw by hereditary Chief James Aul Sewid and given the rights to the hereditary ceremonial privileges of stories, songs, masks and dances. These names, rights and privileges have been confirmed at multiple potlatches over several decades. The family was given full rights to use this box of treasure to share these rights and privileges through the creation of art and to educate the public about these traditional songs, dances and stories. They remain committed to honoring their family and the gift that was given to them.
--- End quote ---
https://us6.campaign-archive.com/?u=71cda96717c6399ab5d74dc9a&id=2cbb6d8f23
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LelooskaFoundation/
--- Quote ---Lelooska, Don Morse Smith, for whom the foundation is named, was a non-Native artist who carved sculptures and totem poles, one of which is displayed at the Christchurch International Airport in New Zealand, and another at the Oregon Zoo.
--- End quote ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lelooska_Museum
--- Quote ---Culture/People Non-Indian
Artist/Maker Don Morse Smith (Lelooska), Non-Indian/Cherokee descent, 1933-1996
--- End quote ---
https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/object/NMAI_272258
Their claimed family story https://www.lelooska.org/about/history/
Criticism includes:
--- Quote ---Please do not promote the Lelooska Foundation. Lelooska was a fraud who appropriated Native cultures of the Pacific Northwest and they do not have any authority to teach the things they do. Look for events that are held or sponsored by actual Tribes or Tribal organizations, not entities where the guy they praise was of Cherokee descent, claimed Kwakwaka’wakw, had a Nez Perce name, spoke Chinook Jargon (a trade language of no more than 700 words), claimed to be an authority of all Indians of North America, “adopted” into multiple families, described deeply ceremonial practices that shouldn’t be shared with the public, and only has descriptions of him and his family from 20+ years ago. This all screams as suspicious for Indigenous persons.
--- End quote ---
https://www.reddit.com/r/Washington/comments/13e9ous/this_sub_needs_more_indigenous_content_lummi/
"Chief Lelooksa" said he had Cherokee descent, was adopted at age 12 by Nez Perce, and then was adopted into a First Nation.
--- Quote ---Don Smith - or Lelooska, as he was usually called - was a prominent Native American artist and storyteller in the Pacific Northwest. Born in 1933 of “mixed blood” Cherokee heritage, he was adopted as an adult by the prestigious Kwakiutl Sewid clan and had relationships with elders from a wide range of tribal backgrounds. Initially producing curio items for sale to tourists and regalia for Oregon Indians, Lelooska emerged in the late 1950s as one of a handful of artists who proved crucial to the renaissance of Northwest Coast Indian art. He also developed into a supreme performer and educator, staging shows of dances, songs, and storytelling. During the peak years, from the 1970s to the early 1990s, the family shows with Lelooska as the centerpiece attracted as many as 30,000 people annually.
--- End quote ---
https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295983240/lelooska/
Sandy S:
--- Quote ---In the 1950s, Don Morse Smith began his decades-long pretense as a Cherokee
man who called himself Chief Lelooska. He also created and sold art similar to that
created by Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast.
Smith enacted storytelling from Northwest Coast Nations and, eventually, he and his family
performed dances forthe public and school groups in what they called the Lelooska Museum in
Washington.
He wrote two books for children in the 1990s and shaped the way at least one author,
Rosanne Parry, thinks about Native people. In the author’s note for her book published
in 2013, she cites the “magical” impact that Lelooska’s performances had on her when
she was a fifth grader. Parry does not claim to be Native, but felt no compunction
about creating Native characters and making up petroglyphs and a Native story to
go with those petroglyphs in her own book for young readers. For five years she felt
qualified to offer a writing workshop titled “Research and Empathy: Writing across
Cultures,” in which she encouraged all writers to “include characters from a variety of
racial and ethnic backgrounds.”24 Smith’s actions, in short, shaped Parry, and Parry’s
actions, in turn, shape others who feel they can do as she and Smith did.
--- End quote ---
Claims to Native Identity in Children’s Literature
2019
Reese, Debbie
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5m13d31f
--- Quote ---Born Fearon Smith Jr., and nicknamed “Smitty,” Chief Tsungani is the younger brother of the late Don Smith (who gained fame as Chief Lelooska) and Patty Fawn. The Smith family members – who were of Cherokee and mixed heritage, and were adopted by Chief James Aul Sewinde of the Kwakiutl – became well known in Northwest for their traditional native dances, songs and stories, which they performed, often with other Native groups, at special events, county and regional fairs and rodeos, including one of the largest and best-known: the Pendleton Round-Up, in Eastern Oregon.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---The Lelooska Foundation, led by Tsungani and his daughter Mariah, remains active and open to visitors today in Ariel, welcoming a constant flow of visitors – and most important, lots of school children – from the Northwest and all around the globe.
--- End quote ---
https://blog.mcmenamins.com/chief-tsungani/
So this is an ongoing extended family fraud. Very embedded in the region, for instance working with Port of Kalama and the Cowlitz Indian Tribe concerning carved totem poles: https://portofkalama.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/PR_POK-to-Rededicate-Lelooska-Totem-Pole.pdf
Family also has artwork in various museums and galleries.
Sandy S:
--- Quote ---The Tsungani Totem pole, located in the entryway of the James E. Brooks Library, was carved in 1999 by Tsungani (Fearon Smith, Jr.). He served as the chief of the Wiummasgum Clan of the House of Lelooska and the House of Sewide.
--- End quote ---
https://libguides.lib.cwu.edu/AmericanIndianStudies/totempole
"Wiummasgum Clan of the House of Lelooska"?
Fearon Smith, Jr. is a member of this family.
In the 1950 census everyone is white.
They are friends with the James Auld Sewid family of a First Nation. But this does not mean that they can legally sell their art under the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of United States.
Matriarch is said to be Shona-Hah, "born in a black walnut cabin in Oklahoma's old Cherokee Nation".
"Her dolls are highly valued by private collectors and museums as illustrations of vanished cultures."
https://www.lelooska.org/about/history/
She was actually Mary J. Hinkle, white, born in Missouri, married to Fearon Morris Smith, white, born in Montana.
There is quite a bit of genealogy work on this family available on family search.org. I'm figuring out the family relationships and eventually will do a write up on that.
Sandy S:
This is a multi generational art and culture fraud by pretendian white people.
They began their fraud as hobbyists, selling tourist trade "Indian" art, and performing as "Indian" dancers. They've been at this for about sixty years now.
They are white people from Tennessee and Missouri who made their way across the country, landing in Oregon and then Washington. In 1950 census they are white. In all prior census and other records they are white, as are their ancestors.
Their claim that their matriarch Marilyn Jean Hinkle/Shona-hah is Cherokee from Oklahoma is false.
Core family:
Marilyn Jean Hinkle/Shona-hah Smith/Gray Dove
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/274352639/mary-smith
https://www.photoconsortium.net/100-portraits-women-artists-photographs-by-barbara-yoshida/
https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/object/NMAI_275094
married to Fearon Morris Smith Sr
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/28784178/feron-morris-smith
They had four children:
Don Morris Smith / Chief Lelooska
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/28784151/don-smith
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/northwest-coast-indians-demonstrate-their-crafts-at-museum-news-photo/837932638
https://www.discogs.com/artist/1331193-Chief-Lelooska
https://ciscosgallery.com/products/chief-don-lelooska-totem-af1990
Fearon Smith Jr / Smitty/ Chief Tsungani
https://blog.mcmenamins.com/chief-tsungani/
Patricia Louise Smith / Patty Fawn/ Patty Fawn-Cook
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/early-1960s-8x10-photo-chief-laluska-400646906
https://www.ebay.com/itm/127145947385
https://www.tribalexpressions.com/brands/artists/patty-fawn/
Patty Fawn-Cook has a daughter Leanne who uses the name Nakweesee as a supposed Native American artist.
https://www.adobegallery.com/artist/patty-fawn-and-nakweesee-cherokee-artisans
Richard Lee Smith
Search on most of these names and find their art all over the place, including in museums and as public carved totem poles.
Their operation in Ariel, Washington https://www.lelooska.org/ just scored a $12,000 grant for "the Lelooska Foundation Advertising and Outreach". https://www.klog.com/120000-awarded-in-2025-tourism-marketing-grants-to-boost-local-events-and-tourism-klog-100-7-news/
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