Amisa Wiley, aka Amisa Yellowbird, aka....

[Lawrence Sampson]

Be on the lookout for this fraud. Acknowledges being born in Kentucky, lived in Tennessee for some 27 years, now living in the Phoenix area. Claims to be a "ceremonial leader", tho she will not reveal who taught her or when or where she spent the years of study necessary to become so. Also claims to have a Master's Degree that she will not describe or reveal where it was earned. Contacts with traditionals in Phoenix area describe her as "crazy white new age woman".  Spends inordinate amount of time on the internet impugning legitimate Indian organizers and educators.

She seems obsessed with the goings on in Tennessee and has posted numerous lies about people, organizations, and events in Tennessee, particularly intrusive since she doesn't live here.  Has been caught in numerous lies about herself and others. Claims of involvement with traditional treatment programs in the Phoenix area have not checked out.

L

[TimberlineWarrior]

As with many fakes their front seems to be a Yahoo Group...
Tennessee Indian Council Fire Yahoo! group (Jan 22, 2004 - )
"Members Only", members: 19/15feb04, 46/15jul04, 52/15aug04
owner: Amisa Yellowbird, Arizona
to provide an action-based focus group for people of Native American Indian descent living within the state of Tennessee or having blood ties to people who have historically and continuing into the present, inhabitated the land that is known as Tennessee. Any other Native American Indian person from any other area is also welcome to join this group.

Looking at that interest seems to be on the wane, from 2-300 messages a month it's dropping, but still has 124 members.
The only other search results exposed Amisa Yellowbird as a fraud. Incidentally their mail address is shown as ayellowbird2@yahoo.com.

^. .^

[Lawrence Sampson]

Those that have joined this "councilfire" group, to observe what was going on, witnessed prior to being very quickly kicked off of it by Ms. Wiley, that 99% of the posts were made by Ms. Wiley herself. Clearly, she attempts to create environments where the unknowing descendant, non-Indian, and other easily duped types look to her for guidance.  

She refuses to say what discipline her "Master's Degree" is in or where it was earned. She refuses to divulge who taught and empowered her to conduct traditional ceremonies.

Word has it that she conducts "howling ceremonies", and various lesbian oriented rituals for the new agers in the Phoenix area.

L

[Amy Clark]

Hi. I'm a Tennessee resident. I am currently still a member of her yahoo group. It is only Donna Smith and Amisa who make post there now. In fact I rarely check the site any more. She is currently posting on the TN-Ind mailing list about plastic indians and shamans and all that but oddly the descriptions she offers describe her as well. It is frustrating that some people can't see this.

Amy

[Amy Clark]

She is also involved with this group. I find it odd that someone who doesn't live in Tennessee is involved in a group that represents Tennessee.

http://www.taida.org/index.html

Amy

[Moma_porcupine]

I stumbled on Amisa Yellowbird while reading about something else and as I remembered she is posted here as a fraud.  I was curious about if there might be some interconnections,  but what I have turned up makes me think maybe she shouldn't be posted in NAFPS at all .

She was put here by Lawernce Sampson , and is one of the few people posted in NAFPS where no on line evidence is shown for the alleged exploitive activities . She seems to have been posted here not based on anything but Larence Sampson's word .

Lawernce is posted in NAFPS as a questionable person , and over at Indianz.com it seems he is frequently refered to as Lyin Larry

http://newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=950.0;all

It looks like Amisa was one of the people involved in outing him , a couple months before LS posted her as a fraud here  .

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aim_support/message/6017

Date: Thu, 08 Sep 2005 22:27:30 -0000
   From: "Amisa Yellowbird" <ayellowbird2@...>

Lawrence Sampson is not enrolled in Eastern Band Cherokees - proof

There is also a picture posted she says is her . I would guess people who know her would say it isn't her if it isn't . ( ? ) If it is , what Lawernce Sampson is saying about her being a crazy White woman doesn't sound right .

http://64.62.196.98/board/post.asp?method=ReplyQuote&REPLY_ID=554165&TOPIC_ID=26808&FORUM_ID=5

http://www.indianz.com/board/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=20216

There is this discussion board

http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:5ZjDDIgi2aQJ:www.network54.com/Forum/539634/page-2+%22Amisa+Yellowbird%22+
Donna&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=ca

And she appears to make and sells regalia

http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:dyLZSeiF_1wJ:yellowbird-regalia.tripod.com/id6.html+%22Amisa+Yellowbird%22&hl=en&
ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=ca

Info about Amisa Yellowbird:

Hello to all,

    My name is Amisa Yellowbird, I am an enrolled Cherokee which is in keeping with the Indian Arts & Crafts Act. All of my outfits and accessories or art work are authentic, Indian-made according to those laws under the Act.

    I am a Northern style dancer and have danced in Pow Wows for the past almost thirty years. My grandmothers and other relatives and friends taught me how to make the outfits and accessories that I love to make and offer for sale here on this site. I live in Arizona, about 40 miles from Phoenix in a rural area.

    I am also a grandmother of two, with one more on the way soon. Our children are our future and these Pow Wow ways help
 to preserve many of our traditions. When we dance we feel the Spirits of our ancestors. That is why I make these dance outfits and accessories.yellowbird_regalia@yahoo.com

Yellowbird Native American Regalia * P.O. Box 303 * Wittmann * AZ * 85361

-----------

Reading through things she writes she sounds like a fairly sane and balanced person . She isn't even overly concerned about people saying stuff about her that isn't nice .  I don't see anything that makes me think she is someone who would even get posted in research needed , except for what Lawernce Sampson ( frequently refered to as Lyin Larry) posted about her .

Is NAFPS being used unfairly in this situation , by Larry , to get revenge on someone he didn't like? or is there something I've missed here ?

[frederica]

Amisa Wiley, Riley, Begay, Yellowbird is as she says enrolled in a State Recognized Tribe in Alabama. Lives in Arizona as far as I know. Spends a lot of time in arguments on the Internet as to whether she is a fraud or if the others are frauds, not just Lawrence Sampson. Been going on for a long time on several lists. Sells Arts and Crafts. Says she is Cherokee, the State Tribe is, but at one time claimed some Lakota connection. There are several that spend a lot of time fighting with each other about who is legimate and who is not. It's probably not worth the effort. frederica

[Skully]

Fot what it's worth...

I known her since the early 80s, and she, the the best of my knowledge has never been engaged in fraudulent activities...as fiesty as she may be.

She seems to be good people, and has actually MELLOWED over the past few years.

[Moma_porcupine]

Thanks Paulie. I also got the impression Amisa was an OK person . I'm not always right about that , but that is what comes through reading what she writes

Further digging and I did manage to find a bit that might be questionable - though I still don't see any of the type of stuff that usually gets people posted as a fraud , and it's probably good she is moved to out of "Frauds" and to " Research Needed" .

Amisa does mention she leads some Lakota ceremonies in Arizon , though I don't see any sign she charges or advertises . This seems to get mentioned only because she is defending herself from accusations of being a plastic shaman , and it didn't seem she was seeking to draw attention to this .

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?disc=199489;article=19459;title=Issues%20Affecting%20American%20Indians%20in%20Tennessee

She also set up a charity organization, which someone found questionable and critized .

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?disc=199489;article=19143;title=Issues%20Affecting%20American%20Indians%20in%20Tennessee

Amisa's explanation and defence

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?disc=199489;article=19164;title=Issues%20Affecting%20American%20Indians%20in%20Tennessee

Everybody posting in this list seems to accuse almost everybody else of being a fraud , being plactic , using their kids to look Indian , having a fake card , dressing wrong , being a liar , not being Indian at all ... It just goes on and on . Makes NAFPS look very focused on the issues , objective and polite  . Reading through all this is enough to give anyone a headache !

What is really ironic and amusing,  is it is this list,  where I see Lekay has posted , asking for people who feel wrongly accused of being questionable or fraudulent in NAFPS , to contact him for an interview . LOL  I doubt he can get them to stop calling each other frauds long enough to give an interview ..

Time to give it a rest I think ...

[educatedindian]

I'm glad to see this was moved, and moved quickly. I have no idea why Lawrence Sampson thought he could use this group to smear a critic of his. Larry, did you really think our memory was that poor, or that short?

Sampson also seems to have quit right after posting the accusations, maybe in the hope he could join again, make more accusations or disrupt in the future.

I noced that Amy Clark did the same thing, posted accusations and left.

TW, could you point us towards any evidence you have?

The strange thing is that on a Tennessee NDN Issue board, Wiley/AY claims to have been discussed by NAFPS before and feels she was slightly badly mistreated or discussed.

But if I remember right, the only person attacking her was Sampson, who got cautioned repeatedly to grow up and quit being abusive and childish. His perosnal and irrelevant comments about her were the biggest reason he finally got kicked out.

I have not seen any signs of ceremony selling so far. Wiley does heavily dispute the Looking Horse Proclamation, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Many dispute the proclamation, especially the methods called for in it, without being frauds.

[littlefeatherspiri]

Kelly Michelle Begay, Gomez, Smith aka Amisa Yellowbird.

Claims to have "legally" changed her name to yellowbird.

Begay/Gomez are her married names.

Anti-Indian who is enrolled with a "state-recognized" alabama group, apparently ANYONE can join.

Joining state-recognized group gives her legal standing to sell her arts/crafts.

Never has anything good to say about Federal Recognized Indians, feels we all should just stay on the rez since we don't pay taxes, we are all drunks and are basically useless.

Questions everyone else's heritage but caughs up nothing to prove her own.

[wasna papa]

Kola.......yellowbird?  I know of begay relations. was told most good people.

wasna papa

[educatedindian]

Hi LFS, good to see you back. Could you point us towards your sources? We've already seen the exchange on the Tennessee NDN board, but is there anything else?

What is this Alabama group you mentioned? As far as I know, you have to be part of federally recognized nation to mark your crafts as Indian made. Granted the law isn't enforced too well.

[littlefeatherspiri]

http://www.doi.gov/iacb/act.html

Under the Act, an Indian is defined as a member of any federally or State recognized Indian Tribe, or an individual certified as an Indian artisan by an Indian Tribe.


Most of my research came from the P.O. box for her organization, then a research on the p.o. box then, research of public records at the arizona court records. It looks as if some of the conversation about this subject has either been deleted or I just can't locate it on Donna's board.
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=199489;article=19160;search_term=kelly

Arizona Indians know me as Kelly and as Amisa. It took some time for them to get used to the name change and most of them still call me Kelly. At the Gourd Society meetings (listen up, David), they have called me Kelly for years, then they now say...oh, I mean Amisa. Amisa is my name now, but I might go and change it again if I get the desire to do so.

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=199489;article=19143;search_term=kelly

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=199489;article=19141;search_term=kelly

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=199489;article=19298;search_term=kelly

Kelly writes about the ceremonies and her name change:

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?disc=199489;article=19459;title=Issues%20Affecting%20American%20Indians%20in%20Tennessee;pagemark=675

[littlefeatherspiri]

YELLOWBIRD, AMISA
Possible Employment / Business Associations:
UNITED TRADITIONAL INDIAN COUNCIL OF ARIZONA, INC
UNITED TRADITIONAL INDIAN COUNCIL OF ARIZONA, INC

Background:
1. UTICA organized in 1992 as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation designed to meet the needs of American Indian and other minority people. However, because of lack of adequate services in rural area, our clients today are from all races. We have offered thoughout the years, services such as counceling, senior outreach, food assistance, American Indian cultural activities, interpersonal communication skills development, english language classes and community services referrals.

*Funds are provided through Department of Labor

I-990 Form 1999
Name of organization:

United Trad. Indian Council of AZ Inc.
P.O. Box 303
Wittman, AZ 85301

List of Officers, Directors, Trustees and Key Employees:

Kelly Begay Gomez, Wittman AZ President 60 hours Pay, $16,000

Alberto Gomez, Wittman AZ
Secretary 15 hours Pay $0

Total revenue: $32,641
Travel $ 4,000
Mat/Sup $ 1,737
Ele/tele/water $ 3.297
Insurance $1,091
Program/Events $ 100
Printing $ 25
---------
Total $10,250

Actual Monies Spent on clients: $6,391