General > Research Needed
Gail Tremblay
Sandy S:
ARTSWA Washington State Arts Commission has clearly corrected the record on Gail Tremblay.
This is wonderful. I'm impressed.
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Gail Tremblay
(American, born 1945, died 2023)
Gail Tremblay (1945-2023) was a non-Native artist and writer. She created multimedia artworks, installations, critical writing, and poetry. Tremblay was also an influential teacher and advocated for diversity and gender equality in the world of art and academia. She was honored with a Washington State Governor's Arts and Heritage Award in 2001.
Tremblay grew up in Buffalo, New York. She earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Oregon (1969) and a Bachelor of Arts in Drama from the University of New Hampshire (1967). She was a professor at The Evergreen State College in Olympia from 1980 to 2016, teaching English, Native American Studies, Art, and Art History. Her writing, poetry, and visual artwork have been included in numerous anthologies and exhibitions concerning feminism, gender roles, and the Native American experience. Many museums and collections hold Tremblay's artworks.
For approximately forty years, Tremblay claimed the lineage of the Onondaga, Mi’kmaq, and Mohawk (St. Regis) Nations. Before her death, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Indian Arts and Crafts Board began an investigation into her claims. With the support of the Nations noted, as well as genealogical research, they determined that Tremblay was not Indigenous.
https://www.arts.wa.gov/artist-collection/?request=record;id=4806;type=701
Sandy S:
My vote would be to place her in our Fraud category. And then possibly soon in Archive. Especially if this information can still be found in online searches.
She was an active teacher at The Evergreen State College. Many students will believe that they learned from a federally enrolled tribal member (if they even know what "federally enrolled" means). They will believe they learned Onondaga arts, including weaving and basketry, taught by a tribal member.
Sparks:
--- Quote from: Sandy S on November 25, 2024, 02:41:07 am ---Beardslee's claims reminds me of Gail Tremblay's http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=5606.0
[…]
From my experience reporting Gail Tremblay - the sooner the better. Because once a person dies the entire case may stop. Dept of Interior did an excellent job fully researching Gail Tremblay when I reported. But because she died during their work they did not issue a public statement, she was not alive to prosecute. They did assertively educate the gallery that represented her and various museums did remove her work.
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--- Quote from: Sandy S on November 25, 2024, 02:45:24 am ---ARTSWA Washington State Arts Commission has clearly corrected the record on Gail Tremblay.
This is wonderful. I'm impressed.
--- End quote ---
Excellent work, Sandy S!
Sandy S:
Thanks Sparks! Credit is entirely due to all of us here on NAFPS.
One of my earliest posts is from 2011 on the Bennie LeBeau thread (I've used a variety of names over time). Everything I continue to learn here I was able to apply to looking into Gail Tremblay.
I recently talked with a former student of Tremblay. The young student was bullied so badly on the first day by Tremblay that they left during break and switched course.
Tremblay would do first day intros with her false claims of being Native American. This young student happened to know some of that actual community, they themselves not federally enrolled but a descendent with active community connections. Student volunteered this (not at all aggressively, no challenge, simply a student sharing) and Tremblay then turned on them, berated and bullied until the person was driven out of the class.
The Evergreen State College (Olympia, WA, USA) does not appear to have made any public statement about Tremblay. They have however taken down all her false claims off their website. But this does not educate the decades of students she lied to and mistreated.
The Froelick Gallery that represented her does have a statement up, I think under some duress, and it is convoluted and weaselly. I assume they fear being sued.
The Dept of Interior, Indian Arts and Crafts Board enforcement did an impressive, stellar job. Expert genealogy and research. Communication with relevant tribes, museums, galleries. In person field work. Good communication with me and others. If she was still alive I believe they would have prosecuted.
I'm so happy with this statement by the WA state Arts Commission https://www.arts.wa.gov/artist-collection/?request=record;id=4806;type=701 . They listened to what the Dept of Interior agents told them and made the needed corrections.
Sparks:
--- Quote from: Sandy S on September 05, 2023, 09:25:37 pm ---I started a Talk page on her Wikipedia entry, looks like they won't update with a correction. Genealogy records won't work.
--- Quote ---Then it looks like it's updated as much as it can be, pending a reliable source that specifically details the fact that she traded on a false identity to aid her career. As it reads right now, the article does confirm that she was not in fact of Native descent, but it doesn't really say much about her use of the false identity. I think that deserves a mention, but we need a reliable source.
--- End quote ---
Read full discussion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Gail_Tremblay
The last video interview Gail Tremblay made before she died has been removed. https://daybreakstarradio.com/2022/12/gail-tremblay-interview/ I believe they were contacted by IACA tasked agents who informed them. In the Daybreak Star interview she was specifically asked if she was enrolled in a federally recognized tribe, she responded that she was.
Some museums have updated attribution http://portlandartmuseum.us/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=6661;type=701 but I've not found any authoritative source that affirmatively states that Gail Tremblay's claims were fraudulent. Nothing that Wikipedia will accept.
From what I see online, almost all bios are inaccurate.
Wikipedia would perhaps accept an affirmative statement from a Smithsonian, The Evergreen State College, Onondaga Tribe, DOJ .......... but I don't know that any of that will happen. I asked a federal agent if a public statement would be made, they replied one wouldn't be coming from them. So NAFPS may remain the only accurate discussion available online.
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My boldings. I am quite certain that the reliable source needed might will be the site you referred to and quoted:
--- Quote from: Sandy S on November 25, 2024, 02:45:24 am ---ARTSWA Washington State Arts Commission has clearly corrected the record on Gail Tremblay. … This is wonderful. I'm impressed.[…]
https://www.arts.wa.gov/artist-collection/?request=record;id=4806;type=701
--- End quote ---
The Wikipedia page, as it has been for more than a year now, is much too weak about her fraud:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Tremblay
--- Quote ---Gail Tremblay (December 15, 1945 – May 3, 2023[2]) was an American writer and artist from Washington State. She is known for weaving baskets from film footage that depicts Native American people, such as Western movies and anthropological documentaries. She received a Washington State Governor's Arts and Heritage Award in 2001.[3]
Background
Tremblay was born on December 15, 1945, in Buffalo, New York.[1] She claimed her father was of Mi'kmaq and Onondaga ancestry,[2][4] and that her great-grandfather once lived in Kahnawake near Montreal, but she never offered any documentation of this.[5] Her father was Roland G. Tremblay (1917–2013), who was born in Somersworth, New Hampshire, to Peter Tremblay and Bernadette Demers Tremblay.[6]
--- End quote ---
The statement from ARTSWA Washington State Arts Commission, referring to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Indian Arts and Crafts Board should be enough to convince Wikipedia?
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