NAFPS Forum

Lorraine Fox Davis appears to still be alive.

Her younger current husband David Davis is alive and working: https://www.rolftucson.com/about-david-davis

Is "Fox" her birth surname or did she invent it? Is "David Davis" an invented name?

The following is from the book "I am harmony : a book about Babaji" by Shyam, Radhe 1990. This book can be found on the Internet Archives site although the site can sometimes be difficult to use.

So this story is written by the author basied on what supposedly Lorraine and David Davis told him.

David Davis and Lorraine Fox had visited Babaji in Haidakhan in 1979. Babaji had advised them that when they considered getting involved in a major work commitment to first learn the rules and the 'price' of the interaction with any group they might plan to work with.When they returned to the USA, they began to involve themselves in work with Native Americans. Lorraine is a Blackfoot-Cree Indian.

On February 14, 1984, David and Lorraine Fox were anguishing over a matter arising from their work with Native Americans. They decided to go to the Great Sand Dunes National Monument not far from their home in Crestone, Colorado, to walk in the dunes, get quiet, and review their lessons from Babaji, to see how they might be applied to the problem that worried them.

(description of their supposed mystical experience with Babaji)

When they returned to their home that evening, with an answer to their Indian problem ...

David and Lorraine/Lorain Fox Davis were active in the Babaji ashram at Crestone, Colorado ( Haidakhandi Universal Ashram, Maha Lakshmi Temple) while polishing up Lorain Fox Davis' pretendian act. They held sweat lodges, medicine wheel ceremonies.

Many frauds operate through Crestone, Colorado.

I wonder if the "matter arising from their work with Native Americans" was that they knew not everyone approved. And if the "answer to their Indian problem" was to commit more to the fraud.

In the book "Enlightenment Town, Finding Spiritual Awakening in a Most Improbable Place" By Jeffery Paine · 2018, which is about Crestone Colorado, there is described a sweat led by Lorain Fox Davis and her husband David.

Lorain Fox Davis/LFD is described as "part Lakota". David Davis as "supposedly seventy but with the swagger of a twenty five year old".

Before going into the sweat LFD called out "Better start saying your prayers now" in an ominious manner.

After some time inside the author felt like he was going to die. He left the tent for air and water. Another participant told him that if he drank water he would not be allowed back inside. Fortunately he did get water.

David then let him back in.

The author felt that he had somehow failed. He did not attend the feast held by Lorain Fox and David Davis afterwards.

He did however participate in the "Native American Medicine Wheel ceremony" held the next day to honor the land and "pray against corporate interests". LFD appointed the author to be "Father Sun" for whatever this was.

I don't know if Lorain Fox Davis is still alive. I'm checking around to see if her "lineage" is active.

More background:

Lorain Fox Davis (LFD): My path spans both Native American and Tibetan spirituality. On my mother’s side, I’m Cree from Canada and Blackfeet from Montana. I studied for many years with a traditional Lakota teacher, Irma Bear Stops. While it is rare for women to sun dance, Irma was a very respected sun dancer. Although I wasn’t Lakota, she introduced me to Lakota spirituality, and I was honored to dance by her side for seven years at Pine Ridge, South Dakota. My husband and our oldest son also danced there. My son and one of our daughters have returned to our Blackfeet ways, and they sun dance in Montana.

I was introduced to Tibetan Buddhism over 30 years ago, and my primary Tibetan Buddhist teacher is Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, who married my husband and me when he came to Crestone, Colorado, in 1981.

For me, the sweat lodge, or stone people’s lodge, is a bit like the Tibetan Buddhist mandala.

The Sun Dance of the Plains Indians is the center of our spiritual traditions.

https://tricycle.org/article/indigenous-dharma/

Lorain Fox Davis, is an elder in the Cree/ Blackfeet (Blackfoot) lineage.

She was born in 1938, in Browning MT.

She has 7 children and 22 grandchildren and lives with her husband David, in Lakewood, CO.

https://www.middlewayinitiative.org/lorain-fox-davis

Scott is survived by his mother, Pamela Hanson; and sister, Leah Yellowbird; aunt, Nancy (Howard) Francis; uncles, Billy (Barb) Hanson, Maurice (Julie) Titus, and Mike (Myrna) Hanson; and cousin, Adam Hanson.

Direct https://www.greenlarsen.com/obituaries/Scott-Edward-Hanson?obId=30657657

Archived http://web.archive.org/web/20241207181618/https://www.greenlarsen.com/obituaries/Scott-Edward-Hanson?obId=30657657

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Recently Leah Yellowbird was identified as a "First Nations Algonquin-Metis and Anishinaabe heritage artist". https://www.facebook.com/AICHOmn/photos/t.100055616906534/5412179305481299/?type=3 This is a self identification used to claim her art is Native American made. This does not comply with the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 at all.

Here is a good explainer: "Being an Ethical Consumer of Native Arts and Crafts" https://floridaseminoletourism.com/native-arts-crafts/

The intention of the law is to not mislead the consumer and take economic growth away from native communities.

False advertising without a single sale is prohibited.

If you violate the Act, you face up to $500,000 in fines or 5 years in prison. If a business knowingly violates the Act, they face civil penalties or fines up to $1,000,000.

As a consumer, it is important to think critically about items when purchasing them. Instead of supporting a native artist or community, without due diligence you may be causing harm.

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Read through this also: https://www.doi.gov/iacb/should-i-report-potential-violation#no-back

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The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 https://www.doi.gov/iacb/act

I started a Talk page on her Wikipedia entry, looks like they won't update with a correction. Genealogy records won't work.

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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.

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.

My boldings. I am quite certain that the reliable source needed might will be the site you referred to and quoted:

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

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

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]

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?