General > Frauds
Kaweah Indian Nation
educatedindian:
Here's what the database on Fed recog says about the Kaweah:
http://www.indianz.com/adc20/Kin/V001/D008.PDF
"Final Determination that the Kaweah Indian Nation Inc. does not exist as an Indian tribe....the group does not satisfy three of the seven criteria."
http://www.indianz.com/adc20/Kin/V001/D005.PDF
"The Kaweah Indian Nation Inc. is a recently formed group that did not exist prior to 1980. The organization was formed under the leadership of a non-Indian, Malcolm L. Webber, as the result of the breakup of a similar organization, United Lumbee Nation Inc. KIN...has no relation to the aboriginal Kaweah Indians...KIN has no characteristics of an Indian tribe...Present membership of KIN is composed of individuals who claim Indian ancestry but none of whom claim Kaweah or Yokuts ancestry...The organization claims to have 2000 members but many of those appear to benames of individuals taken from other groups Webber previously formed and names taken from subscription lists from newspapers Webber previously published....
There is no evidence the group was ever recognized as an American Indian entity by recognized Indian tribes, government agencies, or scholars...The tribal council of the Tule River Tribes passed a reolution refusing to endorse, recognize, or support the KIN or its actitvities....
Members of the KIN claim Indian ancestry...none submitted documented genealogical evidence of Indian lineage....
An Augusts 22, 1980 letter states...members of the United Lumbee Nation voted to drop the name and change it to Kaweah Indian Nation...the Bureau received a copy...essentially the same document...All references to ULN and Lumbee were replaced with Kaweah...A statement regarding the prohibition of black arts and wtichcraft was also added....
Women were limited to holding office only when needed in office jobs but not the job of chief...the rsult of Webber's lost contest with Eva Reed and Ruby Boyer over control of the ULN....
Most of the group are Cherokee or Choctaw descendants...[Eva Reed] says the group has no illusions about being a tribe like the Hopis or the Navajos....
Webber's earlier organization the ULN...was raising funds to purchase land...A dispute arose...leaders mutually exorcised each other....
A number of members...were of the Native American Wolf Clan...An indeterminate amount of money was given to Webber as expense money....
In the Spring of 1981 an enrolled member of the Colorado Indian River Tribe who associated with the Kaweah...began commuting to Oatman Arizona to sell Indian crafts...Webber began coming with him...He obtained a lease on a local store...established the T and M Trading Post...publishing the Oatman Burro News....
A number of local business people joined the Kaweah...even though most were not known to have Indian ancestry...
Friction between the KIN and Oatman's citizens developed...concern that the KIN was a cult of sorts because of Webber's leadership in the formation of a new church the Congregational Bible Holiness Church....
Webber also claimed the wild burro which roams the Arizona Black Mountains belongs to the KIN....
Webber was telling tourists the KIN owned all the land from Boulder City nevad to a point east of Needles California and from Kingman Arizona west to the Colorado River....
Webber posted a sign in his store that the Kaweahs owned the town and surrounding area and that residents could not buy or sell property without permission...Webber apparently brought in a "tribal policeman" dressed in a loincloth and sidearm, replete with warpaint....
Webber sponsored Kaweah Indian Days...attempting to sell KIN memberships to tourists for ten dollars....celebration consisted primarily of a ten entry parade accompanied by tape recorded Indian music....
Webber...letter to the governor and Bureau..."Our people are mad and we are trying to hold our warriors back...It will make Wounded Knee look like and Sunday School picnic...."
When leaders of the Porterville group...learned of the situation...removed Webber...
Webber had been arrested on a morals charge...served a year in the Mohave County Jail in Kingman."
frederica:
American Indian Tribe Called Bogus By Paul Foy, Associated Press Writer/May 5, 2008 SALTLake City--A federal judge ordered a $63,000 civil-fraud judgement against 4 people who claim to be chiefs of an American Indian tribe in easter Utah. The men, who got organized at an Arby's restaurant and claim to have hundreds of tribal members, refuse to recognize U.S. or state laws, have issued their own drivers' licenses and filed countless lawsuits against Utah authorities for ignoring their sovereignty. In a decision Monday, following a trial last week, U.S. District Judge Stephen P. Friot ordered the men to stop pretending to be Indians and pay Uintah County damages. He called their tribe "a complete sham". The group calls itself the Wampanoag Nation, borrowing from the name of two federally recognized Massachusetts tribes. Gayle Andrews, a spokeswoman for the Mashpee Wampanoags, said the Utah men are obvious impostors. She said the tribe often deals with phony membership claims. In the most feeble attempts to prove tribal affinity, others have offered pictures of their grandmothers dressed as Indian Princesses, she said. "A lot of white people are like, I'm Wampanoag", Andrews said. "But you can't just Google yourself into membership. It's not doable. Members of the Utah group have challenged traffic stops and other encounters with authorities, filing a host of lawsuits and unenforceable debt judgements that soured the credit rating of at least one sheriff's deputy. In one of its most audacious claims, the group recorded a $250 million debt against Uintah County Attorney JoAnn Stringham with a State agency. Uintah County turned one of the bogus lawsuits into counterclaims for racketeering and fraud. Friot said the four men and their organizations owe money to the county for damages caused by excessive litigation. They started playing this game in 2003, but we've been dealing with these guys for 25 years with their own sovereign city, said Ed Peterson, deputy county attorney. The group leader is Dale Stevens, 69, who lives without phone service in an unincorporated part of Uintah County. He claims a 13-acre patch to be sovereign. We're concerned about the judgment against the people of our tribe, said Martin Campbell, a retired 56 year old mechanic, who claims to be law-enforcement minister for the Wampanoag Nation of Utah. Campbell maintained he had some Indian blood, but said none of the leaders or members ever offered proof of Indian ancestry. The group has been sunsuccessful in getting federal recognition as a tribe, he said. Besides Stevens and Campbell, James W Burband and Thomas Smith are covered by the judge's order. Friot is a federal judge in Oklahoma who traveled to Utah to hear the case, because federal judges here have been sued by Stevens. http://kswo.com/Global/story.asp?S=8277472&nav=menu495_2
educatedindian:
See also
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=1490.0
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=591.0
Article moved to other thread.
bls926:
Al, you're mixing the "fake tribes". First article is about the Utah Wampanoag Nation. The one you posted this morning is the Kaweah Indian Nation. They're both bogus, so I guess they could be lumped together. LOL
educatedindian:
The "chief" is now claiming he did it all out of higher motives and is blaming the greed on others.
-------------------
http://www.fortmilltimes.com/124/story/163859.html
Defense says tribal chief believed he was helping immigrants
By ROXANA HEGEMAN (Published May 14, 2008)
WICHITA, Kan. — The self-proclaimed chief of an unrecognized American Indian tribe will argue at his trial that he had a "good faith belief" that selling tribal memberships was a legitimate way to help illegal immigrants take a step toward citizenship, court documents show.
Motions filed Wednesday in the case provide a glimpse into the defense strategy of Malcolm Webber, also known as Grand Chief Thunderbird IV. The defense is asking for an order to force prosecutors to turn over allegedly exculpatory evidence. It also wants to sever the chief's trial from the trial of his co-defendants.
Prosecutors contend the Kaweah Indian Nation defrauded legal and illegal immigrants across the nation by claiming tribal membership conferred U.S. citizenship and would allow immigrants to obtain other documents and benefits, including Social Security cards. The government pointed out that citizenship cannot be obtained in that manner.
On Wednesday, defense attorney Kurt Kerns filed a motion for a court order requiring prosecutors to turn over exculpatory evidence. Kerns, who represents the chief, argued that prosecutors have told him they have an audiotape of minutes of a meeting in which Webber said that allowing individuals into his tribe is not designed to be a moneymaking scheme, but is instead designed to help people.
Kerns told the court that Webber believed his conduct was lawful and that he thought he was providing a legitimate method by which illegal immigrants could become registered in the United States and enjoy a first step toward citizenship status.
The money that came in from the sale of the memberships - about $300,000 that the government is seeking in forfeiture - was not used to line Webber's own pockets, but was instead placed in a separate account eventually meant to buy land, Kerns told The Associated Press.
"He thought if they would buy land for a reservation there would be greater likelihood of federal recognition," Kerns said.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs denied Webber's request for federal recognition of his Kaweah Indian Nation in 1984. The agency said Webber was not an Indian and that his organization had no historic characteristics of an Indian tribe.
The U.S. attorney's office said it would have no comment on the filings.
Federal prosecutors last year charged 11 people, including the chief and the tribal entity, in a 17-count indictment. Charges have since been dismissed against one defendant, and another defendant has pleaded guilty to falsely claiming U.S. citizenship.
The indictment charges Webber, 69, of Bel Aire with four counts of harboring illegal immigrants, one count of possession of false documents with intent to defraud the United States, three counts of conspiracy with intent to defraud the United States, one count of mail fraud and one count of producing false identification documents.
Webber and the remaining nine defendants are scheduled for trial Aug. 5.
The defense contends that Webber advised individuals that membership in the tribe would be a first step to getting American citizenship after the tribe became federally recognized. But he contended others working under him sold memberships at inflated prices, forcing Webber at one point to fire one of them for it.
"The bulk of the 'fraud' was committed by underlings in their efforts to line their own pockets," the defense contends in its motion.
Kerns said in a motion that other defendants are arguing that they were duped by Webber, and that their trial should be separated because of mutually antagonistic and inconsistent defenses.
"The interests of justice would be best served by allowing defendant Webber to have his own trial versus a trial where he will not only have to defend himself against the federal government, but also against every other defense lawyer who is offering Malcolm up as the sacrificial lamb," Kerns said in court documents.
Remaining defendants named in the indictment are Debra J. Flynn of Wichita; Chuck Flynn of Wichita; Jorge B. Villareal, a citizen of Mexico who lived in Bell Flower, Calif.; Eduviges Del Carmen-Zamora of Wichita and a native of El Salvador; Angel O. Zamora, a citizen of Guatemala; Britton A. Bergman of Wichita; Hector Nolasco Pena, a citizen of Honduras who lives in Oklahoma City; and Victor W. Orvellana, a citizen of Mexico who lives in Long Beach, Calif.
Jamie Cervantes, a citizen of Mexico, has pleaded guilty to submitting a Social Security application in which he falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen. His sentencing is June 30.
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