Ronald Freeman AKA Sri Akhenaton, Belize Fund

[Piff]

"The mission here is to let people here know that Native Americans are still alive."

Quote from Freeman https://www.pahomepage.com/news/the-belize-fund/1226720803

"They are a group of people that have respected mother earth from the beginning. And we need to respect mother earth because there's only one of her. " Said Marlene Iris, Vice President Belize Fund

Back in the day, Freeman had entirely different branding. No hat worn in publicity stills and straight up "Sri Akhenaton" "Illuminated Mystic" marketing. Newsletters were all theosophical pseudo Hinduism claims. It looks like Freeman was a guru, or at least trying to fashion himself into one. He did gain some followers.

Now their branding is as "The Belize Fund", "American Indian Cultural Center" and in holding pow wows. http://www.thebelizefund.org/pow-wow.html The pow wows are impressing people who have never attended one before.

[Piff]

Uploaded here is his parent's marriage certificate. Arthur M Freeman and Aretha M Sully, both 24 year old  educators born in Richmond, Virginia.

Arthur M Freeman's parents Louis H Freeman and Louise E Willis. Aretha M Sully's parents Ivory U Sully and Iola Gray.

Unless Freeman tells us who his claimed Powhatan ancestors are, we may not be able to find out on our own. Virginia has gone through a form of "paper genocide":

After Virginia passed stringent segregation laws in the early 20th century and ultimately the Racial Integrity Act of 1924 which mandated every person who had any African heritage be deemed black, Walter Plecker, the head of Vital Statistics office, directed all state and local registration offices to use only the terms "white" or "colored" to denote race on official documents and thereby eliminated all traceable records of Virginia Indians. All state documents, including birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses, tax forms and land deeds, thus bear no record of Virginia Indians. Plecker oversaw the Vital Statistics office in the state for more than 30 years, beginning in the early 20th century, and took a personal interest in eliminating traces of Virginia Indians. Plecker surmised that there were no true Virginia Indians remaining as years of intermarriage has diluted the race. Over his years of service, he conducted a campaign to reclassify all bi-racial and multi-racial individuals as black, believing such persons were fraudulently attempting to claim their race to be Indian or white. The effect of his reclassification has been described by tribal members as "paper genocide"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powhatan#State_and_federal_recognition

He also claims "part-Cherokee" but does not provide any details.

[Piff]

The Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017 recognized six more tribes in Virginia. The Pamunkey Indian Tribe received it's status in Jan 2016.

Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017 https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/984
Pamunkey Indian Tribe https://www.bia.gov/as-ia/ofa/323-pamunk-va

If Freeman actually believes that he has heritage he could apply to the relevant tribe for enrollment.

Pamunkey Indians consider our tribe to consist of individuals who have a common Pamunkey ancestry AND social contact to the Pamunkey tribal body residing on our centuries-old traditional lands.  Ancestry must be traced  to a specific group of Pamunkey tribal members identified via various federal and tribal censuses conducted between 1900 and 1910.   Social contact requires pre-existing mutual socialization with existing Pamunkey tribal members, especially those residing on the reservation, to a level determined satisfactory by the Pamunkey Chief and Council.

Pamunkey membership http://pamunkey.org/tribal-office/membership/

For the six newly recognized tribes:

The membership roll and governing documents of the Tribe shall be the most recent membership roll and governing documents, respectively,
submitted by the Tribe to the Secretary before the date of enactment of this Act.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/984/text

Freeman also claims Cherokee.

[loudcrow]

Aretha Sully
United States Census, 1940
Name   Aretha Sully
Event Type   Census
Event Date   1940
Event Place   Madison Ward, Richmond, Richmond City, Richmond City, Virginia, United States
Gender   Female
Age   18
Marital Status   Single
Race   Black
Race   Negro
Relationship to Head of Household   Daughter
Relationship to Head of Household   Daughter
Birthplace   Virginia
Birth Year (Estimated)   1922
Last Place of Residence   Same House
Household
Role
Sex
Age
Birthplace
Ivory Sully   Head   M   46   Virginia
Iola Sully   Wife   F   41   Virginia
Ivory Sully   Son   M   23   Virginia
Iola Jeanette Sully   Daughter   F   21   Virginia
Aretha Sully   Daughter   F   18   Virginia
Lillian Sully   Daughter   F   16   Virginia
Carlease Sully   Daughter   F   3   Virginia
Citing this Record
"United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VTMJ-BQK : 14 March 2018), Aretha Sully in household of Ivory Sully, Madison Ward, Richmond, Richmond City, Richmond City, Virginia, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 118-196, sheet 13A, line 16, family 247, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 4326.


View the original document. The original may contain more information than was indexed.

United States Census, 1940

[loudcrow]

Arthur Freeman
United States Census, 1940
Name   Arthur Freeman
Event Type   Census
Event Date   1940
Event Place   Madison Ward, Richmond, Richmond City, Richmond City, Virginia, United States
Gender   Male
Age   19
Marital Status   Single
Race   Black
Race   Negro
Relationship to Head of Household   Son
Relationship to Head of Household   Son
Birthplace   Virginia
Birth Year (Estimated)   1921
Last Place of Residence   Same House
Household
Role
Sex
Age
Birthplace
Louis Freeman   Head   M   53   Virginia
Louise Freeman   Wife   F   43   Virginia
Louis Freeman   Son   M   25   Virginia
Harvey Freeman   Son   M   22   Virginia
Thomas Freeman   Son   M   20   Virginia
Arthur Freeman   Son   M   19   Virginia
Theola Freeman   Daughter   F   18   Virginia
David Freeman   Son   M   16   Virginia
Charles Freeman   Son   M   12   Virginia
Magdalene Freeman   Daughter   F   10   Virginia
Ruth Freeman   Daughter   F   9   Virginia
Ernest Freeman   Son   M   8   Virginia
Paul Freeman   Son   M   5   Virginia
Elsie Freeman   Daughter   F   2   Virginia
Citing this Record
"United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VTMN-J4L : 14 March 2018), Arthur Freeman in household of Louis Freeman, Madison Ward, Richmond, Richmond City, Richmond City, Virginia, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 118-161, sheet 9B, line 75, family 196, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 4325.

[Piff]

Obituary for one of his mother's sisters: https://web.archive.org/web/20181216023206/http://www.mimmsfuneralhome.com/obituaries/print?o_id=3375847

[Sparks]

"The mission here is to let people here know that Native Americans are still alive."

Quote from Freeman https://www.pahomepage.com/news/the-belize-fund/1226720803

"They are a group of people that have respected mother earth from the beginning. And we need to respect mother earth because there's only one of her. " Said Marlene Iris, Vice President Belize Fund

There are three two-minute videos at that news report, which looks much like a commercial.

The Hopi kachina displays mentioned below are the subject of one of these three videos:

It's all generic Pan Indian stuff except for a few Hopi kachina displays. Why go to PA and claim to honor an extinct people, Susquehannock?

[Sparks]

Paid public records search says his original name is Ronald S. Freeman.

That fits with the few mentions seen of a "Sri Ronald Akhenaton" online.

Considering the meaning of his invented legal names, I'd say they reveal a high level of  pompousness and self-aggrandizement:

Sri (/?ri?/;[1] Devanagari: ?, IAST: ?r? [??i?, ??i?]) also transliterated as Sree, Shri, Shree, Si or Seri is a word of Sanskrit origin, used in South Asia and Southeast Asia as a polite form of address equivalent to the English "Mr." or "Ms." in written and spoken language, but also as a title of veneration for deities. It is widely used in South and Southeast Asian languages such as in Indonesian, Javanese, Balinese, Sinhalese, Thai, Tamil, Hindi and Malay.

Akhenaten (/?æk??n??t?n/;[1] also spelled Echnaton,[7] Akhenaton,[8] Ikhnaton,[9] and Khuenaten;[10][11] meaning "Effective for Aten"), known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV (sometimes given its Greek form, Amenophis IV, and meaning "Amun Is Satisfied"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC. He is noted for abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing worship centered on the Aten, which is sometimes described as monolatristic, henotheistic, or even quasi-monotheistic. An early inscription likens the Aten to the sun as compared to stars, and later official language avoids calling the Aten a god, giving the solar deity a status above mere gods.

[loudcrow]

Ivory Sully
United States Census, 1940
Name   Ivory Sully
Event Type   Census
Event Date   1940
Event Place   Madison Ward, Richmond, Richmond City, Richmond City, Virginia, United States
Gender   Male
Age   46
Marital Status   Married
Race   Black
Race   Negro
Relationship to Head of Household   Head
Relationship to Head of Household   Head
Birthplace   Virginia
Birth Year (Estimated)   1894
Last Place of Residence   Same House
Household
Role
Sex
Age
Birthplace
Ivory Sully   Head   M   46   Virginia
Iola Sully   Wife   F   41   Virginia
Ivory Sully   Son   M   23   Virginia
Iola Jeanette Sully   Daughter   F   21   Virginia
Aretha Sully   Daughter   F   18   Virginia
Lillian Sully   Daughter   F   16   Virginia
Carlease Sully   Daughter   F   3   Virginia
Citing this Record
"United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VTMJ-BQF : 14 March 2018), Ivory Sully, Madison Ward, Richmond, Richmond City, Richmond City, Virginia, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 118-196, sheet 13A, line 12, family 247, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 4326.

[loudcrow]

Iola Sully
United States Census, 1940





Name:   Iola Sully
Event Type:   Census
Event Date:   1940
Event Place:   Madison Ward, Richmond, Richmond City, Richmond City, Virginia, United States
Gender:   Female
Age:   41
Marital Status:   Married
Race:   Black
Race:   Negro
Relationship to Head of Household:   Wife
Relationship to Head of Household:   Wife
Birthplace:   Virginia
Birth Year (Estimated):   1899
Last Place of Residence:   Same House
Household   Role   Sex   Age   Birthplace
Ivory Sully   Head   Male   46   Virginia
Iola Sully   Wife   Female   41   Virginia
Ivory Sully   Son   Male   23   Virginia
Iola Jeanette Sully   Daughter   Female   21   Virginia
Aretha Sully   Daughter   Female   18   Virginia
Lillian Sully   Daughter   Female   16   Virginia
Carlease Sully   Daughter   Female   3   Virginia

[Sparks]

https://www.pahomepage.com/news/the-belize-fund/1226720803 … There are three two-minute videos at that news report …

The videos portray one Chris Hunsicker as some kind of resident artist (painter, flute player) at the "American Indian Cultural Center". I couldn't find much about him, except three short videos on YouTube, where he plays a flute "At the November 2015 Big Indian Gathering at the Pine Hill Community Center". (The Deer Hunting Song; Crossing Over; Song Of The Swallow.)

[Sparks]

I couldn't find much about him, except three short videos on YouTube, where he plays a flute "At the November 2015 Big Indian Gathering at the Pine Hill Community Center". (The Deer Hunting Song; Crossing Over; Song Of The Swallow.)

Link to those videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpLg6g1cCjo&list=PLh_za65wP99Br6XlBD2QFNICmjoytRCeN

I found him mentioned a couple of other places:

Thunder in the Valley Native American Festival & Pow Wow (2018) […] Cherokee Flutist: Chris Hunsicker

Chris Hunsicker, a member of the Cherokee tribe, added a bit of music to the art show. He said it is important to give back what was given to him by the Creator. He said the native culture resonates with him.