December 20th, 2023
Re: Victim Impact Statement Regarding Dr. John Ronald Lowe
Dear Assistant, Chief Wacoche,
My name is Cynthia Taylor Greywolf, and I am a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. My family lives in Oklahoma, between Vian and Sallisaw, on a land allotment at the base of McKee Hill near Dwight Mission. I spent my formative years growing up here and have strong ties to my family and roots. My Cherokee family’s (maternal) surname is Taylor. My grandfather, Clifton B. Taylor, known as “Red” to family and friends, gave me the name Greywolf when I was around seven years old after a dangerous experience I had with a wolf. Shortly after that incident, he committed suicide after struggling with alcoholism and other health issues for years. It is still not easy to talk about his death. Greywolf is not a traditional Cherokee name. Thus, I wanted you to understand the significance and meaning that the name has for me. I legally changed my name to Greywolf twenty-one years ago to honor my grandfather.
I am writing to tell you about my professional experiences working with Dr. John Lowe and his impact on my life. I am writing this under the very real threat of retaliation by Dr. Lowe. You may have recently become aware that Dr. Lowe has exploited a false Cherokee tribal identity for decades, specifically his unique status as one of only two “American Indian” male nurses with a PhD in nursing. He has used this false identity to rise to the top of the nursing academic profession. Because of his status and because he has behaved in a vindictive manner, it has been challenging to write this impact letter as I fear that it may damage my academic career. I have witnessed and experienced Dr. Lowe’s malicious gossip, maligning not only me but other people, which can be highly damaging to those he targets. However, because Dr. Lowe has done a lot of damage to many American Indian people, including myself, I find I can no longer stay silent.
First Meeting and Experiences 2016-2020
I first met Dr. Lowe in March of 2016 at a meeting of the Minority Fellows Program (MFP) of the American Nurses Association (ANA), funded by SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a government agency. Dr. Lowe and I were both fellows at different times in that program, which funded our doctoral work. I was a fellow from 2015 until 2020. I want to point out that this is a MINORITY fellowship program, with money set aside to help MINORITIES pay for graduate school.
The first time I met Dr. Lowe, he was leading an introduction session at an MFP meeting, and he announced that he was Cherokee and a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI). I remember clearly because he would have been the only EBCI citizen that I had ever met, and I was thrilled to meet him and wanted to know all about his experiences. At that time, he would have been the only other Cherokee American Indian I had met throughout graduate school.
I introduced myself, and he said he was doing research with the Keetoowah (UKB) tribe, assisted by a Cherokee Nation citizen from my community in Sallisaw and also former Keetoowah (UKB) Chief Jim Henson, or “Uncle Jim” as he is known. Uncle Jim is known to my family. His wife was my cousin Linda’s best friend from high school. Linda often spoke of running into Uncle Jim at the Sallisaw Walmart. Based partly on these social connections I had in common with Dr. Lowe then, it never occurred to me to question his identity. I have since learned that making local connections and ties to a tribal Indian community is a common practice among pretendians, who are thus falsely giving the impression that they have deep tribal ties.
When I first met Dr. Lowe, I couldn’t believe my good luck. I thought he ‘hung the moon’ and was almost star-struck by him. However, I didn’t have the chance to develop a deeper impression of him because from 2016 until 2021, most of my interactions with him were cursory, with brief interactions at annual MFP meetings, occasional phone calls related to either the MFP or my progress on my dissertation, and my plans after completion.
In 2020, I completed my PhD at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. While Dr. Lowe did serve on my dissertation committee, he was minimally involved compared to others on my dissertation project. I will say that Dr. Lowe was helpful when one of my advisors held up my progress in completing my dissertation. Dr. Lowe called the Minority Fellowship Director in Washington, DC, who coached me on how to move forward, which I did.
Throughout 2016-2021, I found him personable, supportive, and approachable, and he remained that way until June 2021, when I took a position as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Texas in Austin’s School of Nursing with Dr Lowe as my mentor.
Experiences as Dr. L owe’s Post-Doctoral Fellow 2021-2023
Up to this time, while my experience with higher education was often characterized by difficulties, obstacles, and barriers based largely on discrimination and bias–it was nothing compared to the abuse and bullying I experienced working directly with Dr. Lowe, who was supposed to be my mentor.
When I started my post-doc, I was excited and expected to be working with Dr. Lowe in person regularly. However, I soon discovered that he was rarely, if ever, at UT, let alone in Austin, Texas. If I was on campus, I mainly worked in the office they had set aside for him. I rarely saw him except for co-teaching classes one day a week for two semesters, and he often had others leading the courses while he was away. After that, I was almost entirely alone for the next year, with little academic support or regular meetings about my scholarly work.
It wasn’t until the Spring of 2022 that things started to deteriorate between us. Dr. Lowe had recruited another post-doctoral student, a Black woman he introduced as a Haliwa Saponi tribal member. When I asked her about the tribe she was affiliated with, she said the Haliwa-Saponi, followed by saying she “wasn’t a tribal member” but would complete the paperwork soon. She said she had been looking for her family name on the rolls to trace her lineage. Interestingly, that state “tribe” was not admitting new members unless they were age six or under.
I found this highly disturbing and told Dr. Lowe my concerns about how he was promoting her as an American Indian tribal member when she was not. He got very angry with me, saying that Black people could be Indian, too. That was not my point because Cherokee tribal citizens look like everyone now. I was concerned about her being promoted as an American Indian tribal member when she was not. Also, I had concerns over the Haliwa Saponi “tribe” since I had found out from Cherokee elders that it is not a real Indian tribe. He further argued that there are many people with a high Indian blood quantum who look like full-bloods who are not able to be tribal members because they aren’t on any of the rolls but deserve recognition—and added that state tribes such as the Haliwa Saponi deserve recognition too. He argued that you don’t have to be a tribal member or have a tribal card to claim Indian status. This raised a red flag as his statements are patently untrue because, as you know, American Indian people are citizens of sovereign American Indian nations. They occupy a very distinct political niche in the United States as citizens of sovereign but dependent nations within the United States.
When I first met Dr. Lowe in the Minority Fellowship program, I noticed that he wore his hair in a long braid and wore a very-orange-colored self-tanner on his face, arms, and hands. It appeared that he had branded himself. At the time, I was troubled but ignored my gut and what I now see as a red flag. When he became angry with me for raising concerns about introducing someone as a tribal member who, by her admission, was not, I thought back to the fake tanner again. That is when I started investigating and making calls.
I called the EBCI first, and they sent me an official letter stating that neither Dr. Lowe, his father, his grandmother, nor any of his relatives were ECBI citizens, as he had said. The Cherokee Nation also confirmed that Dr. Lowe was not a member, as did the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and the Delaware (Lenape) Nation, and they all sent me emails confirming this. As for the Keetoowah tribe (UKB), Amanda Stopp confirmed that Dr. Lowe is not a tribal member verbally, but when I asked for an email confirmation, she sent it to her supervisor, Joyce Fourkiller. Joyce defended him and said he was a special person to the UKB membership. She would not send an email confirmation without his express permission. Ms. Fourkiller called him on his cell phone to ask for his permission to release the information to me and how she should answer my request. I was stunned that she would do this, not considering the impact of her actions on the Keetoowah (UKB) tribe and me. Dr. Lowe immediately called me, but I didn’t answer his call. In her answer, despite trying to protect him, she confirmed that Dr. Lowe is not a citizen of the Keetoowah (UKB) tribe.
I realize this letter is already long, but so is the list of Dr. Lowe's offenses:
1. I have been silenced while I’ve had to listen to him tell a false Indian narrative to students and faculty that he never experienced. There are many red flags in his stories.
a. When I gave my job talk at the University of Texas, he told me no one wanted to hear
my story, an authentic American Indian story.
b. I was told by a credible faculty member that he tried to sabotage my job talk.
c. He complained to a credible faculty member about having to leave Florida to come to my job talk in Austin.
2. It has been brought to my attention that he has disparaged me professionally with malicious gossip.
3. Because of my experiences with him, I no longer trust people when they tell me they are citizens of an Indian tribe. I call and verify their claims.
4. He routinely disparages Cherokee Nation citizens for low blood quantum and calls Cherokee
Nation citizens “white trash Cherokees.”
5. He told me that two authentic American Indian women were not “really Indian.” I started thinking that he was capable of making these same comments about me, too trying to damage my credibility.
a. I further suspected him of being a fraud when he made these comments.
6. He has made misogynistic, racist comments and disparaged my appearance:
a. “No one would ever mistake you for being Cherokee.”
b. “If you dyed your hair dark, you would look Cherokee.”
c. He made ageist comments to me, such as, “You’re too old to have a research career.”
d. He encouraged me not to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
e. He complained to people about how much and what I ate.
7. Dr. Lowe told me I would never succeed in academia without him when I told him I wouldn’t
accept the position at the University of Texas.
8. I had not to accept the University ofTexas, Austin’s nursing department’s job offer for a position that I had worked hard for because I did not feel safe being around Dr. Lowe and his fraudulent claims of being Cherokee, Delaware (Lenape), and Muscogee (Creek), his malicious gossip, his false American Indian narratives, and, because he falsely promotes other people as American Indian Tribal members when they are not.
9. Dr. Lowe stole a pilot study I was supposed to conduct as an early-stage investigator with
Keetoowah (UKB) young adults at the Charter College (2021-2023).
a. He did not allow me to conduct, collect, or analyze the data.
b. He wouldn’t allow me tosee the raw data. He just gave me the final results. He never provided the data to me, no matter how often I asked.
c. As a post-doctoral fellow, I was expected to conduct, collect, and analyze data under his
mentorship as part of my training. As a result, I cannot vouch for the accuracy and integrity of the data he gave to me. My thoughts are, if he lied to me about being an EBCI tribal citizen, what else would he lie about?
d. My opinion is that Dr. Lowe’s academic scholarship is foundationally flawed because he demonstrated an obvious lack of academic integrity when he did this.
Below, I summarize some of Dr. Lowe's claims and proof that they are false. Everything I state below is verifiable by independent sources.
10. There is undisputable hard evidence that Dr. Lowe and no one in his family are citizens of any American Indian tribal nations, he claims. He is of European ancestry. He has betrayed everyone. He deceived me, you, Chief Henson, Chief Bunch, the UKB, the EBCI, and the Cherokee Nation,
as well as many other tribes,’ academic colleagues, faculty, and students in academic institutions and at the highest levels of academia across the country even at the federal level at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
a. He told a colleague that he is a member of the Keetoowah (UKB) tribe. He tells others like me that he is EBCI. In March 2023, he told me he was an EBCI tribal member and would switch from EBCI to Keetoowah (UKB).
b. Dr. Lowe claimed to have lived on the Qualla Boundary, but there is no evidence.
c. Dr. Lowe fraudulently stated that he was a Cherokee Tribal member on federal grant applications to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and he added the aforementioned post-doctoral fellow as a Haliwa Saponi “tribal” member as well. I asked him why he did this, and he said, “it improved the odds of getting the grant. I feel that he put me at risk by putting my name on these grants. I will report this to the NIH.
11. There are few American Indian nurses with PhDs, and Dr. Lowe is not one of them.
a. He claims to be the first male American Indian nurse with a PhD in nursing. This is a lie that he continues to benefit from.
12 His knowledge of American Indians is foundationally flawed. He has never possessed an Indian perspective.
a. He says he is part of the Deer Clan, and I have heard him tell faculty and students that
the Deer Clan won’t kill deer, but they protect them.
b. My family descends from the Deer clan and were keepers, hunters, and trackers of deer. c. It is my clan that he isstealing from.
13 He claims he grew up in North Carolina in “Lessons from my Fat her,” an offensive fairy tale regarding his “humble” beginnings from his “full-blooded Cherokee father.” Please note that if his father were a full-blooded Cherokee Indian, it would be highly likely that Dr. Lowe would be enrolled in the EBCI.
14 All of his many claims regarding his family are false.
a. He claims he was raised by his paternal grandmother, who he claims was a full-blood Cherokee and spoke little English. If this were true, he would likely be a fluent Cherokee speaker, which he is not.
i. That paternal grandmother would be Mary Elizabeth Woodall. She was a white woman who died in 1933, 23 years before he was born, so how is it she raised him?
ii. He claims to have been raised by his full-blooded Cherokee Father, who is actually of European ancestry.
b. He claims his mother died when he was a young child, which is why his grandmother
raised him, but his mother, who is not a Delaware (Lenape) American Indian as he claims who is of European ancestry, died in 1978 when he was around 22 years of age.
i. In 1996, Dr. Lowe dedicated his dissertation to his late mother, Mary E. Lowe,
who he said encouraged him to become a nurse.
ii. The last time I saw Dr. Lowe in Tahlequah was in March 2023. He told me his mother died in 1960 in childbirth when his sister Alice Lord was born. His mother died in 1978 when Alice Lord was 18.
iii. Dr. Lowe's story keeps changing.
15 Interestingly, Dr. Lowe completed his dissertation with Cherokee Nation, and part of his dedication mentions Cherokee Nation support.
a. I have always wondered what happened with Dr. Lowe and the Cherokee Nation because he disparages the Cherokee Nation and Cherokee Nation citizens in the worst ways.
16 Dr. Lowe’s doctoral education was paid for by the American Nurses Association (ANA) SAMHSA’s Minority Fellowship Program, which is meant for minorities. My opinion is that this is fraud. By falsely claiming that he was Cherokee, he took the place of a minority student who could have really benefited from having this financial and educational support.
In summary, Dr. John Lowe is of European ancestry. He has stolen Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), and Delaware (Lenape) identities to promote his academic career, to win awards and grants, to be assigned to influential boards and committees, and to gain access where non-Indians have none, and to establish himself among the Keetoowah (UKB). For decades, he has developed relationships with the Keetoowah (UKB) community based on his false American Indian identity and narrative. It is time for the Keetoowah (UKB) to know who he really is.
This letter is long, but I hope it demonstrates that Dr. John Lowe is a proven fraud. I want to thank you for your time and consideration. If you have any questions, please contact me by phone or email below.
Sincerely,
Cynthia Greywolf