Lindsay Montgomery, Ph.D.
False Claims: Falsely claims Muscogee, Muscogee Creek, and Creek descent
NEWS RELEASE:
Lindsay Montgomery, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Centre for Indigenous Studies at the University of Toronto (hereafter U of T), has repeatedly and falsely claimed that she is of Muscogee or Muscogee Creek descent. The full report is available on the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds’ website under the tab on the upper right part of the page labeled “More,” then under the heading “Investigations.” https://tribalallianceagainstfrauds.org. It should be noted that Dr. Montgomery has recently edited her website to indicate that she is of Scottish and African-American descent, but this is insufficient. She needs to explain her past actions in full, make a lengthy apology to all, acknowledge the tremendous harm she has caused, and assert how exactly she will redress that harm.
Dr. Montgomery has long described herself as of “mixed ethnicity,” specifically “Scottish, African American, and Muskogee [sic] Creek.” She has claimed that her Creek ancestry comes from her paternal grandmother, who was Martel Wilcher Montgomery (1931-2015), but she has never provided any proof to support this claim. A team of TAAF genealogists conducted extensive research into Dr. Montgomery’s genealogy. They found that none of her ancestors were Muscogee, Creek, or members or any other American Indian Tribe. The Muscogee Nation and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians reported to TAAF in writing that Dr. Montgomery’s paternal grandmother and father have never been members of their Tribes. TAAF also checked the applications of Freedmen members of the Five Tribes, finding that none of Dr. Montgomery’s ancestors are listed in any of these records. None even applied. Dr. Montgomery has zero Indian ancestry and zero genealogical connection to any American Indian Tribe.
Dr. Montgomery has used her false claim to being American Indian to assert a Native positionality and to advance her career. Trained as an archaeologist, on her website, which includes a picture of her in an elk tooth print skirt with a bear tattoo, she has claimed that “her work draws on methods in ethnohistory and Indigenous Archaeology to create counter-histories of Indigenous persistence, resistance, and survivance in the North American West”. She has been using her false claim to Indian ancestry to legitimize her voice in academia. She has described the study of Native Americans for her as “kind of doing ‘me-search.’” By continuing to falsely assert Muscogee descent, Dr. Montgomery has been actively fostering a hostile environment for Muscogee and other Native faculty and students at U of T. Moreover, to paraphrase the Cherokee Scholars’ Statement on Sovereignty and Identity, Dr. Montgomery, by falsely claiming a Muscogee identity, has been engaging in academic dishonesty, falsification of a material fact, and expropriation of Indigenous peoples’ resources and opportunities.
TAAF calls on Dr. Montgomery to boldly tell the truth about her ancestry and to desist from claiming to be of Muscogee, Creek, or American Indian descent. Further, TAAF calls on U of T to pursue disciplinary action against Dr. Montgomery for engaging in academic dishonesty and Indigenous identity theft. TAAF found zero evidence that U of T has any vetting process at all for determining whether those who claim an American Indian identity are in fact American Indian, instead relying on “self-identification” only. By enabling and abetting pretendian frauds, U of T has failed American Indian people and American Indian Nations. By hiring Dr. Montgomery as an American Indian faculty member, then by abetting her false claims to being American Indian, U of T did further damage to Native people and further eroded its relationships to Native people and Nations. TAAF strongly recommends that U of T take immediate action to build and repair its relationships with American Indian Nations rather than continue to perpetrate harm on Native people by legitimizing pretendian frauds who include Dr. Montgomery.
Why this matters: Non-Indians who pretend to be Indians (pretendians) violate the sovereign right of American Indian Tribes to determine their citizenry, they misrepresent American Indian experience by claiming to speak with an authentic American Indian voice, and they deprive American Indians of opportunity. Whenever the voice and the work of a pretendian is elevated, a real American Indian voice is silenced and ignored. Pretendians are not honoring American Indians. They are engaging in a fundamentally anti-Indian act and are explicitly engaging in the displacement and replacement of actual American Indians. Their actions further the settler colonial project of eliminating the American Indians from the North American continent. These genocidal acts must end.
The Tribal Alliance Against Frauds is an intertribal anti-fraud non-profit whistleblower organization comprised of allies and citizens of Tribes whose sovereignty has been formally acknowledged.
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Report
Subject: Lindsay Martel Montgomery
Title: Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Centre for Indigenous Studies at the University of Toronto St. George campus
Indigenous Identity falsely claimed: “Muscogee,” “Creek,” and/or “Muscogee Creek”
Determination: Zero American Indian ancestry
Date: September 23, 2024
Actual American Indians saw proverbial red flags in Dr. Montgomery’s presentations of herself as an American Indian. Questioning Dr. Montgomery’s claims to being American Indian, eventually they reached out to TAAF for assistance. In TAAF’s role as a watchdog group that serves American Indians and American Indian Tribes by defending our American Indian people against the theft of our American Indian identities, TAAF researched Dr. Montgomery’s genealogy. TAAF genealogists found that Dr. Montgomery has ZERO American Indian ancestry. Dr. Montgomery’s genealogy is publicly available on the TAAF website and is based on public records.
Dr. Montgomery has long claimed to be Muscogee, Muscogee Creek, and Creek. One red flag is that, when used in association with Dr. Montgomery, the word “Muscogee” is often spelled “Muskogee.” “Muskogee” is not the name of an American Indian Tribe or people but rather is the name of a town and county in the midwest. In “Q&A: UA Anthropologist Featured in New ‘Native America’ Series,” Dr. Montgomery states, “I am of mixed ethnicity, Scottish, African American, and Muskogee [sic] Creek,” adding that “Muskogee [sic] Creek” is “a Native American tribe.” In that piece, she describes the study of Native Americans for her as “kind of doing ‘me-search,’ basically.” About her alleged ancestry, she then explains, “Muskogees [sic] are originally from the South, my family is from Mississippi, and I grew up knowing about and hearing about our connections with the Creek community from my (paternal) grandmother” (emphasis ours). In the course of TAAF’s investigation of Dr. Montgomery’s claims to being Muscogee or Creek, TAAF genealogists confirmed that Dr. Montgomery’s paternal grandmother, her alleged Creek grandmother, was Martel Wilcher Montgomery (1931-2015). TAAF also found that Dr. Montgomery has long bolstered her false claim to being American Indian by, among other things, wearing an elk-tooth-print skirt that evokes Plains Indians’ dress (bio), wearing Indian jewelry made by Tribes in the American Southwest (photo), and displaying a tattoo of a bear on her left forearm (bio).
When individuals make claims to being American Indian, it is incumbent upon those individuals to prove that they have actual kinship connections to American Indians. In this case, it is incumbent upon Dr. Montgomery to prove that she has actual kinship connections to Muscogee, Muscogee Creek, or Creek people. At no point has Dr. Montgomery ever proven any such connections. Although the burden of proof always lies with the person making the claim, not the other way around, Dr. Montgomery’s genealogy reveals that she has ZERO American Indian ancestry. Furthermore, being American Indian is not about who you claim to be, but who claims you. Being American Indian is about being a member of a sovereign Native American tribal nation. Does any legitimate Muscogee, Muscogee Creek, or Creek Native Nation claim her? No. This is consistent with Dr. Montgomery’s claim: she does not claim to be enrolled in any American Indian tribe. Further, can she prove that she has even the most distant of kin relations to the Muscogee people, also known as the Muscogee Creek or the Creek people? No. TAAF genealogists found no American Indian ancestry in Dr. Montgomery’s tree.
Because this investigation involved Dr. Montgomery’s claim to have a kin relationship to the Muscogee, Muscogee Creek, or Creek people and her claim that she has a Muscogee, Muscogee Creek, or Creek perspective, the two American Indian Nations with the words “Muscogee” or “Creek” in their name, the Muscogee Nation and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, were contacted to verify whether or not Dr. Montgomery’s family members in question were enrolled citizens of their tribal nation. These two tribes confirmed that the people in question are not enrolled in their tribes. Both attest that Dr. Montgomery’s father, Edward Bruce Montgomery, and her paternal grandmother, Martel Wilcher Montgomery, are not and never have been enrolled in either one of their Tribes. These Tribes found zero genealogical connection between Dr. Montgomery’s family and the Muscogee, Muscogee Creek, or Creek people. Further, Dr. Montgomery’s great grandparents in her paternal line, Julius Bienville Wilcher and Lula Mae Huff, are not on the Muscogee Nation Dawes Rolls as enrolled members by blood or as Freedmen. Nor are they on the Dawes Rolls of any of the Five “Civilized” Tribes as either members by blood or Freedmen.
In addition to conducting genealogical research, TAAF reviewed the public identity statements of Dr. Montgomery’s relatives. Dr. Montgomery’s father, Dr. Edward B. Montgomery, is the son of the woman whom Lindsay identifies as her Creek grandmother. Dr. Edward B. Montgomery has an extensive internet presence because he is a well-respected scholar and the president of Western Michigan University. TAAF found no evidence that he identifies as American Indian. TAAF could find no evidence that any of Dr. Lindsay Montgomery’s relatives identify as American Indian or as having American Indian ancestry. It appears that Dr. Lindsay Montgomery is the only individual in her family who publicly identifies as having American Indian ancestry.
Dr. Montgomery claims to be of mixed ethnic ancestry and a person of color. While there are numerous American Indians who also have African American and other examples of intersectional ancestry, and while an individual’s African American ancestry does not and should not, obviously, preclude them from identifying as American Indians if they are enrolled in an American Indian Tribe, Dr. Lindsay Montgomery is NOT a person with “mixed” African American and American Indian ancestry. Instead, she is a person of exclusively non-American Indian ancestry. In the paternal line in which Dr. Montgomery claims there are Muscogees or Creeks, TAAF found robust documentation of ancestors from England and Ireland who settled in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts. She also has African American ancestors who were living in Amite and Pike counties in southern Mississippi, a few dozen miles from New Orleans. This is more than 200 miles from the far western border of the Muscogee Nation in 1814, which was not in Mississippi but rather in the state of Alabama. In 1832, this Muscogee Nation border was pushed further east and thus even further away from Dr. Montgomery’s ancestors. There is zero indication in the records that Dr. Montgomery’s Mississippi ancestors were American Indian people or had any connection with any American Indian tribe.
None of Dr. Montgomery’s ancestors in Mississippi were forced west in the 1800s on the Trail of Tears, either as Indians or as individuals enslaved by Indians. Nor did any of Dr. Montgomery’s ancestors themselves migrate to what was then Indian Territory and what is now reservation land within the boundaries of the state of Oklahoma. Furthermore, none of Dr. Montgomery’s relatives lived anywhere close to the 230-acre reservation in Alabama where the Poarch Band of Creek Indians is now located. Finally, Dr. Montgomery’s ancestors never even applied to be considered as Indians, as TAAF found when its genealogists checked the Wilcher, Huff, Brown, Alexander, and Crossley lines in Dr. Montgomery’s genealogy. TAAF genealogists also checked the Freedmen applicants who were 20 years of age or older and connected to the Muscogee Nation, to see if any of these Freedmen applicants had Mississippi origins. TAAF then checked the Freedmen applications connected to the other four of the Five Tribes. TAAF found none of Dr. Montgomery’s ancestors listed in any of these records.
In March 2009, an ancestry.com user, Alonzo Kelly, posted a black-and-white photo, which appears to be old, of an individual with a headcovering that some may imagine is made out of an eagle. Kelly himself labeled the photo “Sarah Wilcher (a full blood American Indian).” There is no evidence that this individual is Indian, much less a “full blood Indian.” There is no evidence that Sarah Wilcher is even her name, and the photograph is undated. There is no “Sarah Wilcher” on the 1906 rolls of any of the Five Tribes, including on the Freedmen rolls of any of these Tribes. There is a Sarah Wilcher on the 1880 and 1870 censuses that identifies her as a Black woman living in Mississippi, in an area where Muscogees or Creeks were not present. If such an individual was American Indian, and especially if she was a “full blood,” one would expect her to have been expelled to Indian Territory a few decades prior to the 1870 census. Expulsion to what was then Indian Territory was not optional for the vast majority of members of the Five “Civilized” Tribes and the individuals whom they enslaved.
This photograph may be the basis of Dr. Montgomery’s claim to having American Indian ancestry. Dr. Montgomery is an active user of ancestry.com. The evidence suggests that she found the picture on Mr. Kelly’s or another’s page and posted it to her own tree on ancestry.com. Dr. Montgomery’s designation of this individual’s and thus of her own Tribal affiliation as Muscogee is puzzling given that the Muscogees or Creeks were not in Mississippi; instead, it was the Choctaws who lived in Mississippi. (TAAF did check the Choctaw records as part of the investigation, which revealed no connection to Dr. Montgomery’s family.) Unlike anthropologist and Pretendian Dr. Elizabeth Hoover, who claims that she conducted no research into her family tree and instead unquestioningly believed her “family lore” of being descended from an Indian, there is ample evidence that Dr. Montgomery thoroughly researched her family genealogy. Moreover, from her Ph.D. in anthropology from a top university as is Stanford University, Dr. Montgomery gained extensive academic training in how to interpret evidence.
The implications of the results of this investigation are serious. Among other things, they reveal that Dr. Montgomery’s teaching and scholarship is foundationally flawed and academically dishonest. Dr. Montgomery purports to teach, speak, and write from an American Indian perspective, but the reality is that she has never had and will never have an American Indian perspective. Disturbingly, she teaches courses at the University of Toronto that likely exploit her false claim that she provides students with an American Indian perspective in the classroom. Her classes include ANTH 390, “Indigenous Archaeologies,” and INS 460, “Indigenous Theory, Research, and Methods.” At her previous university, the University of Arizona, she taught ANTH 696, “Indigenous Theory.” Unbelievably, at the University of Arizona she also taught ANTH 595, “Ethics, Pedagogy, and Praxis.”
In light of the results of this investigation, the practices and policies that led the University of Toronto (hereafter U of T) to hire Dr. Montgomery as an Indigenous faculty member, despite the fact that she is not Indigenous, deserve scrutiny. TAAF found zero evidence that U of T has any vetting process at all for determining whether those who claim an American Indian identity are in fact American Indian. By consequently enabling and abetting Pretendian frauds, U of T has failed American Indian people and American Indian Nations, as well as non-Natives. By hiring Dr. Montgomery as an American Indian faculty member, then by abetting her false claims to being American Indian, U of T did further damage to Native people and further eroded their relationships to Native people and Nations. We strongly recommend that U of T take immediate action to build and repair their relationships with American Indian Nations rather than continue to perpetrate harm on Native people by legitimizing Pretendian frauds that include Dr. Montgomery.
It is worth pointing out that the Centre for Indigenous Studies at U of T also did not adequately vet Dr. Montgomery’s false claims to being American Indian. In 2020, two years before Dr. Montgomery was hired at U of T, the Centre hosted a talk by Dr. Montgomery entitled “Debates in Archaeology.” As of the date of this report, it lists Dr. Montgomery on its website. By legitimizing and bolstering the false claims of this Pretendian fraud, the Centre for Indigenous Studies has been doing harm to American Indian faculty, staff, and students, and they have in this way contributed to the creation of a toxic climate at U of T for actual American Indian people.
Many people now obviously consider Dr. Montgomery to be an American Indian woman. Therefore, the need to correct this misinformation at every turn going forward will be very important, as most Pretendian frauds count on their reputation of being Indian before being exposed, and they simply never correct people when people still assume they’re Indian after they’ve been exposed. Hence the request for a public statement from Dr. Montgomery letting the world know that she is not, in fact, an American Indian. She has edited her website to indicate that she is of Scottish and African-American descent, but this is insufficient. She needs to explain her past actions–preferably in full, make a lengthy apology to American Indian people and non-Indians, acknowledge the harm she has done, and find ways to redress that harm.
We also strongly recommend that funding agencies take immediate action to redress the fraud that is the subject of our investigation. In 2021, no doubt based in part on her false claims, Dr. Montgomery won (with Pamela E. Klassen) a $202,502 Social Science Research Council of Canada Insight Grant. This multi-year grant ends in 2026. In addition, with Michael Adler and Severin Fowles, in 2021 Dr. Montgomery won a National Science Foundation Senior Research Grant of $272,711.48. Very likely, Dr. Montgomery’s claims to being American Indian helped her and her colleagues win these large grants.
It should be noted that TAAF met with Dr. Montgomery via zoom where our lead genealogist explained to her that she has zero American Indian ancestry. She was asked what, precisely, she is basing her claim of being American Indian upon, and she literally said it was based on nothing more than the unfounded, unverified family myth. A person of her education working in the fields in which she has should obviously know better than to center herself the way she has based on nothing more than an unverified myth.
Our determination: Dr. Lindsay Montgomery has ZERO American Indian ancestry. It was her responsibility to verify her spurious family myth before making it part of her academic identity. She engaged in academic misconduct by misleading her colleagues and students into believing that she is of American Indian descent and implying that her scholarship is informed by an American Indian positionality. The entire University of Toronto, especially the Department of Anthropology and the Centre for Indigenous Studies, needs to redress this situation. Among other things, U of T needs to institute policies that require employees who claim an American Indian identity to produce documentation that they are enrolled citizens of tribal nations and that this includes only legitimate tribal nations. The same policy should be instituted by the Social Science Research Council of Canada and the National Science Foundation. These policies will protect the scholarly community from academic misrepresentation and fraud. By taking no action, U of T, the Social Science Research Council of Canada, and the National Science Foundation can expect to continue to enable to Pretendian frauds to inflict harm and trauma on actual Native people. Falsely claiming an Indian identity is anti Indian hate speech.
