Patricia Marroquin Norby made a very problematic Facebook post yesterday which TAAF would like to address. It was very typical of a Pretendian fraud upon being exposed as such. Lots of mudslinging in the direction of those she blames yet who are not responsible for where Ms. Norby finds herself.
The nutshell is that Ms. Norby has been claiming to be Apache and Purépecha, with roots from Mexico and Texas. There are no legitimate Apache tribes in Texas. There are no legitimate Apache tribes in the U.S. who claim Ms. Norby as one of them. If there are Apache or Purépecha communities in Mexico who claim Ms. Norby and her family as one of them, we have yet to see evidence of that. Our website explains how that would be very difficult, if not impossible, for Ms. Norby. An attempt to achieve this, disingenuously, at this point, would look very bad indeed for Ms. Norby and would be very apparent.
The “gatekeeping” of our American Indian cultures, especially our ancient sacred ceremonies, our ancestors, our very identities as Indian people, has become a necessary tool and crucial skill in order to safeguard them from lying, thieving, Pretendian frauds. It should be remembered that the genocide against us continues, and everything we have is still very much in danger of going extinct.
Ms. Norby says she’s not going to hide her Purépecha or Apache identity in shame. No one asked her to. Because she has no Purépecha or Apache ancestry to begin with. She is Mexican American. That’s it. And while it is not incumbent upon US to prove a negative, we have done her genealogy and we have asked the 9 federally recognized Apache tribes of the United States whether Ms. Norby has any such ancestry and the answer has been a consistent resounding NO.
It is becoming a more and more frequent tactic to claim ancestry from the First Peoples of Mexico because Pretendians hope no one will be able to check up on such claims. They hope we don’t speak Spanish or other tribal languages. They hope we have no contacts among the First Peoples of Mexico. They hope we don’t speak any of the original languages of those peoples. But TAAF has all of the above. And a travel budget.
But the onus of proving that she actually has any Apache or Purépecha kinship lies with Ms. Norby. Not anyone else. Which Purépecha or Apache community in Mexico actually claims her as one of their own? When we go to visit that community, and speak with them in their original language, who will confirm that to us? Because we will check further and do that next.
So no one is expecting Ms. Norby to “hide”. We expect her to do the right thing and come clean by admitting that she has never had any kinship ties to any Apache or Purépecha community. We expect her to be open and honest about her family and her upbringing as a Mexican-American woman, not a Mexican-Indian, Apache or Purépecha woman.
Ms. Norby showed her ugly bias in her post yesterday towards legitimately American Indian women, who had nothing to do with the article in the NY Post, by attempting to smear their good names and reputations solely because they had the courage to question Ms. Norby’s vacuous claims of “Indigeneity” in 2021. God bless the efforts of Jacqueline Keeler and others like her, who consistently brave the toxicity (and worse) of people like Ms. Norby, who clearly have no respect for actual American Indian people (and that includes Mexico, Canada and the U.S.).
It's a shame that more people don’t listen to the actual American Indian people when we speak out about fraud like this that continues to erase us, putting the final nail into the coffin of our genocide. Why does that happen? Why don’t people listen to us? Because we are invisible. Because we are a romanticized, fetishized, tokenized, commodified notion that non-Indian people feel no accountability towards. Rather, they feel entitlement to take and use as they please, no matter the cost to us. This is not what uncolonized, non-performative, genuine allies do.
And it should never be the victims of any con-artist who should have to bear the brunt of exposing things like this. This is one reason why watchdog organizations like TAAF exist. We, and journalists like Jacqueline Keeler and others, will do that work and protect the whistleblowers. Because retaliation at the hands of frauds when they get exposed is very real. The person blowing a whistle on fraud should not be the focus. The focus should be whether or not the information being presented is factual and is there evidence to back it up? Also, can the alleged fraud in question prove otherwise? If you have nothing solid to base your claim of being an American Indian upon, you’re not an American Indian.
Pretendians routinely create Pretendian echo chambers and Pretendian mills at museums and universities, hoarding the access, the opportunities and the microphones that actual American Indian scholars should be given in spaces where our voices should have priority. We are tired of others speaking for us. We are even more tired now of others pretending to BE us as they presume to speak for us.
It is not an act of violence or “racism” when legitimately American Indian people expose, on a list or individually, Pretendian frauds stealing from us and defrauding the public by claiming to have an American Indian perspective when they have none. It is an act of violence and racism for non-Indian people to lie about being one of us as they usurp things meant for us, as they desecrate our ceremonies by distorting them beyond recognition, as they distort our cultures and histories in general in “teaching” about us because they do not share our lived experience, as they participate in trauma porn (classic example: Allison Hedge-Coke), fantasizing about the stolen intergenerational grief and trauma that American Indian people are STILL trying to survive and heal from, which no one in their family ever experienced.
Calling the NY Post, a very reputable publication, a “tabloid” is not going to work either. #DARVO (Deny, attack, reverse victim & offender. A common Pretendian tactic. Look it up.) The NY Post is to be commended for doing their best to report on this story because up until now, Ms. Norby has managed to intimidate any journalistic source attempting to air the truth regarding her misrepresentation of herself to the public. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York city has worked to deflect accountability in this case, displaying poor ethics in all areas, including communication, consultation and repatriation with respect to the Native American Art in their care. To date, the Met has not responded appropriately to the criticism regarding Ms. Norby coming from actual American Indian people who absolutely deserve a response. It is extremely harmful and adds more trauma to hundreds of years of intergenerational grief and trauma to gaslight and ignore legitimately American Indian people when they attempt to point out harm being actively done to them, i.e. Pretendian theft and fraud.
Ms. Norby referred to “detribalized Indigenous people and descendants like me”. Those are common red flag buzzwords among Pretendians. The extremely vague “Indigenous” term is highly problematic. A person claiming to be “Indigenous to Mexico” could just be someone born in Mexico. Not everyone born in Mexico is a Mexican Indian. “Detribalized” is more often than not misused out of context and completely misunderstood, often replacing “tribal termination” or “disenrollment”. “Reconnecting” is another one. Disconnected American Indian people should always be encouraged to reconnect to their tribe, when they actually have a tribe to legitimately reconnect to…. But this is often a tactic that Pretendians use, to imply they have something to reconnect to when they do not.
And there is a huge difference between being an enrolled federally recognized sovereign tribal nation citizen, versus someone who found an American Indian ancestor on a roll 400 years ago, i.e. a ‘descendant’. Or someone making an appearance in a Purépecha community while on vacation in hopes of validating a family myth. There’s a bit of food for thought when considering American Indian identity and kinship issues.
So no, Ms. Norby, none of these fabulous legitimately American Indian scholars you have libeled have been ‘violent’ or ‘racist’ towards you. They simply asked reasonable questions and pointed out reasonable concerns. And you are the only one who can turn it around by coming clean and doing better going forward. Your behavior as it stands will not be tolerated. You made this bed. This is the consequence of your own actions. Time for a trip to the local furniture store at this point because there is no re-making this bed. No blaming of others.
No scholar, or anyone in a position of trust owed the public, such as Ms. Norby’s position at the Met, is immune to expectations of honesty, authenticity and accountability. And vetting the claims of prospective employees is imperative. The Met needs to learn how to do this properly and do better going forward as well. This is part of the job and the responsibility of anyone involved in anything to do with the media, let alone trust relationships with American Indian sovereign tribal nations.
The exposure of your fraud is actually very RIGHT. And it’s about time.
There is nothing for you to “fight back” about. But by all means. While you’re at it, you’ll need to actually prove your claims of being Apache and Purépecha.
To learn more about uncolonized allyship and the problem of Pretendianism, see the reading list provided on the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds website.