Free Republic

What is it about authors of books or professors who proclaim themselves to be Native Americans but are not? Easy money? Recognition? Want attention? Indian wannabes? Yinishye Nasdijj, a fake name, is another recent addition to a list of fake Indian wannabes. But let's start with Ward Churchill. As of late the investigation surrounding the scandal involving Ward "I-wanna-be-an-Indian" Churchill continues with the addition of two outside scholars to included as part of Colorado University's Investigative Committee. The IC is currently reviewing charges of research misconduct alleged against Professor Ward Churchill at the University of Colorado at Boulder. But two...

Former Chapel Hill author Nasdijj won national acclaim writing memoirs about his brutal childhood as a Navajo Indian in the Southwest and as a father to two adopted sons who died of AIDS and fetal alcohol syndrome. In truth, he was Timothy P. Barrus, a man of Scandinavian descent who grew up in a solidly middle-class neighborhood of Lansing, Mich., and had a career writing gay pornography, according to public records and several people who know Barrus. The likelihood that Barrus had fabricated his past -- and parlayed the fiction into three successful nonfiction books -- was first raised Wednesday...