Did Kay LeClaire learn nothing from Rachel Dolezal? Both are white women who were passing as Native American, in the case of LeClaire, and a black woman, in the case of Dolezal. Or maybe LeClaire should have learned from Elizabeth Warren who claimed she was Native American until her ancestry was verified.

Kay LeClaire now goes by the name of Nibiiwakamigkwe and claims to be a Native American ‘two-spirit.” Two-spirit is a term many Indigenous people use to describe a non-binary gender identity. She was checking lots of boxes, apparently. Genealogist AdvancedSmite posted research on an online forum alleging that LeClaire has been profiting from Indigenous peoples. She has been making a nice living off her fake identity. Or, she was. She has since stepped down from her community positions.

Not only is LeClaire, a.k.a. Nibiiwakamigkwe, not Native American at all, she is white. Very white. Her ancestry is German, Swedish and French Canadian, according to AdvancedSmite’s research.

She has claimed Métis, Oneida, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Cuban and Jewish heritage, but AdvancedSmite reportedly used online records and resources to find LeClaire’s true lineage – German, Swedish and French Canadian.

Over the past few years, LeClaire, who is a member and co-owner of the artist collective giige, has earned several artists’ stipends, a paid residency at the University of Wisconsin, a place on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force and many speaking gigs and art exhibitions, it was reported.

She provided a statement to a Madison news outlet.

‘I am sorry,’ they wrote. ‘A lot of information has come to my attention since late December. I am still processing it all and do not yet know how to respond adequately. What I can do now is offer change.

‘Moving forward, my efforts will be towards reducing harm by following the directions provided by Native community members and community-specified proxies.’

The statement went on: ‘Currently, this means that I am not using the Ojibwe name given to me and am removing myself from all community spaces, positions, projects, and grants and will not seek new ones.

‘Any culturally related items I hold are being redistributed back in community, either to the original makers and gift-givers when possible or elsewhere as determined by community members. Thank you.’

That’s an interesting excuse – information has come to her attention. Did she forget her identity from birth up until the time she took a different name and moved into a new community? Did she forget she didn’t grow up as a Native American but as a regular white American?

So, how did she get caught? AdvancedSmite is a Native American who first became aware of LeClaire though a Facebook ad for a talk on Indigenous feminism. LeClaire used her fake name and that tipped off AdvancedSmite. The Ojibwe name is “typically something that would just be used in ceremony or with other people who are Ojibwe or a part of your community.” A true Native American outed a phony one.

AdvancedSmite conducted some research and connected the Ojibwe name to LeClaire, which is ‘a common Native American last name’ but also saw posts on their social media that LeClaire seemed to often identify as Anishinaabe.

‘Our band names are so important, so I tend to be suspicious when someone just says Anishinaabe,’ AdvancedSmite said.

The internet is forever. LeClaire’s past social media posts show her as a different person. In one post, she describes herself as ‘a 20-something white woman.’ By 2019 she had assumed her new identity. The forum used by AdvancedSmite also claims LeClaire graduated from Hamilton High School in Sussex, Wisconsin, known as Katie Le Claire, in 2012. She went on to attend the University of Wisconsin. In the summer of 2018 she married Adam Pagenkopf, a research specialist at UW. He, too, is a Hamilton High School alum. LeClaire worked her way into many institutions and exhibitions, making money by claiming to be Native American. It is unclear how financially successful she has been with her new identity.

That’s quite an elaborate ancestry she made up for herself. What did he husband, who knew her as Katie Le Claire in high school, think about her scheme?

AdvancedSmite asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from other so-called “pretendians.” That person said the Ojibwe name is “a common Native American last name.”

One of the artists’ collective co-founders said she’s relieved she didn’t have to expose LeClaire.

“I was so relieved that someone else had called it out and I didn’t have to. I’ve had my suspicions, but I didn’t have anything confirmed,” said another co-founder Nipinet Landsem about the revelations. “At first, I was relieved, and then I moved into every human emotion known to man. I am horrified, I’m upset. We’ve already had so much taken away from us. American society is built off of things that have been stolen from Native and Black people. Stolen land, stolen resources, stolen labor, and white people think it’s okay to just continue stealing from us.”

Good Lord. What a mess LeClaire made of her life. I guess she could have run for the Senate. Will the real Kay LeClaire or Katie Le Claire please stand up?