Named after | Yokuts word |
---|---|
Formation | 1980 [1] |
Founded at | Porterville, California [1] [2] |
Type | Nonprofit, [3] unrecognized tribe |
Registration no. | EIN 94-2737435 (CA) [2] |
Location |
|
Chief | Malcolm Webber, [4] "Chief Thunderbird IV" Webber [3] |
The Kaweah Indian Nation, Inc., was a civic group interested in cultivating a Native American identity. The group is named after the Kaweah people and has applied for status as a federally recognized tribe in the USA in the 1980s, a petition which was denied. [5] [6]
Scam artists have sold purported citizenships in the non-recognized tribe, particularly to Mexican nationals who have entered the US without documents. [4] [7] Malcolm Webber, who called himself "Grand Chief Thunderbird IV," was convicted on six felony charges and sentenced to prison time in 2008. [8]
The Kaweah Indian Nation, based in California at the time, petitioned the US federal government for federal recognition. [9] In 1985, their petition was denied. [10] The proposed finding stated: "The Kaweah Indian, Inc. is a recently formed group that did not exist prior to 1980. ... The KIN is primarily an urban Indian group in Porterville, California, which has no relation to the aboriginal Kaweah Indians and did not evolve from a tribal entity...." [1]
The group formed a nonprofit organization in Porterville, California, but their nonprofit status was revoked in 2011 not failing to file taxes for three consecutive years. [2]
The group also formed a nonprofit in Wichita, Kansas, in 2005 but dissolved in 2008. [3]
The Schaghticoke are a Native American tribe of the Eastern Woodlands who historically consisted of Mahican, Potatuck, Weantinock, Tunxis, Podunk, and their descendants, peoples indigenous to what is now New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The remnant tribes amalgamated in the area near the Connecticut-New York border after many losses, including the sale of some Schaghticoke and members of neighboring tribes into slavery in the Caribbean in the 1600s.
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The Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas, Inc., is a cultural heritage organization of individuals who identify as descendants of the Comecrudo people. Also known as the Carrizo people, the Comecrudo were a historic Coahuiltecan tribe who lived in northern Tamaulipas, Mexico, in the 17th to 19th centuries.