I'm surprised there's no thread on him, though I recall we talked about him when we were still a yahoo group. There is this one statement on him here.
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=516.msg4133#msg4133Most say he's not NDN.
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http://web.archive.org/web/20070817053951/http://www.metropulse.com/dir_zine/dir_2003/1304/t_citybeat.htmlCarl Two Stories
Some Native Americans doubt activist's heritage
When bulldozers break ground in an area in Tennessee that might contain Native American artifacts, a familiar face is likely to pop up. Carl "Two Feathers" Whitaker might be carrying signs protesting the desecration of Native remains or negotiating with the state or private contractors over how those remains should be handled.
TV crews often interview him as a spokesman for Native Americans and Cherokees in Tennessee. He's been called an Indian leader by major newspapers around the state, including the (Nashville) Tennessean, the Knoxville News-Sentinel, and Metro Pulse. Whitaker even parlayed his media coverage into a fourth-place showing (out of 15 candidates) in last year's gubernatorial race (or, second out of the 13 independent candidates) with 5,263 votes.
But in one crowd, Whitaker is often looked upon with scorn and embarrassment. That crowd is the Native Americans.
Some Native Americans and Cherokees question Whitaker's Indian heritage. They say he's uneducated about Native traditions and customs and worry that he'll discredit the causes they fight for.
"For hundreds of years, we've had non-Indians represent our people," says Joseph French, a Native American who is part Cherokee. "For a non-native to be out there speaking up in our name is very wrong. We have a history, a culture, a heritage. Some people should read that history."
Carl Whitaker moved to Tennessee from Ohio around 1997 and now lives in Maryville. He claims that his mother is full-blooded Indian, half Cherokee and half Mohegan, and that his father was Dutch, Cherokee, and Irish.
However, many Native Americans and Cherokees doubt that he has much Indian blood. "You can look at me and look at Carl Whitaker and you tell me who is the Indian? There might be some Cherokee in him," says French, who showed Metro Pulse his own Bureau of Indian Affairs card to prove his Native American ancestry.
Whitaker says he does not he have a Bureau of Indian Affairs card. "I'm not really concerned with that anymore," Whitaker says. "I think [other Native Americans] have lost focus. They don't really understand the meaning of the Native American Indian. It'd be nice if we were all full bloods, because that was taken away from us a long time ago."
Whitaker says he's not a registered member of the federal or state-recognized Cherokee tribes. He says he is a member of the Southern Cherokee Nation tribe—a group that is not recognized by either the federal or state governments.
Teri Rhoades-Ellenwood, co-chair of the Tennessee Indian Affairs Advisory Council and the chairwoman of the proposed Tennessee Commission on Indian Affairs, called the Southern Cherokee Nation tribe "a Boy Scout club or something," whereas officially recognized tribes are sovereign entities, capable of self-governance and negotiating treaties.
"The federal as well as the state tribes have a right to be upset when someone who is not claims they're a tribe," Ellenwood says. "It's a slap in the face to sovereignty."
David Teat, a member of the Tennessee Commission of Indian Affairs Advisory Council, says Whitaker has no credibility. "This man has never been able to tell the truth or document anything he's ever said," Teat says. "He puts on a good show. He probably has some Native American ancestors. But he wasn't raised in it. He knows nothing about the culture, he mixes a lot of things up, he knows nothing about how to conduct ceremonies."
Whitaker dismisses Teat's criticism as "jealousy." He says he learned most of what he knows about Cherokee traditions from his maternal grandparents and from elders at the Cherokee Reservation.
Whitaker has been at the focal point of several Native American-related controversies across the state. One of those was a series of protests against a TDOT road project in Townsend, which uncovered artifacts from a major Native American settlement.
It was the TDOT experience, Whitaker says, that inspired him to form the Native American Indian Movement group. He says the group now has about 500 active members and a 1,000 total—including Cherokee, Blackfoot, Apache, Choctaw, and others.
"We're not a tribe. We don't pretend to be a tribe. I'm not a self-appointed chief." Principal chief for four years, Whitaker says he's stepping down from that role to serve as Shaman.
"Our purpose for N.A.I.M. is to stand up for the Native American rights," says Whitaker, referring to issues regarding burial grounds, job rights, and grave desecration. "We do not chase roads. We're there to make sure [construction workers] don't dig up bones and put them in a box, take them over to McClung Museum and keep them there."
Whitaker says he's worked with people from the Eastern Band of the Cherokee in North Carolina. He says James Byrd, of the tribe's cultural office, told him he was doing good work. "James said, 'You know what?—We have the federal status...but you are our foot soldiers.'"
Byrd denies he ever said that.
"He has no official status or authority to represent Cherokee, and he's not an enrolled member," Byrd says. But Byrd stopped short of criticizing Whitaker, saying he didn't know much about him. "He has a right to assert his first-amendment privileges," Byrd says. "He has no association or authority with this office."
Whitaker says at first N.A.I.M. worked as a support group to the American Indian Movement, or A.I.M. That national group formed in the late '60s to agitate for Native American and tribal rights and causes. But Whitaker says anything they did on behalf of A.I.M. had to be cleared by the national headquarters. So he says Vernon Bellecourt, A.I.M. principal spokesman and a long-time Indian activist, suggested Whitaker form his own group, putting "Native" in front of A.I.M.
"I have a lot of good friends in A.I.M. There may be a few disgruntled people," Whitaker says.
Vernon Bellecourt disputes Whitaker's claim. He says Whitaker called him once several years ago looking to get involved. Whitaker didn't claim to be an Indian at the time, Bellecourt says, just someone interested in Indian causes. "When I asked him basic questions like 'What tribe are you from,' he said, 'I believe my great, great grandmother was a Cherokee."
Bellecourt says he told Whitaker what he tells anyone—Indian or non-Indian—wanting to help the Native American causes: take a survey of the community and find out how many Indians live there.
"All of a sudden, I got calls from people calling themselves "Little Moon" or "Little Owl"—names that people make up who know nothing about our culture," Bellecourt says. He asked where they got their names and was told, "Carl Two Feathers told us we either had to pick a name ourselves or he would pick one."
"Everything he was doing had a tendency of turning people off to our movement," Bellecourt says. "He's never been given any authority or responsibility other than taking a survey of the community."
Because of Whitaker's formation of N.A.I.M, the American Indian Movement issued a press release in 1999 saying "rogue groups led by agents and informants, instant Indians, wannabees, rip-offs, and others who are using the American Indian Movement to cause disruption and chaos in their communities shall no longer be allowed to foster ill-feelings, misrepresent policy, and they shall no longer be allowed to produce and sell AIM merchandise, or use the AIM name, or any of our copyrighted and trademarked logos."
Bellecourt says that Whitaker isn't the only one using the Native American causes. "It's running rampant out there. Caucasians seem to have bigger identity issues than we do," Bellecourt says.
Groups like N.A.I.M. are damaging to Native American causes, he says. "They distort who we are," he says. "They send out confusing images and messages. It just causes disruption and concern. It really misleads others who think maybe this is what our movement is about. Whitaker seems to act totally contrary to what we try to present as our culture, art, music, dance, and political views."
Whitaker has a tendency of starting groups with names that sound similar to existing groups. He recently formed an environmental group called Mother Earth-First. It's not connected with Katuah Earth First!, the local branch of the national environmental group. Chris Irwin of Katuah says his organization used to work with Whitaker, but he's been banned from all functions, he says, for abusive behavior and "selling out" environmental causes.
"He just goes from movement to movement co-opting energy like some strange vampire," Irwin says. "He's got a long history of getting written off and banded from different groups."
It is those Native Americans who seem the angriest at Whitaker.
Joseph French says he worries about who is listening to Whitaker. "There are thousands in Tennessee who are descendants of Cherokee," he says. "They have a right to know what Cherokee is all about—not from some one down from Ohio making stuff up."
—Joe Tarr
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When NAIM was asked by the real AIM to quit exploiting their name, no surprise he turned them down. Whitaker, in addition to being a phony and showboat, is a vicious racist working with other vicious racists, the Minutemen, who are white supremacists.
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http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=3658034Police breakup Jonesborough immigration demonstration after scuffle between Hispanics and Tennessee Volunteer MinutemenBy Staff report
Published July 22nd, 2006 | Added July 22nd, 2006 9:57 pm |
JONESBOROUGH - What began as a peaceful illegal immigration demonstration turned briefly physical Saturday morning in Jonesborough after one side charged the other over the presence of a Mexican flag.
Carl Twofeathers Whitaker, a Sevierville resident who is running as an independent candidate for governor, was charged by members of a Hispanic group seeking to take the flag away from him.
Whitaker led the Tennessee Volunteer Minutemen, an organization dedicated to ensuring aliens immigrate to this country legally, in what he said was to be a silent response to a group of Hispanic protesters in front of the Washington County Courthouse.
The Hispanic group of 12 members was speaking out about immigration rights while the group of six Tennessee Volunteer Minutemen watched.
The Hispanic group, led by Azul Christian Caravaggio, is walking to Washington, stopping off in various locations along the way. Group members were holding signs saying "Are We Really Illegal?," "Minute Men + Hatred = Evil" and "We Don't Choose Our Race, 1 Race, The Human Race."
The Tennessee Volunteer Minutemen had signs, too, but group members mainly held American flags and chanted "U.S.A, U.S.A, U.S.A."
"We are doing this because we don't think we are illegal," Caravaggio said. "We don't think the human body can be illegal."
Caravaggio said her group expects to enlist 40 more marchers when it reaches Abingdon, Va.
"We were only three when we started," she said.
She said the group's mission is to encourage voters to vote for Democratic candidates.
Caravaggio also thought seeking a better life in the United States is impossible to do legally, for most. She compared illegal immigrants to European settlers, saying European immigrants killed the indigenous population of North America when they arrived.
"I don't know where else we can go," she said. "It's not a crime to come to this country just because you want to work," Caravaggio said.
Jonesborough police and Washington County sheriff's deputies were on hand to keep the peace.
Tensions mounted and things started to get heated when Whitaker and the Hispanic group began exchanging their views on immigration, something Whitaker said he never intended to happen.
"We have laws," Whitaker said to the other group in response to their presence. "There are laws in this country.
"These people have been agitating Minutemen all the way down the line," Whitaker said.
"They're taking advantage of us here."
He said illegal immigrants are not interested in contributing to the society, they just want a free ride. Whitaker said his protest has nothing to do with race and was adamant about the Tennessee Volunteer Minutemen not being a hate group.
"The only color it is is the color green; money," he said of the motivation for illegal immigration.
"When I grew up the word illegal' meant that there was a law made and you're doing something wrong," he said.
The Hispanic group became angry at Whitaker because he had a Mexican flag tucked in his back pocket. They thought it was a deliberate provocation, aimed at disrespecting them.
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Whittaker has run for TN governor three times, in 2002 as an independent. In 2006, he ran as a candidate for a part that wants the south to secede from the US, the Southern Party.
http://southernpartytn.tripod.com/id12.htmlAnd yes, the Southern Party is a white supremacist party, founded by the racist League of the South.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2000/sep/18/uselections2000.usaNeo-confederates want out of USSpecial report: the US elections
Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles The Guardian, Monday 18 September 2000 02.21 BST Article history
Tens of thousands of white southerners are reported to be joining organisations that seek independence from the rest of the US, claiming that the federal government no longer represents "southern values". Opponents say these neo-confederate groups are allowing militant and racist whites to organise politically under the guise of a heritage movement.
Last week the Southern party, which advocates secession, won its first mayoral victory, in a village in Alabama.
The party is an offshoot of a group called the League of the South, which says there has been a surge in its membership as white southerners become disillusioned with the "multiculturalism" of the main parties. The league is led by academics and cites as its inspiration such separatist movements as the Northern League in Italy.
Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which has just completed a report on the growth of the southern movement, said it was "providing a veneer of moral legitimacy for people who would be embarrassed to join the [white supremacist Ku Klux] Klan".
"White supremacists do not always come wearing Klan hoods, shaved heads or storm trooper outfits. Sometimes they boast business suits and PhDs," he said.
The growth of the movement became apparent earlier this year when South Carolina bowed to national pressure and transferred the battle flag of the Confederacy from the dome of its statehouse to a nearby monument. Many see the flag as the symbol of a civil war fought to preserve slavery.
"[The new-confederates] were bitterly angry about that," Mr Potok said. "That was a big loss." But flag issue gave them the chance to recruit whites who felt increasingly estranged from mainstream politics.
The League of the South is led by a former history professor, Michael Hill, whose office is in Tuscoloosa, Alabama. Formed in 1994, it has about 9,000 members.
It and other neo-confederate groups point to the break-up of the Soviet Union, the separatist Québécois movement in Canada, and the Northern League in Italy as examples of what is possible.
As the League of the South is not a political party, some of its members formed the Southern party, which now has 2,000 members. Last week Wayne Willingham, 37, became its first successful candidate in a mayoral election, in the village of West Point, Alabama, where he beat the incumbent by a single vote. Mr Willingham described himself as "just an old country boy who's tired of things being done the way they are".
The other main body in the southern movement is the Council of Conservative Citizens, which has about 15,000 members. It recently deplored on its website a music festival in Charleston, South Carolina, as a "multicultural mudbath [which] attracts mostly queers and weirdos".
The Southern Poverty Law Centre's report, Rebels with a Cause, lists 14 different groups which it says operate in 25 states, mainly in the south, to promote the confederate cause. They include the Heritage Preservation Association which has declared "total war" on those who attack southern values and culture, and the Confederate States of America, a group which would like to repeal laws that gave citizenship to blacks and votes to women.
The main theoretical journal of the movement is called American Renaissance. It is edited by a white separatist, Jared Taylor, a board member of the Council of Conservative Citizens. The magazine promotes such notions as blacks having smaller brains and the dangers of non-white immigration.
The Edgefield Journal, "the only true southern nationalist newspaper", is the other main publication; a recent piece suggested that "many slaves were willing to be slaves".
The groups are represented in court by Kirk Lyons, a lawyer who shows his affection for the "Anglo-Celtic" roots of the movement by dressing up periodically in a top hat and kilt. He has described Hitler as "probably the most misunderstood man in German history" and is now the chief lawyer acting on behalf of the Southern Legal Resource Centre, which is the movement's legal arm.
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And yes, Whitaker is running for TN gov again this year, as an independent.
