NO LONGER A MATTER OF CONCERN: Chief Red Hawk aka Ed RedHawk Laughry

[nemesis]

There's an interesting and very large photo of Ed Laughry aka RedHawk here

http://www.redironhawk.org/themagicofredhawk.html

There is also a video of what appears to be the same person here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr8nq8sNx1E&feature=related

also here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr8nq8sNx1E&feature=related


A quick perusal of youtube and google results indicates that there lots of Red Hawks out there

I hope this helps

[educatedindian]

It does seem like a single member of NAFPS, writing three years ago and who hasn't been back in about those same three years, confused one of Poundstone's online ID with Laughry. No one else even noticed it before now, though I don't blame anyone for not wanting to be confused with a fraud. One of the older members had the bad luck to have Storm as his last name.

Though it's been stated about five times already, I'll post this edit to the original problem post-

IMPORTANT: John Poundstone is NOT Ed Laughry and is NOT accused of any of the wrongdoings that Laughry is. They simply used the same name of Red Hawk at different points.

[educatedindian]

I was informed of this by someone in the Williamsburg area. Apparently Ed Laughry passed away in December. Found this obituary.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timesdispatch/obituary.aspx?n=red-hawk&pid=154837226

As you can see, he maintained the imposture to the very end, and most of the condolences there still seem to think he was a Cherokee storyteller and chief. One message mentions Laughry frequently performing his fraud in Richmond elementary schools. Many of the messages seem to be from fellow members of that would be Cherokee "tribe" he claimed.

It's interesting that the service was held in an LDS chapel. Seemingly Laughry was a Mormon.

As you can see he was relatively young, early 50s. The source in Williamsburg says Laughry took his own life. No word yet of why.

The same source says there are plans for a day to honor him. Not sure what to think of that.

As many of you know, when a fraud passes on, we usually move the thread to Archives and mark it No Longer a Matter of Concern. It serves no purpose after their death. But the one exception we make is if others use the fraud's teaching to spread further lies.

I think we need to wait and see what happens in Laughry's case. Other opinions?

[Defend the Sacred]

My condolences to his family.

There is a lot more about Laughry in the "United Cherokee Nation" thread: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=732.0

The "United Cherokee Nation" website is still up, though I do not see Laughry mentioned on the site: http://theucn.com/

The content and photos from Laughry's business site - redhawkspeaks.com - are down, but the domain is still registered/active and "under construction".

Given his past activities, and all the people with UCN-formula names calling him a chief on the obituary page, I agree we need to wait and see what those people do in the wake of his death.

[Atehequa]

I remember my encounters with this fellow when I lived in Williamsburg  some years ago. He use to either own or work in a ‘Native American’ trading post/art and gift shop. If memory serves me correctly he told me he was Cherokee. I visited this store once in hopes of selling some of my watercolor art. Expensive shoes and well press slacks with a white silk shirt and silver earring display he appeared rather foppish. Telling him I was Shawnee, he quickly informed me that no Shawnees lived in Williamsburg and that I didn’t look Shawnee.
“What are we suppose to look like ?” I asked and added - “I come from a military family, we ended up here in the area”

Although I’ve sold my art depicting various Indians in their traditional attire, he was not interested as all the art in that place was the generic romanticized stuff one could find in any new age gift  shop. I remember showing him a Morrow Mountain projectile point I had found and him telling me it was a fake and suggested I look at some of the modern Mexican obsidian blades they were selling. At that point, I told my wife it was time to leave.

From time to time I would see him in some of the bars usually in the company of some fawning, moon eyed white maiden/s, all but swooning while completely under his mystical ’Native American’ spell.

So this gentleman is not even Indian and does he still frequent Williamsburg ?

[Diana]

So this gentleman is not even Indian and does he still frequent Williamsburg ?

He's dead. I believe he died last December. You should go back and re-read the entire thread. Educatedndn posted his obit.


Lim lemtsh,

Diana

[Atehequa]

So this gentleman is not even Indian and does he still frequent Williamsburg ?

He's dead. I believe he died last December. You should go back and re-read the entire thread. Educatedndn posted his obit.


Lim lemtsh,

Diana

 Hopefully he journeys well regardless of what he did in this world.

[William_Graywolf]

I have checked on people on occassion, but had nothing to post about.  I apologize to John Poundstone, Ed Red Hawk did introduce himself to a close friend, Rose Beckmann, and sent the link (John Poundstone's) to her as his own.  Rose also knew Linda Carter of that website.  It was a case of the man claiming to be John Poundstone when he was not.  He was very good with lies. 
He could not purchase anything at the store--he was not the owner.  He did defraud the owner and was sued but never paid. 
Again, I apologize to the real John Poundstone.
I'm still around.  This site is too important to ignore.  Too much good information on frauds and fakes. 
Thank you.

[Kris10g]

Just joined this site after researching Red Hawk.  I was married to him when he and I were both in the US Navy.  He was a total creep.  I have a 27 year old son from him who he never wanted anything to with.  Very interesting reading what liar and impostor he was.

[educatedindian]

Hello Kris. Like was said earlier in the thread, we generally avoid posting about someone who has passed on UNLESS there are people still outh there promoting him as genuine.

If it's OK, I'd like to ask you to tell us about your experience. He was not posing as Cherokee at the time you met? When did that begin? The storytelling, posing at schools, associtating with the would be heritage group UCN etc. It sounds like he had an earlier life he entirely rejected for the make believe one.

[earthw7]

my question would be how did these guys believe they comes from the Lakota People when the Lakota did not
break off from the Dakota people until 1600 in the area of Wisconsin before that they were all Dakota.
I have to shake my head at these people who make up our history to make their claims that they belong to my nation.
There was no Blackfeet/Blackfoot band of Lakota until 1670s so how can these people come from them?
All one has to do is read our winter counts. Then they say that they are in place where we dont have territory,
there was only a small band of Sisseton under Red Thunder who went out east to fight with Tecumseh not the Lakota.
History gets confusing when people want it to benefit them. I would ask for the name of these relatives from the Lakota
Nation before i would believe them

[Kris10g]

Blessings all, when I was married to Ed Laughrey aka Chief Red Hawk he was not claiming he was Indian.  I think he wanted to be someone he was not.  The impression I got was that he was never happy with himself or felt like he measured up.  I think he lived a very sad life and left alot of pain in many people's lives.  There is ALOT I could say but now that he has passed that would be inappropriate.  I wish the family he left behind many blessings.  I can only imagine the pain.....

[educatedindian]

Laughry's widow asked we remove this thread. I pointed out we gladly would move it to No Longer a Concern. The problem is those "Cherokee tribes" that still claim he was a chief of theirs.

What was really disturbing is that she admitted she teaches their children that he was Redhawk and a Cherokee chief.

[Defend the Sacred]

If Laughry's widow, and others, are still claiming he was a Cherokee Chief... I think his history is still of concern.

We could add a note to the first post in the thread, making it clear that he has crossed over, but that we need to leave this information up as people are still using his lies in an attempt to legitimize fake tribes.

[educatedindian]

I did a search of the UCN site. Laughry is not mentioned anywhere on it, not even as a supposed "chief" who passed over. I don't know if it's because he became more of an orthodox LDS member as time went on, if he cut ties with the UCN, if Laughry's widow asked them to remove any mention, or they simply removed any mention after his death.

I also couldn't find any more mentions of Laughry as "Redhawk" other than old newspaper articles or posts at forums. Laughry's old site is still around but not in use.

I'm moving this thread to Archives. Should there be efforts to use his name to promote a successor, other exploiters, or phony tribes we can always move it back.