Evan T. Pritchard

[NanticokePiney]

   Evan Pritchard wrote the most poorly researched book on the Mohicans ever. ('Native New Yorkers') Now he is into addiction and recovery "the Native way".


    http://www.theinstitute.org/community/evan_bio.shtml

[danielle]

That`s an infamous name i haven`t seen for awhile.

[ny1]

Hello, I'm curious about a Man Named Evan Pritchard. Claims Micmac Heritage. He's from NY City.     He's talks about global Warming.  He has written about "Bird Shamanism" claims to have Worked with William Commanda.  I'm just curious about this Man.

[Epiphany]

Some research links:

Evan Pritchard, a descendant of the Micmac people (part of the Algonquin nations) is the founder of The Center for Algonquin Culture, and is currently Professor of Native American history at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where he also teaches ethics and philosophy.

http://www.wilkesweb.us/algonquin/evan.htm
http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/teachers/teachers.php?id=349

He is listed as an Adjunct Professor of English at Marist College, his B.A. from Catholic University https://www.marist.edu/registrar/catalog/pdfs/undergrad0607/adjunctfaculty.pdf

[Epiphany]

My father is Celtic, a Taoist Celt, in fact. My mother is Algonquin Indian.

http://www.uucckingston.org/Sermons/path0225.html

Now, Celtic-Indian Taoist communities were hard to find in the 1950s when I was growing up. So we became part of a struggling Unitarian community, a safe non-dualistic space where we hyphenated kids could work out our own answers about what and who and where God was—and argue about politics of course. There were, sadly, no books on Native American philosophy in those days, so my mother told me stories that she would make up as she went along, stories with Mi'kmaq words in them (such as Pipsissewa) and Red Road teachings. When I got older she read to me at night from the Tao Te Ching. Close enough, I guess.  [1] For years I thought the Tao Te Ching was written by Loud Sioux, as in “Chief Loud Sioux.” What did I know?

My father became Treasurer of the church and helped to build the Paint Branch Unitarian church where I attended services, and I became part of a tribe called LRY. I came to New York City to seek my fortune. I didn't really start exploring my Mi'kmaq (Indian) roots again until 1989. Meanwhile I got interested in world religions. Now I am an interfaith Minister.

[Epiphany]

A hint as to what Evan T. Pritchard's claimed NDN heritage is:

Steeped in bird lore by his Mi’kmaq great aunt Helen Perley

http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Evan-T-Pritchard/410050527

He wrote Bird Medicine: The Sacred Power of Bird Shamanism

[Epiphany]

A review of one of Pritchard's books - Native New Yorkers: The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York

Horrible

This is, absolutely, the worst book ever written about the Lenape Indians. It is full of uncorroborated statements, gross errors of fact, bizarre assertions, and linguistic jibberish. There is almost no statement regarding the language, history or religion of the Lenape Indians which bears any resemblance to the findings of any linguist, ethnohistorian, anthropologist or archaeologist who ever wrote anything on these subjects. The 'Unami Delaware' poem, on pages 210-213, uses words NEVER known to any Lenape speaker! There is almost nothing in this book to recommend it.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/reviews/Native-New-Yorkers%2FEvan-Pritchard/1101136687?ean=9781571781079

Another:

Real scholars wouldn't buy this book., Sept. 29 2002
By
Debra Winchell
This review is from: Native New Yorkers: The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York (Hardcover)
This book doesn't deserve any stars. I am a member of a Mohican research group that has been in existence for several years with the cooperation of the Mohican Nation. The group includes Shirley Dunn, a published author of two books on the Mohicans, based on primary sources of information and very well received by historians. Pritchard did not base his work on the leading scholars of Mohican history: Shirley Dunn, Patrick Frazier, Ted Brasser, or Lion G. Miles. Instead he used novels written for young adults! I have also found mistakes in the Mohican chapter independent of Mohican history as well. It's sloppily written since Pritchard is not clear when he seems to be extrapolating from other northeastern algonkin cultures, borrowing from stories (besides the novels) or engaging in speculation. Only someone who doesn't know anything about Mohican culture or upstate New York would think this book was any good. He has done my Mohican ancestors (including the infamous one who should have been in the book but wasn't) a complete disservice. The author has set back Mohican historical research two hundred years and we will spend years refuting what he has passed off as research.

http://www.amazon.ca/review/R373NFHAEOBYWQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R373NFHAEOBYWQ

A Disgraceful Book, July 7 2002
By
Lion G. Miles (Stockbridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Native New Yorkers: The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York (Hardcover)
I agree totally with Raymond Whritenour that this is a terrible book, poorly written, poorly researched, and not worthy of any Indian scholar's notice. The author pretends to know something about native languages but, in fact, knows very little. I supplied him with certain words from the Mohican language but he misquotes me in every case. Chapter 15 on the Mohicans comes close to being an insult to that tribe and the rest of the book manages to dehumanize Algonquians in general. The book's endnotes are virtually useless and provide the reader with no sources for the outlandish statements the author makes. The publisher of this work should be ashamed of himself.

http://www.amazon.ca/product-reviews/1571781358/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt_sr_1?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

[educatedindian]

Merged with the older thread. The first post has a link which is now down. Here's the archived link.

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https://web.archive.org/web/20120110155356/http://www.theinstitute.org/community/evan_bio.shtml
Evan Pritchard, an author and musician of Native American extraction, has been the contributing editor to a number of books in the field of addiction and recovery, including Abused by Dee Anna Parrish, Vicious Circles also with Dee Anna Parrish, and The Journey Toward Complete Recovery by Dr. Michael Picucci.

He has also acted as editing consultant for author of Deep Healing and "grandfather of the relaxation tape," Dr. Emmit Miller, "the funnybone doctor" Dr. Bernie Siegal, Dr. Marilyn Rosannes Barrett (who was Fritz Perls' analyst!) Dr. Patch Adams, Dr. Jean Houston (on an article that was later incorporated in A Mythic Life), and many others.

His own critically acclaimed book Secrets of Wholehearted Thinking, published in 1994, was originally intended as a "guide to recovery of the complete person," as so when he saw the early version of Michael Picucci's work on Complete Recovery a few years later, he recognized the brilliance of it, and offered to help to rewrite it in a way that would have a greater emotional and intellectual impact on the world, which is exactly what happened.

In addition to editing the text, Evan Pritchard coined the term APT, Authentic Process Therapy, and proposed and designed the Trauma-Addiction-Recovery chart, which has since been adopted by several national support groups and agencies. Picucci and Pritchard completed the entire work in only six months.

Evan Pritchard is best known for his book No Word For Time: The Way of the Algonquin People from Council Oak Books, which has just been re-released in an expanded edition this year. The community healing methods described in this book closely parallel many of the ideas adopted by The Institute for Authentic Process Healing.

Later this year, Council Oak will also publish his Native New Yorkers, The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York. His own "Sunheart" website will be up and running in the near future.

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So he went from saying he had distant unspecified Native ancestry to claiming to be Micmaq and an expert on them.

His college may be interested that he's an adjunct misrepresenting himself as a full professor in Native history, when actually he teaches College Writing 116.
https://www.marist.edu/registrar/pdfs/09sfinexam2.pdf
He did teach a philosophy course for at least one semester.

AlgonquinCulture.org has some big respected names, Bruchac and Bastine. It surprises me they'd work with someone as inaccurate as Pritchard. The site promotes Pritchard's latest book on their front page. It was published by Wilkes, basically a vanity press.

Wikipedia quotes The Holy Grail in America as saying Pritchard claims Glooscap was actually English explorer Henry Sinclair.

Pritchard does give workshops on Algonquin spiritual traditions, though not for much, $10 only a few weeks ago.
 http://www.dailyfreeman.com/arts-and-entertainment/20140320/preview-calendar-march-21-to-27-2014
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/artmobile-events/b9idSG1QhSI/0SMWj_HZz9kJ

[ny1]

Thank You everyone. …I heard Evan on a Radio show Today…Something seemed odd about the info/history he was talking about.