“only named mother of a Traditional British Witchcraft family in the Americas”
That's bullshit. You'll find lots of people making those claims. The BritTrad Wiccans who are coming in an actual lineage know the names of their initiatiors, and their initiators, etc, in a direct line back to Gerald Gardner or Alex Sanders (both Englishmen). It's possible she's a BritTrad initiate, but she's not acting like one; by making the claims she is and teaching for money, it looks to me like she is breaking her initiation vows (if she ever swore any).
British Traditional Wiccans rarely use their names in public, and most do not believe in publicizing the tradition or looking for converts. It is traditional to take a new name on initiation, and be known only by that name in matters dealing with the Craft.
BritTrad Wicca is no more like NDN religions than is any polytheistic, earth-based tradition. There are things in Wicca that Gardner ripped off from Seton's fantasies of NDN ceremonies; many people mistakenly believe those bits are old English traditions rather than bits taken from Seton, Hinduism, Christian ceremonial magic, etc.
Legitimate BritTrad Wiccans also have a prohibition against charging for teaching, rituals or initiations.
I'm not a BritTrad initiate, as the tradition never appealed to me. However, I have been a guest at rituals led by BritTrad elders, and have met the man who brought Alexandrian Wicca to the US. In the eighties and nineties I was good friends with some of his first initiates, who are the elders of the tradition in the US. I was also friends with one of the Gardnerian elders who has played a similar role in the tradition's history, and know a handful of people in her lineage. Most BritTrad Wiccan groups on the East Coast descend from these lines.
One thing to bear in mind about the word "Elder". In Wiccan groups, people are often declared "elders" after only three years of training, no matter how young they are. I had friends in their twenties who were named as "elders". That has changed a bit now that the early initiates are now elderly or dying off, but the word "elder" is almost meaningless among most Wiccan and Witchcraft groups; you have to figure out what they mean by it.
I've never heard of this woman, but I haven't asked around. I'm not really in touch with the BritTrad people these days, though I could make a couple phone calls if needed. But what she's saying does not line up with even those groups, let alone something actually old and traditional or indigenous.
She likes to say "Wicca" sometimes and "Witchcraft" other times. But the sorts of claims she makes are found among many people using both terms. Her activities are not unusual, nor are her claims of being "the only one".
The only reason I can see for her getting an NDN to "vouch" for her is if she wants to sell fake NDN ceremonies to gullible people. Seeing some of the events she's participated in, where other nons do exactly that, I'd say that's what she's probably doing.
Here:
http://elizabethsturino.com/witchcraft.html she claims:
"I am a Mother, Elder, Weaver in one tradition and a Shaman, Medicine Person in another."
