Gerald Gismondi AKA "Jay Red Hawk" on Deadliest Warrior

[educatedindian]

Got a request about him. This is a bit off from what we usually look into. As a general policy we DONT spend our time playing "more NDN than you" like you see over at Indianz.com. But since he's making money off of claims that have been called into question and may be spreading falsehoods, he's worthy of attention.

Sometimes JRH says he's Comanche, as he did on the cable show Deadliest Warrior. There's a video critiquing the whole episode.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isfQ1pdyaIE

Got to 6:00. The video maker found an ad by JRH where he claims instead to be Sicangu Lakota and French Canadian. And then he plays a clip of JRH where he auditioned for Deadliest Warrior, claiming to be Comanche.

Also, there's these very damning articles.

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http://www.lakotacountrytimes.com/news/2009-09-22/voices/010.html
...Recently, a daily South Dakota newspaper located west of the Missouri River ran a feature story about an annual event where invited artists are allowed to interact with models in order to photograph or otherwise create a new piece of artwork presumably to sell. The story listed names of artists and models who participated in the event held at a ranch near Wall, SD. However, the ethnic background of Gerard Gismondi, who was listed in the story as a model calling himself Jay Red Hawk, is highly questionable.

For example, a notarized arrest report dated September 9, 2007 signed by Scott Johnson, a Deputy Sheriff in Meade County, reads in part "Further investigation by this Deputy revealed that Jay Red Hawk is only an alias. This subject was found to be GERARD GISMONDI from New York…the Social Security number that he provided the jail…belongs to a female in Minneapolis, Minnesota… Gerard was [also] arrested in 1987 in San Francisco for Inflicting Corporal Injury on Spouse/cohabitant…Gerard has also never gotten an ID Card or Drivers License due to the fact that he uses a different name."

Did Gismondi attempt to steal the identity of an enrolled member of a federally recognized tribe by using her social security number? This is one question that people who know him have pondered for several years. This man has and continues to fool many Lakota people at Rosebud, Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River, and Rapid City; including inmates at the Pennington County Jail where he was recently released after serving several months for violating a protection order issued to a Lakota woman and her three sons....

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http://www.lakotacountrytimes.com/news/2009-09-22/voices/019.html
Dear Editor:

I feel very compelled to say something about a crime that has been committed against a very close friend of mine. Approximately 10 years ago she met this man named Jay Red Hawk. They had three beautiful boys during this time. The relationship ended a couple of years ago with the Police Dept responding to a 911 call to Bear Butte in Meade County.

The arrest of Jay Red Hawk that ensued was very strange. He was held in jail for many reasons; however in particular was that the police could not positively identify this white man they had arrested for harassing a Lakota Win and vandalizing the house she and her children lived in.

Eventually the mysterious Jay Red Hawk, that we were always skeptical about, was reflected in the true light of the ugly person that he really is. Turned out this "traditional Dakota guy" that is fully immersed in our culture, speaks fluent Dakota, knows our ceremonies, participated in Hollow Horn Bear and Thunder Valley Sundances, and hosted the "Bring Back the Bow" effort is nothing more than a fraud! He is a white man named Gerard Gismondi from New York.

Gismondi was sentenced to serve a year or so in the Pennington County Jail for violating a protection order. A few months back he was released from jail. Since his release there have been a multitude of incidents that he has caused. He's very brazen and arrogant as he trots around Rapid City. He claims he is related to a prominent elder from Cheyenne River and calls him Tunkasila! He does exhibitions, plays that ridiculous flute of his, wears Lakota regalia, takes pictures, and speaks on behalf of our people! I wonder where the heck are all the Warrior Societies? Why hasn't someone counted coup on him and cut that ridiculous braid off his head! Women are not property! We belong to no one but ourselves. What's it going to take for my friend to get full justice, what's it going to take so she and her boys are safe, what's it going to take for an unidentified white man from New York to get a clue and go back to his own people because the Lakota are not his people!

LaJuanda Hacker
Hakikta Najin Takoja
Sicangu Oyate

[Twinkie_Slayer]

 Ol' Gerry has quite a following in the traditional archery community. I have suspected for some time that he isn't native, and those links seem to confirm it. He's bamboozled alot of people for some time, but I think folks have caught on.

[Twinkie_Slayer]

I have come across 3 or possibly 4 different versions of Gismondi's name. Gerard, Gerald, Gerauld, and possibly Gregory. It would be nice to know which one is the right one.

[Smart Mule]

I know there's court dockets on him.  Now that I can get on my pc I should be able to check pacer.  I'm not sure when I can, I'm leaving for a meeting with my cousin in a moment and then I'll be gone for a couple of days.  If you could send me a reminder message on FB I'll get on it next week

[Twinkie_Slayer]

Thanks, sky. I will send a reminder. I also have some information that possibly indicates that Gismondi is from San Diego, CA, and not New York.

[Twinkie_Slayer]

 I have some info that suggests that he graduated from a "Garfield Independent Learning Center" in San Diego, CA in 1983

[nishkwe]

Jay Red Hawk..
 is an Italian who married a native woman ( i will get her name Cindy ??)..
he beat the living crap out of her one to many times and he was booted off of the Rez where they lived ..
 now he is very verbally abusive to women , and thinks he is the biggest indian on facebook

[Twinkie_Slayer]

 Obituary for "Jay's mother.

 

MONETT, Mo. … Margaret Gismondi, 70, Monett, died at 3:50 p.m. Monday, Jan. 6, 1997, at Cox Medical Center South, Springfield, after a long illness.

Mrs. Gismondi was born Oct. 30, 1926, at Brooklyn, N.Y. She moved to Monett in 1993 from California. She was a homemaker and had retired as a telephone operator in California. She was a Catholic and a volunteer with the Aids Foundation.

Survivors include two sons, Jay Redhawk, state of Minnesota, and Richard Gismondi, San Diego, Calif.; a daughter, Regina, whose last name and address were unavailable; two brothers, Gerald ``Jerry'' Chartier, Long Island, N.Y., and James Chartier, Hurst, Texas; two sisters, Geraldine Dinkin, state of New Jersey, and Moroline Perri, New York, N.Y.; a half brother, Jack Chartier, New York; and a half sister, Estelle Chartier, New York.

The body has been cremated. No services are planned.

Arrangements are under the direction of Bennett-Wormington Funeral Home, Monett.

http://www.obitcentral.com/obitsearch/obits/mo/mo-jasper3.htm

[educatedindian]

I received an account from someone who knew Gismondi's family in the past. They ask their identity be concealed, fearing retaliation.

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I knew him when he was "Jay Gismondi"- French Canadian/Italian guy from San Diego. I knew his parents and went to his house...His mom (from upstate New York) thought it was possible that a few generations back, one side of her family might be Seneca.  In the 70s, Jay (born Gerard) grew his hair long. He looked like the Italians who played "Indians" in the old westerns. Girls seemed to like it, so he started saying he was Seneca.

He has been living as a Lakota for several years, dropped his Southern California accent for Lakota at some point. My best guess is that Seneca have strict rules for tribal enrollment; he couldn't meet their standards. Lakota are very open. I don't know if it was Gerard who claimed to be Comanche, or if Deadliest Warrior assumed when they produced promotions for that episode. I'm writing because you mentioned this on your web site.

Gerard went to jail for being violent...He gets enraged when people make disclosures about his identity...He physically threatened someone for calling him "Gerard Gismondi" in public. I would love to believe that he was adopted by the Rosebud Lakota after being honest about himself and his background and is following their ways with integrity. But, it seems more likely he is exploiting his appearance and people's assumptions. So, given the purpose of your forum and the questions people have asked, I am passing this along.

ETA:  I can confirm that he attended Garfield Independent Learning Center in San Diego. He would have been class of 1983.

[Twinkie_Slayer]

Gerard's full name is Gerard Magella Gismondi, DOB 9/15/1965.

  This is his older biological brother, Richard Gismondi, AKA "Lefty the One-Handed Guitar Player."

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tLZp16K0W4

[Twinkie_Slayer]

 In 2005, "Jay published an article in Primitive Archer magazine, volume 13 issue#1 titled "Wanasapi: The buffalo hunt". In the article, he detailed his exploits of being the first man to kill a buffalo with bow and arrow from horseback in over 100 years! Amazing! And of course, the readership gobbled it up. Many of us suspected that things weren't quite what they seemed, and I received this email last night that pretty much confirms this.


As Marshall Burnett relayed the story to me he and Jay Red Hawk, AKA Gerard Gismondi, were both working for the Tatanka Project in Deadwood, SD. This was in 2003.    They decided that it would be cool if they could shot a buffalo with a horse bow. Marshal IS a master bower but Jay AKA Gerard had not completed one as of yet (if ever). They located a couple of buffalo (I don't know who payed for them) and hired a Rancher to let them try it out on his ranch. Marshall had to use three arrows but the third shoot went through the Aorta and dropped his buffalo. Mind you, these were stone points of Cheyenne River Flint. Jay, AKA Gerard, tried next. After many attempts the Rancher suggested to have Jay, AKA Gerard, to try from the bed of the truck he would drive. After three times of missing badly, he couldn't even hit the buffalo any where on it body, the Ranched stopped the truck, grabbed his gun from his gun rack a shot the buffalo. Jay, AKA Gerard, had pictures taken of him knelling beside the now dead buffalo. That is the same picture that we saw in Primitive Archer Magazine. I called a mutual friend of Marshall's and mine today to try to get Marshall's new phone number or e-mail address for you. Both were lost in a water accident. Soon as Nathan calls back I will relay the information to you.

By the way, I WAS present the first time Jay, AKA Gerard, took his first shot from horse back at Cavalry Days at Fort Mead, SD in 2002. He missed. I was present when he tried to learn to nap flint from Marshall and I bought the Orange Osage wood for him to attempt to make a bow which he never finished. My bow ended up being a 73", 35" draw, 65 lb. pull, Cherokee style bow. If you need I have pictures of he and I, as well as Marshall at the same event as published by the Rapid City Journal dated May 25 2002.

   Name withheld pending permission of the writer of this email.

[Oglala Lakota82]

   
Jay Red Hawk

Jay Red Hawk is an expert on the Plains Indian tribes and works as a cultural consultant for numerous film and television productions. He recently appeared as a weapons expert on SPIKE TV’s Deadliest Warrior where he displayed his skill at horse archery. He has worked as an actor in such films as Inside Adam Swit, America: The Story of Us, Skins, and was featured in Oliver Tuthill’s documentary Wounded Heart: Pine Ridge and the Sioux. He is the South Dakota state organizer for the national organization Fathers 4 Justice and the Executive Director of Project 28. He has worked with youth from all nine reservations in South Dakota to keep alive the tradition of Plains Horse Archery and traditional bow making.
 
This man sells himself as an expert on our culture. The lack of education on Pine Ridge has given this fool hearted man the opportunity to weasel his way into our culture. Watch in a few years he will try to sell himself as a medicine man. I posted the article of him on his Facebook page and his typing was all capital letters. Did he deny the article know he did not. I have an Aunt who writes for a newspaper, I will send her the same article and tell her to post it. together we will expose this fraudulent man with the abusive mindset. Crazy Horse would have been ashamed that Gerald Gismondi even has the right to call himself Lakota.