I’m going to try to keep this as short (and vague) as possible haha! I don’t exactly care about the “artist” but I do care about my sister’s privacy.

So my sister works in the art world (she does events) and came across this artist who does Native art. This artist makes things like painted hand drums, “regalia”, and some sort of pigment technique that she claims she’s the “sole authority” on as its “not practiced anymore”.

This was weird wording. No Native person would use that phrasing, and art techniques are shared within the tribe, so it’s really bizarre that she said this technique isn’t practiced anymore. My sis did more digging on this artist and saw a pic of her (old White lady). Some Natives are mixed and/or White passing, so it was fine until my sister couldn’t find any info of what her tribe actually was. Her tribal affiliation was no where on her social media or website.

My sister reached out with an email and introduced herself, her tribe, and where she’s from and asked if she was actually Native. She also mentioned that if she wasn’t Native, then she was profiting off of Native works and violating the Indian Art Act which is illegal.

Oh my god, and in response, received the most unhinged email I have ever read in my life. In fact, we couldn’t even finish reading it, it was literally 20 huge paragraphs.

The artist basically took my sisters warning as a threat. She kept saying she was offended that my sis even asked her tribal affiliation, and that she never claimed to be Native American and said her work was “inspired”. She also kept bringing up irrelevant info to somehow prove her point. It was offensive.

I took a look at her work, and she’s fully ripping off West Coast designs. Nor does she disclose that she’s White. Her artist website name also resembled an actual Indigenous artists name as well.

I really wanted to post the email on social media, but my sis is worried about the email coming back to her and affecting her work. It’s not fair that she needs to worry about her job, but that’s how it is I guess.

So, I would love some advice. We still think this lady needs to be held accountable. So here are my questions:

How do we post that email online while keeping my sister anonymous?

Can I report this artist anywhere?

Where would the best place to post the email?

I’m not familiar with the Indian Art Act, can we even report her for this? If anyone is in the Indigenous activism scene, I would really appreciate your advice.