Until one makes a break with nationalism, one will become prey to the opportunism of nearly seven dozen Chicano identity thieves in operation in Southern CA. Platforming Chicanos who profit from the stealing of Native peoples’ identities is genocidal practice because the identity thievery is completely dependent upon Native lineal descendants’ erasure.
Chicano identity theft of Gabrieleno and false claims to other Native peoples’ lineage is a modern re-colonization effort. “Tongva” and “Kizh” are fake tribal names concocted in the 1990’s in a quest to satisfy capitalistic greed. None of the public funds stolen by these criminals has gone back into any Native village descendant families.
It does complicate and muddy the waters that some Los Angeles Basin Native village descendant families and individuals were complicit in the original promotion and genesis of the term “Tongva,” others were not. Later, “Kizh Gabrieleno” was concocted as a public funds grifter competitive entity to the “Tongva” money grab scam. An earlier effort to win Federal recognition and financing for a new “Gabrieleno/Tongva” casino failed, but the opportunity to steal public funds under a new concocted tribal name remained, and this fraud has now become institutionalized throughout the entire settler colonial superstructure.
Regardless of original capitalistic Native aspirations of specific LA Basin Native village descendants, the widespread and popular adoption of both fake tribal names by NON-Native persons of Mexican descent has extended the genocide of the actual Native descendants. Similar to the Spaniard Mission System designation of autonomous LA Basin village descendants as being “Gabrieleno” or “San Fernandeno,” terms like “Tongva” and “Kizh” seek to reframe LA Basin Native history as one with a singular tribal entity reality.
This is ahistorical and completely inaccurate. The historical record from investigations by A. L Kroeber, Geronimo Boscana, Rupert and Jeannette Costo and other researchers, as well as the massive database of Mission records confirm the fallacy that LA Basin Natives lived as a single tribal entity.
Thus to promote this idea and worse, to capitalize off of it under false claims of Native lineage is criminal and this thievery should be stopped, which is why the public should support AB 52 and efforts by the NAHC to require verification of identity claims.
https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=hornbeck_ind_1
