To celebrate our survival through and resistance to 509 years of foreign occupation, collective members are holding a cyber-activism event for Columbus Day, Monday October 8, 2001. Our goal it to annoy the annoying. To use the tools they use to oppress us against them. This year, we've selected Sweetgrass Lodge as our objective. Like they say, you get back what you give out. We call upon every Native American who is outraged by the way Turtleheartless has twisted and perverted our Culture for prestige and profit to assert their constitutionally guaranteed first amendment rights and speak out! Send her an e-mail that outlines specifically what you find offensive about her site. You can cite what is inaccurate about it, but be very careful about givng her any accurate information that she could use to perfect her impersonation. Also, contact the Maryland Attorney Generals Office and the B.I.A. and insist that the laws that protect our interests be upheld for a change!

Collective members have received information from the newsgroup ndn-aim regarding Turtleheartless's inability to tell the truth:

The individuals associated with the Sweetgrass Lodge have misrepresented themselves as Native Americans. They have blatantly lied about their membership -- implying Wilma Mankiller is a member and claiming to follow the teachings of their 'sister' Paul Gunn Allen. The following message was posted on the yahoo newsgroup ndn-aim September 7, 2001:

"We have received word from Wilma Mankiller; she is not in any way associated with the Sweetgrasslodge or these individuals. Sweetgrasslodge is hereby informed that the Cherokee Nation does not take such misrepresentation lightly and is not looked upon fondly by their law and justice department. We have heard verbal responses from the Creek Nation and from some Ojibwa. Everyone would like to know Turltlehearts' clan and tribal affiliation with the Ojibwa. Mis Turtleheart is so quick to seek protection of the law we suggest she and the Sweetgrasslodge officials check: http://law.com/ and lookup the laws on misrepresentation, esp., as referred to the Internet.
Administrative Contact:
Darcine Mead
145 Kalalau Street
Honolulu, HI 96825
Phone: 808-394-0421"
Email: "mailto:dmead@hawaii.rr.com"

Update: October 14, 2001

Here's the list of organizations and individuals we targeted for this ecyber-action. We've included copies of the e-mails we sent for you to use as a starting point. If you want to help you can send e-mails to any or all of these groups. We're not hung up about copyright, so you can block and copy them and re-arrange them if you like, but it's better if you speak from your heart -- really let your passion out. You can create your own group in a hotmail account by clicking on groups, create new group, and typing in all the e-mail addresses that you want to send to separated by a comma or a space. You can then send a generic e-mail to a whole group of people. While we didn't manage to fill the Lodge Sisters mailboxes, we think we came close.

Maryland Attorney General's Office
E-mail: consumer@oag.state.md.us

I would like to make you aware of a group of individuals who are perpetuating a fraud via the internet. There is a web page located at: www.sweetgrasslodge.org They have deliberately misrepresented themselves as Native American women and falsely advertised ceremonial practices that have nothing to do with any legitimate Native American spiritual practices. In addition, the use of the word "Sweetgrass" in the name of the site is an unqualified use of tribal symbolism, not to mention deeply offensive to Native American women when used in the context of this web site. I believe this willful misrepresentation is in violation of Maryland law, where Turtleheart claims to live. I am concerned for an unsuspecting public which can easily fall victim to this type of fraud. Please advise me how to file a formal complaint with your office or to otherwise obtain injunctive or other equitable relief.

I would like to make you aware of a group of individuals who are perpetuating a fraud via the internet. Their web site located at: www.sweetgrasslodge.org. An individual using the pseudonym "Turtleheart" has misrepresented herself as Ojibwe for the purposes of fraudulently promoting allegedly Indian produced goods and products. Since the essence of this legislation is to uphold truth in advertising issues, I believe this is a violation of Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 which forbids misrepresentation of Indian produced goods and products. [see Section (3) the term 'Indian tribe' means ...]
In addition, the use of the word "Sweetgrass" in the name of the site is an unqualified use of tribal symbolism. The person using the name "Turtleheart" has repeatedly refused to provide proof of tribal enrollment in any Federally recognized tribe. I believe she is prohibited by this Act from selling her graphics, crafts or shields or other articles as "Indian made". If you view http://www.turtleheart.atfreeweb.com/westernlife.htm, you will see that this individual is selling what she calls "Native American" art in the form of graphics sets for $200.00 each.(And also at http://www.turtleheart.atfreeweb.com/exclusivedesign.html) She is also selling so-called "Native American" graphics for $45.00 per set at http://www.turtleheart.atfreeweb.com/nasets.html.

I urge you to thoroughly investigate this individual and to take appropriate action. Please let me know what your findings are.


American Civil Liberties Union
web site: http://www.primenet.com/~azclu
E-mail: azclu@primenet.com

I would like to make you aware of a controversy arising at the University of Arizona involving free speech and privacy on the internet. An individual using the pseduonym, "Turtleheart" is attempting to misuse the cyber-stalking laws in order to coerce and intimate Native American students who have organized a cyber-protest against her. This individual is the self-appointed Lodge Mother of an organization calling itself Sweetgrass lodge, located at: www.sweetgrasslodge.org. Turtleheart is just on of many con artists who promote peace and spirituality, yet become beligerent when confronted with their fraudulent activities. She has resorted to legal intimidation to silence her detractors. Additionally, she has deliberately misrepresented the comments posted anonymously in her guest book to falsely paint herself as a victim of cyber-stalking. She has done this in order to gain the power of the courts to release the identies of anonymous posters. You can see a sample of some of the 12 comments left in her guest book that she is complaining about at: http://www.oocities.org/planettwinkie/Email.html
Whether or not Turtleheart is sympathetic to environmental causes, she should not be attempting to silence political opponents through legal intimidation and subjecting students to harassment for exercising their First Amendment rights to object to the content of the web site. The purpose of a guest book has always been for those visiting a web site to comment on the content of the site. To my knowledge, it has never been a requirement that the visitor give a glowing review. Am I correct in thinking that negative opinions in guest books are protected First Amendment speech?.

I would appreciate any additional advise or information on the subject that you can provide.

I would like to bring your attention to an individual who is attempting to misuse the cyber-stalking laws in order to coerce and intimidate Native American students who have organized a peaceful protest against her. This individual goes by the pseudonym of "Turtleheart." She is the self-appointed "Lodge Mother" of: sweetgrasslodge.org This individual is just one of many con-artists who promote peace and spirituality, yet become beligerent when confronted with their fraudulent activities. She has deliberately misrepresented the guest book comments in order to falsely paint herself as a victim and to gain the power of the courts to release the identies of anonymous posters. I would appreciate any tips or information you could give me about organizing for cyber-liberties in cases such as this. P.S. In the last month, flurry of websites have gone up which contain content critical of her behavior. Some of them are: http://www.oocities.org/stopmudheads
http://www.oocities.org/planettwinkie
http://www.oocities.org/shameons
http://www.oocities.org/redroadcollective
http://www.oocities.org/SpirtAb_Anon
http://www.oocities.org/turtleheartlies

I would like to make you aware that a person calling herself "Turtleheart" has been authoring a website that claims to following your teachings. The site is located at www.sweetgrasslodge.org. Several Native people have left comments in the guest book or e-mailed this individual to complain about the contents of her site. I would like to make you aware that in answer to one of my e-mails, she claims that you are a "Lodge Sister" and also that she is instructing her followers to make shields and that this is based on your teachings. While Turtleheart claims to be a "registered Ojibwe", she seems to have no authentic knowledge of Native American Spiritual practices. In reality, she follows the teachings of the discredited Lynn Andrews. I thought that you might be interested to know that activities are being done in your name. from ndn-aim yahoo newsgroup:

From: "TurtleHeart" <"mailto:nativesong_2000@yahoo.com"
To: <"mailto:huron@bit-net.com"
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2001 9:52 AM
Subject: Sweetgrass Lodge!!!!!!

To Whom it May Concern,
Sweetgrass Lodge is a teaching forum for women ONLY. We are a group of environmental activists and base our learning around the teachings of our sister Paula Gunn Allen. While we accept women from all spiritual paths, 99% of our members are registered Native American women with their own respective tribal affiliations. I myself am a registered Ojibwa woman artist and writer. Our Lodge has nothing to do with the Lakota People, AIM, or any other group. One of our Lodge members is the Chief of her Tribe and I will let you figure out who this is. Our forum is a private one. We respect your rights to your own web site, kindly leave ours alone. All futher communication from you, messages left in our guestbook by renegade thugs and any other nasty email will be considered spam and A: turned over to our attorney and B: reported to the ISP of the offending party.

Thank you.
Have a wonderful day.

Turtleheart.

Response from Ray Quiethorse Mongeau of NorthEastern Confederated A.I.M. "Ray A. Mongeau" <"mailto:huron@bit-net.com" wrote:
Mis Turtleheart,

Your reply is typical of organizations exploiting Native American culture, tradition, and spirituality. You think you can hide behind the laws of a fascist Euro-American society to protect yourselves. If you were in fact anything Native American you would not use these kind of threats. Perhaps, you think the Indigenous People of turtle Island are going to take your threats lying down. Wrong! bring on the lawyers. Nothing would make me happier than to expose you world wide! Now if you really want to stop all the complaints your getting then - stop exploiting. We will not let you people steal and bastardize our religion, culture and traditions.

Ray Mongeau.

An individual in your organizaton has made several very public claims that she is a "registered" member of the Ojibwe Nation. Therefore, we are requesting the complete tribal relationship, enrollment number and legal name of the member in your organization who goes by the pseudonym 'Turtleheart' . Since she has also stated that "99% of your membership are "registered" members of Native American tribes" we are also requesting the same information for all members of your organization who have claimed Native American heritage on your site or sites which link to your site. Failure to provide this information immediately will lead to our strident insistence for your prosecution under the 1990 Indian Arts and Crafts Act and all applicable state laws prohibiting fraud and misrepresentation.

To the individual using the pseudonym, 'Turtleheart':
You have made several very public claims that you are a "registered" member of the Ojibwe Nation. Therefore, we are requesting your complete tribal relationship, enrollment number and legal name. If you fail to provide this information immediately , we will conclude that you have deliberately misrepresented yourself as Ojibwe for the purposes of fraudulently promoting allegedly Indian produced goods and products. We will report you to the appropriate authorities. If you can provide proof of your Native American ancestry, we will not pursue the matter further. Please be advised that if you cannot comply with our request, we plan take a very active role in seeing that you are prosecuted.

As a person committed to protecting the civil cyber-liberties of political minorities, I urge you to uphold the free speech and privacy rights of your Native American students. As the president of an institution dedicated to the free flow of ideas and the right to academic freedom, you must support the right of a political minority to the most effective forms of protest available to them. Recently, you have been contacted by an individual using the name, "Turtleheart". She has deliberately distorted and misrepresented the nature of the posts made by members of the University of Arizona community in order to intimidate her online critics. Before depriving anyone of their civil liberties, I urge you to thoughtfully investigate the baseless allegations that she has made.

Despite her dramatic claims, Turtleheart is not the victim of any crime. She is however, the perpetrator of several crimes against various Native American Nations. She is attempting to make an illegitimate use of the courts in order to coerce into silence and to retaliate against those who wish to expose her as a fraud. She has freely chosen to misrepresent herself as a Native American woman online and she should accept the consequences of that action. Her activity is clearly prohibited by the Indian Arts and Crafts act of 1990. Turtleheart has broken the law and she should be exposed. Please do not allow yourself to be duped into helping her in any way to use frivolous defamation lawsuits to ferret out the identity of those attempting to expose her.
I am firmly opposed to Turtleheart's attempts to compel the University of Arizona libraries to release the identities of anonymous Internet message posters. The Internet has the potential to act as a great equalizing force within our democracy. Native American students should be able to participate online without fear that someone can file a frivolous lawsuit against them and thereby gain the power to discover their identities. The decision to remain anonymous may be motivated by many things: the desire to avoid retaliation from powerful individuals, to blow the whistle on fraud, to criticize powerful individuals who are engaging in improper activities, or the simple desire for privacy. The United States Supreme Court has unequivocally held that anonymous speech on the internet should be afforded protection by the First Amendment. Under our Constitution, anonymous pamphleteering is not a pernicious, fraudulent practice, but an honorable tradition of advocacy and of dissent. The protest organized by Native Americans on your campus is of the same character. They are exercising their guaranteed constitutional rights to express their opinion of the content of the Sweetgrass Lodge web site. The First Amendment does not limit speech to only that which is favorable.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the right to speak anonymously. Buckley v. American Constitutional Law Found. 119 S. Ct. 636, 645-646 (1999); McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm., 514 U.S. 334 (1995); Talley v. California, 362 U.S. 60 (1960). These cases have celebrated the important role played by anonymous or pseudonymous writings over the course of history, from the literary efforts of Shakespeare and Mark Twain through the authors of the Federalist Papers. Additionally, the United States Supreme Court has unequivocally held that speech on the Internet is entitled to the highest form of First Amendment Protection. See Reno vs ACLU, 521 U.S. 844, 870 (1997) The court has rightly recognized that there is no legitimate or compelling interest that justifies the unmasking of an on-line user's identity if no unlawful act has been committed and no unlawful act has been committed by the protesters.


Anonymous speech is essential to even the playing field in cyber space and to make public debate possible for everyone - not just those who are wealthy enough to afford expensive attorneys, or their own computers, and not just those who have something nice to say about a charlatan attempting an act of fraud. The right the Native American minority to speak out against those who steal and bastardize their religious artifacts and practices should supercede any right Turtleheart may think she has to profit from that theft. It has become evident to many of the legitimate leaders of the Native American community that Turrtleheart's only motive in this matter is in protecting her proprietary interests and her reputation. She has shown a callous disregard for the Native people she offends with her site. Recently, she has been denounced by the American Indian Movement and by Wilma Mankiller. At this point in time, nearly every Native American leader that she has claimed to be associated with has come forward publically and denied any affiliation with her organization. Upon learning that the Native community found her site offensive, she never attempted to initiate debate and discussion on issue. Instead, she immediately sought to stifle any discussion on the matter. Unfortunately, she is just one of may con artists who misuse the cyber stalking laws to intimidate Native Americans from exposing them as frauds.

In conclusion, I believe that it would be a chilling threat to free speech and democratic principles for the University of Arizona to make any attempt too compel the identification of anonymous Internet posters. Instead, I believe that you should concentrate your efforts on addressing issues that are of vital importance to Native Americans who are in the political minority at your institution. Two such issues are: the Mount Graham Religious Freedom issue and improving the retention rate of Native American students, especially in the sciences.

WARNING: SOMEONE IS IMPERSONATING RRC MEMBERS - Do not send an email to shawlsista@hotmail.com, send it to shawlsista@gmail.com

To be updated September 2007

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Red Road Collective
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