Little Rock Free Press

Threeoaks    Bentonville, Benton

Posted at 9:32am on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007

The December Manataka article stretches the credibility of this newspaper to the breaking point. The outright misrepresentations and falsehoods in the article are an insult to legitimate American Indians everywhere. Manataka is the largest fraudulent pseudo-Indian exploitative group in Arkansas, based primarily on twisted history and New Age concepts. A couple of examples:

Louis Lefleur (proper spelling) was not a Choctaw Chief, as the article states, but a trader with the Choctaw and a Major in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812. He participated in the Battle of New Orleans under Generals Pushmataha and Andrew Jackson.

The article gives false information about the IORM. The IORM chapters in Hot Springs were the men’s Manataka Tribe No. 67 and women’s Minnehaha Council No. 1. The IORM Manataka Tribe No. 67 was last recorded in 1927, it is not known how much longer it lasted. Manataka’s secretary from 1921-27 was Robert Cartney. The women’s Minnehaha Council No. 1 of Hot Springs became defunct in 1910. The IORM was originally known as the Sons of Liberty (of the Boston Tea Party Fame). The name was changed to the IORM shorty after the Civil War. Native Americans were not allowed as members until 1974. The organization still exists, with the national headquarters in Waco, Texas. The IORM had 14 chapters in Arkansas, not the 30 claimed by MAIC. The IORM has nothing to do with the MAIC fabricated history of the area.