Talk:Gail Tremblay

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 18 January 2019 and 15 April 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jrowe925.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 11:03, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Gail Tremblay was not an enrolled tribal member
Improvements and corrections recommended: Gail Tremblay was not a enrolled member of a federally recognized tribe, or even a descendant. Under the truth and advertising law of The Indian Arts and Crafts Act (IACA) of 1990 (P.L. 101-644) - it was illegal for her to sell art works with false claims of being a tribal member. She was being investigated by IACA tasked agents but died before receiving any consequences. The main gallery that represented her was spoken to & educated. https://froelickgallery.com/artists/53-gail-tremblay/overview/ Their bio update of her is not perfect but is better. The Daystar interview with her has been removed https://daybreakstarradio.com/2022/12/gail-tremblay-interview/ I'm one of the main research folks on this thread http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=5606.0 Feel free to ask me any questions. IACA agents worked up her genealogy, talked with the relevant Onondaga tribe, and verified that Gail Tremblay was not what she claimed. The feds have spoken to some museums and galleries but there will still be quite a bit of her false bio claims online and off. She was at this since at least 1977. Gail Tremblay was a fraud and her lies continue to potentially be harmful. Collectors likely believe they have indigenous created art. Students believe they learned the arts from a tribally enrolled woman, who towards the end of her life called herself an Indigenous Elder. Liminalsarah (talk) 01:36, 5 September 2023 (UTC)


 * Wow I didn't know this, I only knew she wasn't enrolled. This really just sucks. Feeling extremely sad for her students most of all. They deserved better. Thank you for sharing, and this page should be updated to reflect her non-enrollment if it hasn't already been. It will be difficult to fully incorporate the information about her false descendant claims until there is a source that meets Wikipedia's standards; this seems true, but we need a firmer published source or interview before we can fully detail her actions (e.g. a published book, a journal article, an article in a reliable news outlet). I would note that this doesn't seem to be extremely widely known yet; as recently as today, a work by Tremblay was on display in Washington, D.C. at a Smithsonian museum with a label saying she was of Mi'kmaq and Onondaga descent. I would suggest notifying institutions that own her work about your research (although I'm sure given your closeness to the subject you already know that process well), which in turn could lead to a citable source from an institution that changes/acknowledges her biography. 19h00s (talk) 03:33, 5 September 2023 (UTC)
 * The article already reflects the fact that she was not Native American. That's why it says she was "American" and "She identified her father as being of Mi'kmaq and Onondaga ancestry" and is in Category:American people who self-identify as being of Native American descent. If she had actually been Native American, the article would have stated that clearly, and her tribe would have been listed in her nationality. Yuchitown (talk) 15:29, 5 September 2023 (UTC)Yuchitown
 * Then it looks like it's updated as much as it can be, pending a reliable source that specifically details the fact that she traded on a false identity to aid her career. As it reads right now, the article does confirm that she was not in fact of Native descent, but it doesn't really say much about her use of the false identity. I think that deserves a mention, but we need a reliable source. 19h00s (talk) 15:39, 5 September 2023 (UTC)
 * Exactly. No room for wp:original research on Wikipedia, and every positive statement needs to be verifiable by secondary, published sources. Yuchitown (talk) 16:03, 5 September 2023 (UTC)Yuchitown
 * Sorry, I didn't catch that someone had posted an Ancestry.com link as a reference. I replaced it with a widely available obituary. Yuchitown (talk) 17:43, 12 September 2023 (UTC)Yuchitown