Members of Madison’s academic, artistic and Indigenous communities are investigating accusations that a prominent artist has been masquerading as Native American and benefiting professionally, financially and socially.
Kay LeClaire, who co-founded an Indigenous-owned tattoo shop and sold art and spoke on panels as a representative of the Indigenous community, held a grant-funded position at UW-Madison since March of last year. LeClaire was scheduled to speak in January in conjunction with the opening of an exhibit at the Chazen Museum of Art about reciprocity in Native-land relations. That event has been canceled.