The Kaweah Indian Nation, Inc., was a civic group interested in cultivating a Native American identity. The group is named after the

Kaweah people The Yokuts (previously known as MariposasPowell, 1891:90–91.) are an ethnic group of Native Americans native to central California. Before European contact, the Yokuts consisted of up to 60 tribes speaking several related languages. ''Yokut ...

and has applied for status as a

federally recognized tribe This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the Unite ...

in the USA in the 1980s, a petition which was denied. Scam artists have sold purported citizenships in the non-recognized tribe, particularly to Mexican nationals who have entered the US without documents. Malcolm Webber, who called himself "Grand Chief Thunderbird IV," was convicted on six felony charges and sentenced to prison time in 2008.

Petition for federal recognition

The Kaweah Indian Nation, based in California at the time, petitioned the US federal government for

federal recognition This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the Unite ...

. In 1985, their petition was denied. The proposed finding stated: "The Kaweah Indian, Inc. is a recently formed group that did not exist prior to 1980. ... The KIN is primarily an urban Indian group in Porterville, California, which has no relation to the aboriginal Kaweah Indians and did not evolve from a tribal entity...."

Nonprofit

The group formed a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

Porterville, California Porterville is a city in the San Joaquin Valley, in Tulare County, California, United States. It is part of the Visalia-Porterville metropolitan statistical area. Since its incorporation in 1902, the city's population has grown as it annexed n ...

, but their nonprofit status was revoked in 2011 not failing to file taxes for three consecutive years. The group also formed a nonprofit in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in ...

, in 2005 but dissolved in 2008.

External links

Man charged in alleged sale of tribal status to immigrants
''L.A. Times''

References

{{reflist 1980 establishments in California Non-profit organizations based in Kansas Unrecognized tribes in the United States