After it was discovered that the college dean was really the white daughter of a Maine pageant queen, she resigned in disgrace. She had obtained her position by representing herself as a Native American artisan who sold quilts for $35,000.
Gina Adams, a 57-year-old alleged identity fraudster with white ancestry, announced her resignation on Tuesday.
In order to further her career, she is said to have pretended to be a member of the White Earth Reservation. She most recently held the positions of dean and professor of art and design at Emily Carr University in Vancouver, Canada.
Adams said that her grandfather was abducted from the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota and compelled to enroll in a boarding school in Pennsylvania with the goal of “assimilating” native children into the American culture. However, a thorough examination by Macleans reveals that none of her statements are true.
Adams obtained the college job in 2019 by feigning Native American ancestry; the story now surrounding her has been compared to that of Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who rose to notoriety after being exposed for trying to be black.
Adams displayed a collection of quilts in 2018 that were embroidered with patterns she says were influenced by dreams she experienced about the mistreatment of her Indigenous ancestors.
Adams dressed in a quilt for the occasion, wore beaded jewelry, and seriously introduced herself in Native American at the Ivy League Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
Gina Adams has resigned from her job at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada, after accusations came to light that she had been lying about her indigenous heritage
At that show, Adams claimed that the idea for her ingenious-inspired artwork came to her in ‘dreams,’ courtesy of her to her Anishinaabeg ancestors – but her heritage has now been called into question.
Instead of the rich indigenous background she proclaimed in her job and artwork, Adams is the daughter of a former pageant star and great-granddaughter of a white World War One veteran, reports Maclean’s.
And White Earth Reservation – the community she claims to have descended from – declined her membership and said they couldn’t find any of her relatives who were enrolled as descendants.
She became a professor at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada, in August 2019 as part of a targeted cluster hire to employ more Indigenous faculty members.
Adams said that her great-great-grandfather was the Ojibwe chief Wabanquot – who was a signatory to the Treaty with the Chippewa of the Mississippi.
She said that her grandfather was born and raised on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota – and would speak to her in Ojibwe when she had dramatic nightmares of Native Americans being massacred.
Adams claimed that her great-great-grandfather was the Ojibwe chief Wabanquot (pictured) – who was a signatory to the Treaty with the Chippewa of the Mississippi
But when sleuths started digging into her heritage, her rich tribal history – for which she had landed her job – seemed to come crashing down.
According to documents, her grandfather was in fact Albert Theriault – a white man born in Massachusetts in 1906 to French-Canadian parents.
And Albert’s father Henry Theriault – Gina’s great-grandfather – was also a far cry from Native American. In fact, he was also a white man who was drafted in the First World War, according to census records and documents obtained by Maclean’s.
Her mother, Elaine, was a teenage pageant queen in York, Maine.
The bombshell expose revealed that the former professor and assistant dean of the University was peddling lies about her heritage – which she then profited off with her work, which she is said to sell for up to $35,000.
In an unearthed clip from 2018, Adams was seen giving a lecture at Dartmouth College on her indigenous artwork, and greeted the audience in native Anishinaabemowin language.
She announced to the crowd: ‘Boozhoo, aaniin anishinaabee nowadow,’ before recanting her grandfather’s ‘troubled’ past, when he was sent to an assimilation school in Pennsylvania – which was first exposed as a lie by an anonymous Twitter account.
Adams – now rather ironically – also warned those in the lecture about robbing people’s identities and trying to steal indigenous culture and use it for their own.
She said: ‘Appropriating is something that you should really be careful with, with any Indigenous culture.
‘You’re really robbing a culture, you’re really robbing an identity. You’re really just trying to own something that’s not yours.’
The bombshell expose revealed that the former professor and assistant dean of the University was peddling lies about her heritage – which she then profited off with her work, which she is said to sell for up to $35,000
Professor Mimi Gellman, who worked at the same university as Adams, backed her heritage claims – despite the sensational online accusations
First bringing her false identity to light in March 2021, NoMoreRedFace accused Adams of faking her grandfather’s residential school survivor story and using her ‘native’ background to sell quilts for thousands and land a job as a professor in Aboriginal art.
The internet investigator had tracked down her real family tree and called out her lies – but in the meantime she was still co-curator at an exhibition for indigenous artists Fruitlands Museum in eastern Massachusetts.
But Adams clapped back. She sent an email to members of the University’s community detailing the convenient way her grandfather Albert had no birth certificate, changed his surname, and therefore had no link to Carlisle School, where he was sent to in his younger years.
In the statement, she said: ‘To those people on social media who have questioned my legitimate heritage, I say nothing.
‘To my gallerists, my university and my wider Indigenous communities whom I deeply respect, I am happy to share my family lineage.’
Her impassioned 1,500-word statement spoke about her grandparents’ marriage and her early childhood – but it lacked facts on the ancestry that was being scrutinized.
Instead, she said that her lack of direct evidence was partly due to the fact that when her grandfather married her Lithuanian grandmother, he changed the family name to ‘evade and thwart the serious miscegenation laws.’
Professor Mimi Gellman and Brenda Crabtree, who is the Aboriginal program manager at Adams’ university, backed the professor and said they believed her heritage claims – despite the sensational online accusations.
During her hiring process, they described her as ‘a contemporary Indigenous hybrid artist of Ojibwa Anishinaabe and Lakota descent.’
It was only when the claims of her lies were detailed by Macleans that her university said they are ‘carefully considering’ how to move forward with hiring people as part of their ‘indigenization’ campaign.
They confirmed Gina Adams resigned from her position at Emily Carr University on August 25, 2022.
Meanwhile, it was revealed that White Earth Reservation had declined her membership since they couldn’t track that she had any relatives linked to the tribe.
Shannon Heisler, the enrolments director for the tribe, told Maclean’s: ‘We don’t have her, or her parent or grandparent, with any links to this tribe.
‘People are upset because she’s been claiming she’s a descendant. I can’t find any documentation that would link her or her family to White Earth.’
In 2015, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada made a call for the federal government to remove the education gap between Indigenous people and other Canadians – which was an initiative many colleges agreed to.
But as a result of creating fierce competition for Indigenous hires, many colleges have found themselves in the middle of identity fraud scandals.