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Charlie Smoke
After years of chasing
down Charlie Smoke, the law has him behind bars. Does it make
you feel safer? How many kids could have been fed with the money
two countries have spent on this?
Smoke not Native, judge
rules
Kevin O'Connor, Saskatchewan
News Network, October 7, 2004
REGINA -- For the first time,
a court has ruled that the former Regina resident who calls himself
Charlie Smoke is not Native.
Furthermore, his name isn't
Charlie Smoke, an Oglala Sioux Tribal Court judge ruled Friday
following a hearing on a South Dakota Indian reservation.
In a four-page decision, Judge
Lisa Cook said the man at the centre of the case is really Tennessee-born
Charles Roger Leo Adams Jr.
Adams is now in jail in Hot
Springs, S.D., facing a charge of false impersonation. The Federal
Bureau of Investigation is investigating.
The previous two weeks Adams
had been in jail on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation after being
charged with spousal abuse and child neglect.
According to Cook, the tribal
court only has jurisdiction over Native people, so in order to
proceed, it had to settle the question of the defendant's identity.
"I decided he was a non-Indian
and we did not have jurisdiction," Cook said Wednesday in
an interview.
The other criminal charges
were dismissed.
AMONG THE FINDINGS IN COOK'S
RULING:
- Adams, who was born in Memphis,
Tenn., in 1962, operated at least seven aliases and had seven
different Social Security numbers. In addition to Charlie Smoke
he has also called himself Charlie Wolf, Charlie Wolfslayer,
Leo Chico Adams and Sunkmanitu Tanka Isnala Najin;
- Fingerprints taken by police
at different places and times from Charles Roger Leo Adams Jr.,
"Leo Wolfslayer" and "Charlie Smoke" matched;
- Court also heard that Adams
has an extensive criminal record.
A National Crime Information
Centre printout of his previous offences runs 12 pages.
Adams represented himself at
the Kyle courthouse Friday after refusing to co-operate with
two court-appointed lawyers.
One of those lawyers told the
court he was convinced his client was in fact Adams, not Smoke.
Cook's ruling orders Adams
to stop calling himself Charlie Smoke.
Court also heard details about
how Adams came to take on the identity of an aboriginal man.
While still a teenager, Adams
was acquainted with a "Mountain Man" society which
had an emphasis on Native American history and lore.
He began to refer to himself
as Leo Wolfslayer.
As a young man living at Pine
Ridge reservation, he developed an acquaintance with an elderly
Oglala Sioux tribal member named Charlie Smoke.
After Smoke died, Adams assumed
his name.
"It's the community's
belief that this young person just co-opted his name," Cook
said. "There is no blood kinship . . . it's just someone
who showed up and wanted to be an Indian."
Adam's birth parents are Roger
Leo Adams and Joi Lee Adams, both who are non-Native.
Although Adam's father said
he may have some Iroquois blood, Cook's ruling said Adams is
no more than 1/64 Indian and he isn't related to the late Charlie
Smoke.
While in Regina, Adams had
been at the centre of an international controversy when he ran
afoul of Canadian immigration laws.
He was hired as a teacher assistant
at a Regina high school, but was charged with fraud after it
was learned he had given his wife's Social Insurance number as
his own.
He was later acquitted, but
the case attracted the attention of immigration officials.
Adams has steadfastly denied
he is whom the authorities claim.
He insisted he was born on
the Akwesasne reserve in Eastern Canada and is of aboriginal
ancestry.
But the Immigration Department
said it had proof of his true identity.
Adams had supporters in Regina,
but others wondered whether he was a modern-day Grey Owl, the
British-born environmentalist who achieved fame while masquerading
as a Saskatchewan Indian.
Adams was deported to the U.S.
on April 29, 2003.
Since then, he's lived on the
Pine Ridge reservation, although it appears he has worn out his
welcome.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe had
recently applied to have him banned from the reservation.
(REGINA LEADER-POST)
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2004
Smoke & mirrors:
Big Eagle's Support waning
Neil Scott, The Leader-Post,
October 07, 2004
The man who called himself
Charlie Smoke and was at the centre of a controversial deportation
case last year is gradually losing the support of the woman who
used to be his biggest supporter.
Lisa Big Eagle, who was married
to Smoke and stood by him when he was deported to the U.S. last
year, says she is increasingly beginning to think Smoke is actually
Charles Roger Leo Adams Jr. -- as Canadian immigration officials
claim.
In a telephone interview Wednesday,
Big Eagle said she "is probably about 70 per cent convinced''
that Charlie Smoke is really Charles Roger Leo Adams Jr.
Big Eagle said she was not
completely surprised by the recent ruling of a tribal court in
South Dakota that her ex-husband (they were divorced earlier
this year) is not named Smoke and is not of First Nation heritage.
She said she has had mounting
doubts for some time and has developed somewhat of "a gut
feeling,'' that her ex-husband had lied to her about his true
identity.
But Big Eagle said it will
be "kind of devastating for me'' to finally come to grips
with the reality that she was married to an impostor.
"I'm really confused,''
she said.
But Big Eagle said she will
not be 100 per cent convinced her ex-husband is named Roger Adams
Jr. until that can be confirmed by DNA tests.
And Big Eagle said she is still
hoping to have DNA tests done, to finally settle the question.
In an earlier interview at
her rented Regina home Tuesday, Big Eagle said she has travelled
to the U.S. several times to visit Adams over the past 18 months.
And, on one occasion, Adams
entered Canada illegally and came to Regina to visit Big Eagle
and the couple's children.
Big Eagle said they divorced
partly because Adams wanted her to take the children and come
live with him in the U.S. but she didn't believe that would provide
a stable arrangement for herself or for the children.
Big Eagle said part of her
growing skepticism about Adams involves his reluctance to submit
to a DNA test.
But Big Eagle is hoping to
make arrangements to have a DNA test done on her 11-year-old
son and on Allen Adams who lives in Memphis and would be a brother
to Roger Adams Jr.
Another option might involve
undertaking a legal action to force Roger Adams Jr. to provide
a DNA sample, she said.
Big Eagle says her skepticism
also increased after a conversation she said she had with Allen
Adams, who met with Roger Adams Jr. after he was returned to
the U.S.
While Allen Adams offered no
firm opinion about Roger Adams' identity, he told Big Eagle he
had looked to see if there was still scar tissue on one of Roger
Adams' hands where he had suffered a burn injury during his childhood.
Big Eagle said she was told
that Roger Adams Jr.was not keen to have his hand examined,
Yet another reason why Big
Eagle is increasingly skeptical relates to childhood pictures
of Roger Adams Jr. she has received from a member of the Adams
family.
And some of those childhood
photos of Roger Adams Jr. appear to bear a significant similarity
to adult pictures taken of the man who called himself Charlie
Smoke.
"Every time he talks,
I think he's making it up as he goes,'' Big Eagle said of her
ex-husband, adding she just wants to finally know the truth.
"I really need closure, I need this for myself and my kids."
© The Leader-Post (Regina) 2004
Charlie Smoke a pipe
dream
Canadian Press, Oct 7, 2004
Regina - The saga of Charlie
Smoke, a man who claimed he was from the Akwesasne reserve in
Ontario and had been unfairly deported to the U.S. - has finally
come unravelled in a South Dakota courtroom.
In a four-page decision released
last week, Judge Lisa Cook of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Court said
the man at the centre of the case is really Tennessee-born Charles
Roger Leo Adams Jr. and not aboriginal at all. It was the first
time a court has ruled on the identity of the man who once worked
at a Regina high school and raised six children with his aboriginal
wife.
Adams is now in jail in Hot
Springs, S.D., facing a charge of false impersonation.
Adams had been jailed on the
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation after being charged with spousal
abuse and child neglect.
Judge Cook found that Mr. Adams,
who was born in Memphis, Tenn., in 1962, used at least seven
aliases and had seven different U.S. social security numbers.
In addition to Charlie Smoke, he has also called himself Charlie
Wolf, Charlie Wolfslayer, Leo Chico Adams and Sunkmanitu Tanka
Isnala Najin.
Court also heard that Adams
has an extensive criminal record. A National Crime Information
Centre printout of his previous offences runs 12 pages.
Cook's ruling also orders Adams
to stop calling himself Charlie Smoke.
Lisa Big Eagle, the Regina
woman who was married to him until they divorced earlier this
year, said she has become increasingly skeptical of his claims.
In Regina, Mr. Adams was at
the centre of an international controversy when he ran afoul
of Canadian immigration laws.
He was hired as a teacher assistant
at Scott Collegiate in Regina, but was charged with fraud after
it was learned he had given his wife's social insurance number
as his own.
Adams was first deported to
the U.S. in April 2003 and went to live on the Pine Ridge reservation.
He was kicked out of Canada again last May for being an illegal
immigrant.
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
