Francis Talbot

Francis Talbot / Manitonquat

Francis Talbot, full name Francis Story Talbot II, a.k.a. Manitonquat resp. Medicine Story (born July 17, 1929), has been operating as a plastic shaman since the 1970ies. Despite having a completely Euro-American ancestry, Talbot claims to be a member and even a medicine person, resp. "ceremonial medicine man" of the Wampanoag nation. His clientele are mainly affluent white middle-class Euro-Americans and Europeans with whom he previously also meant to initiate a new „tribe“ on his premises in New England.

Biography

Talbot was born into a family of entrepreneurs with him as well his ancestors all being listed as „white“ in past census records dating back into the 1840ies. He did a course of studies at Cornell University and became a playwright under the names of „Story Talbot“ and „F. Story Talbot“ and further claims to have been an actor and theatre director, too. He is also apostrophied as a founder, co-founder, resp. early member of the Rainbow Gatherings.

Claims of being Indigenous

Francis Talbot / Manitonquat

Most biographical information available online apparently copies Talbot's various claims of being a member of the Wampanoag of Massachusetts. Later on, affiliation claims changed to the Mashpee Wampanoag, then Gay Head Wampanoag, both federally recognised since the 1970ies and as of 1987 respectively. Finally, Talbot now claims to be an enrolled member of the Assonet Band of Wampanoag who received recognition by the state of Massachusetts as recent as 1990 and who are not federally recognised. Several websites and also books contend that Talbot was "the powwah, or spiritual leader, and the minatou, or keeper of the lore" of the Assonet Band, a claim which has particularly been brought forward in two books by Newage author Steve McFadden.

Facts notwithstanding, Talbot continues to claim an indigenous state and e.g. in his 2015 schedule announces his participation in an alleged "Annual Sequanakeeswash in Assonet MA" which gets described as the beginning of the new year in Wampanoag culture. It is therefore to be noticed that a Google search for this term yields a mere five results, all of whom are in connection to Talbot, with most of them on sites run by him.

Talbot also claims to have been „part of the North American Indian Spiritual Unity Movement“ and a co-founder of a Tribal-Healing Council. However, Google results for both organisations mainly yield websites copying Talbot's biographical information, so their existence in former years up until today cannot be verified independently.

Akwesasne Notes

Further claims include Talbot used to be the editor, resp. the editor responsible for poetry and politics, resp. the columnist, resp. a „writer and poet“ for the internationally well-known journal Akwesasne Notes. However, the information available on the journal does not verify such claims. The journal was founded by Kaientaronkwen Ernie Benedict in 1968, with its first editor a non-indigenous Canadian, Jerry Gambill, who received the Mohawk name of Rarihokwats. Akwesasne Notes covered many indigenous issues not restricted to the Americas, but also of Australia, Tibet, and China. The editors following Gambill were all from the Iroqois Nation: Professor John Mohawk, Peter Blue Cloud, Doug George-Kanentiio, and finally from 1992-1998 Darren Bonaparte and Salli Benedict. It seems highly probable that Talbot upholds this claim in order to exploit the reputation this publication built up particularly in Europe, while at the same time using its reputation to provide himself with an air of authenticity.

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Cooperation with other plastic shamans and vendors on the Newage Market

Due to his being active since the 1970ies, Talbot has associated with various Newage projects and groups over the years.

Rainbow Gatherings

Apparently, Talbot participated in the Rainbow Gatherings already fairly early, according to an account rendered in a publication from the first gathering in 1972. The Rainbow Gatherings, however, are no indigenous meetings but attract a largely white clientele from the hippie subculture and from counterculture environments. They organise annual meetings at differing locations in the USA, usually on land in federal ownership and very often at or close to sites sacred to one or more indigenous nations. As of late, Talbot seems no longer actively participating in these events, presumably since they are scheduled at the beginning of July annually, at which time Talbot will usually stay in Europe for seminars and camps.

Bear Tribe

This organisation was founded by Vincent LaDuke a.k.a. "Sun Bear", who was enrolled Ojibway. However, LaDuke was no medicine person and had no respective training but sold a spirituality and ceremonies tailored to attract an affluent white clientele. The range of commerce e.g. included an alleged traditional "Indian astrology" which based on the usual system, simply replacing the terms used for the signs of the zodiac with alleged indigenous terms (so e.g. "Aquarius" becomes "Otter").

Cooperation between Talbot and LaDuke resp. the Bear Tribe already began in the 1970ies. Talbot's earlier books were published by the Bear Tribe. Presumably, both Talbot and LaDuke sought to further promote themselves by cooperating with another plastic shaman well established with their white clientele.

In 2015, Talbot participated as a lecturer in the annual "Medicine Wheel" camp organised by the German Bear Tribe and made an appearance alongside persons from the US Bear Tribe as well as Brooke "Medicine Eagle" Edwards, another plastic shaman active since the 1970ies who has also cooperated with Bear Tribe for several decades.

Calumed e.V.

Calumed e.V. is a German non-profit association active on the Newage market since the 1980ies in various ways. One part of their activities is selling a course in self-management, while another main pillar has been engaging in and selling indigenous spirituality. Their name indicates both fields by employing a pun including both the term "calumet" for a pipe, adding "med" for alternative medicine. However, Calumed e.V. also includes sexuality into the spiritual mix they teach, which is not in accordance with indigenous practice.

The association has been working with Larson Medicinehorse since at least the end of the 1980ies. Medicinehorse was a regular lecturer at Calumed summer camps, while Calumed members were resp. still are participating in the Sun Dances organised by Medicinehorse. They, too, organise an annual summer camp, for which Talbot at least made an appearance as a lecturer in one year, and one of the German camps of Talbot saw visitors from Calumed e.V., e.g. their founder and president at that point in time, Dieter Jarzombek.

Intentional Communities and Ecovillages

These umbrella organisations do not only include projects exploiting and/or selling indigenous spirituality and do not seem to pay much attention to indications that a particular member community may be influenced or even dominated by a cult or cult-like organisation, so that GEN-Europe, as one example, also accept as members eco-villages like "Krishna Valley" from Hungary who are also organised in ISKCON which is viewed as a cult, or Italian Damanhur, Tamera from Portugal, and ZEGG from Germany. Another dubious member is "Stamm der Likatier" [Tribe of Licatians, formerly "Stamm Füssen, i.e. "Füssen Tribe"] in Germany which gained some notoriety for having given reason for investigations due to sexual abuse of children, but also managed to raise enough money from their membership to have secretly bought much of the real estate in their home town. The „tribe“ also owns and runs two shops selling Newage gadgets, a publishing house, a real estate company, a health food shop, and its vice president owns a company organising Newage fairs.

In the case of GEN-Europe, it is perhaps not very likely they may detect such influences or view them as problematic, since their council consists of a member of Damanhur (council president), as well as one member each of ZEGG, Tamera, Krishna Valley, and LaBase/Spain (they sell e.g. sweat lodges).

The entry on Talbot published by the Wiki of Intentional Communities again repeats Talbot's claim of being the "ceremonial medicine man of the Assonet Band" as well as other aforementioned claims, although they do include two sources critical of Talbot. Over all, the ICWiki views Talbot positively and indicates a far more intense commitment in this environment:

"Manitonquat has also spent over forty years with various intentional communities around the world — as founder, participant, and observer — and so has gathered a wealth of intimate knowledge about their various strengths and weaknesses, as well as effective techniques in communal living."

According to the ICWiki, Talbot allegedly claims "mixed heritage" with his father having been Wampanoag. They also reconfirm his alleged right to teach indigenous, or indigenous-inspired content, comparing Talbot's efforts to that of the Grimm brothers collecting fairy tales. At the same time, they aim at minimising criticism raised due to Talbot's cooperation with projects like ZEGG and Tamera. The reliablity of such tactics is somewhat hampered by the fact that the aforementioned projects are also members of the Intentional Community movement, as becomes apparent from a look at their directory: ZEGG, as one example, has been a member since 1999, "Stamm der Likatier" since March 2005. Another dubious member is a project "12 Tribes Klosterzimmern" which gained notoriety recently for denying their children access to medical care and for practicing continued severe corporal punishment on children of all age groups. This project joined in May 2005.

Talbot has made regular appearances as a lecturer at ZEGG summer camps and at the so-called "Summer University" organised by Tamera. He furthermore seems to have been granted the honour of being "the only honorary citizen of ZEGG", as is announced on their Facebook site.

Versions of this article in other languages

• Deutsch: Francis Talbot