Chief Debro – a Pretendimo

Updated on Tuesday, July 2, 2024 at 1:30 p.m.

In recent years, many in North America have been shocked by the rise of people claiming an ethnicity not their own.

Usually, that is white Canadians or Americans claiming to be Indigenous, usually First Nations. We have all heard of them, and they have come to be known as Pretendians.

Historically, the conservationist Grey Owl was the most famous. He was in reality an Englishman named Archie Belaney, whose true identity was not known until just after his death.

Another one, not as famous but reasonably well known in western Canada, was Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance who was, in reality, Sylvester Long, an African-American born in North Carolina.

In more recent years, Canadians have been treated to the alleged imposture of the writer Joseph Boyden and singer Buffy Sainte-Marie, as well as some in academia. Both Boyden and Sainte-Marie have denied those allegations.

Frank Shade, a dwarf, performed as Inuk Chief Debro in circuses throughout the U.S, along with his wife. (Photo from the Kenn Harper collection)

There are probably others in academia still waiting with trepidation to be outed.

In the Inuit world, there are fewer non-Inuit individuals who have tried to get away with claiming Inuit identity.

That’s probably because the Inuit population is much smaller than that of First Nations and an imposter would be more easily identified.

Nevertheless, there is the now well-known case of Amira and Nadya Gill, twins from Ontario who without ever living in the Arctic received Inuit status through Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and grants for thousands of dollars of educational funding, all through the connivance of their non-Inuit mother.

RCMP charged the twins and their mother, Karima Manji, with two counts of fraud each in October 2023. In February this year, the Crown withdrew the charges against the twins while their mother pleaded guilty. On Thursday, she was sentenced to three years in a federal prison.

It would take more space than this column allows to deal with the issue of the shape-shifting members of the NunatuKavut Community Council in Labrador, a group of thousands of non-Inuit self-proclaiming their Inuit status.

Riffing on the word Pretendian, I refer to those falsely claiming Inuit status as Pretendimos. I’ve heard others use the word Pretenduit.

One needs to go back over a century, though, to find really preposterous cases of false claims of Inuit identity.

In 1826 in London, England, a woman was arrested by police on a charge of having stolen two infants for the purpose of exhibiting them in an attraction as “a couple of genuine Esquimaux” imported to the country by Capt. William Edward Parry.

The woman claimed, in her defence, that she had bought the children from their father. It is not known what the woman’s punishment was.

There weren’t a lot of job opportunities for dwarfs in America then. But the public had an insatiable appetite for seeing people from other lands.

These were the days before motion pictures or television, or even publications like the National Geographic. Today, we may pride ourselves on having outgrown our fascination with the “other,” but it is a false pride — we sate our desires for faraway lands and exotic people by viewing the Discovery Channel and other such fare.

Consider the life of Frank Delos Shade, a dwarf who earned his livelihood travelling as an “Eskimo” in circuses throughout the U.S.

Shade was born Aug. 8, 1852, in Hammond Lake, Ind. As a boy, he was taken in by George Gilbert of Kendallville, Ind., a showman who ran freak shows at travelling circuses — his wife was the circus’s “fat lady.”

Shade was four feet tall. He became known as The Kendallville Midget.

He married Mary McDougall, known as Mollie. She travelled with him, sometimes billed as the Lilliputian Queen. The marriage can’t have lasted long, because in 1881 she married another circus dwarf, Robert Huzza, known as Robert Littlefinger.

Mollie died in childbirth the following year.

At some point, Shade decided — or perhaps George Gilbert decided for him — to exhibit as an Inuk, in those days an “Eskimo,” someone whom the public might be interested in paying well to see.

He transformed himself into a man known as Chief Debro. It’s not known what his act consisted of, but he was bearded, wore his hair hanging well past his shoulders, and sported white fur garments.

Frank Shade, a dwarf, performed as Chief Debro in circuses throughout the U.S., with his wife. (Photo from the Kenn Harper collection)

By 1891, Shade was appearing in the famous Ringling Brothers circus. He remarried that year. His wife, Sarah Harlor, was 19 years old and also a dwarf. She appeared beside him, also as an “Eskimo,” although her performing name is unknown.

The circus was an immensely popular entertainment at the time and there were many to choose from. In 1903, they were with Campbell Bros. Circus. By 1912, they were with the Mighty Haag Circus, which travelled the country by 13-car circus train.

Between shows, it seems Shade and his wife always returned to Kendallville, Ind. In 1921, he was struck with paralysis; he and his wife moved to New Haven, Ind., where he was bedridden for the rest of his life.

Shade died there on July 12, 1924 at the age of 72. He was a member of a lodge, the Knights of Pythias, and is buried in the cemetery of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a Masonic-like organization, in New Haven.

He was, of course, a fraud, an imposter, because he was not an Inuk. But he didn’t live on grants meant for real Inuit.

He was, as far as is known, never on welfare. He didn’t occupy anyone else’s space. Despite his dwarfism, he made his own way in a tough world.

In my next column, I will tell you the unbelievable story of the most blatant imposter ever to claim to be an Inuk.

Taissumani is an occasional column that recalls events of historical interest. Kenn Harper is a historian and writer who lived in the Arctic for more than 50 years. He is the author of “Minik: The New York Eskimo” and “Thou Shalt Do No Murder,” among other books. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to kennharper@hotmail.com.

Note: This article has been updated from its originally published version to comply with Canadian Press style in the use of dwarf as the preferred term for those with short stature resulting from a medical or genetic condition, which was the word the writer originally used.