I once worked at the American Indian Studies Research Institute. One day when I handed Dr. Raymond DeMallie his mail I happened to notice he had received a coloring book. Later that day while having our afternoon coffee break, I asked him about this odd bit of mail. “Oh, I first read it in draft,” DeMallie replied. My expression gave my astonishment away and he said that given that the coloring book was on Native American Indians he wanted to be sure it was as authentic as one would expect from such a publication. I was still confused and put it to him that it was in fact “only” a coloring book. He, then, said “once something gets into the secondary literature it is almost impossible to correct.” This simple point proved to be one of the most useful observations I ever heard.
It was while working at the Institute that I first heard of Jamake Highwater. Since his death on June 3, 2001 Highwater has been associated with Greeks in North America. Whoever Highwater may have been, was never who he claimed. More confusing still, many of the allegations about this man’s Greek identity are also unquestionably false. While Highwater’s past may still be in doubt, his New York Times obituary confirmed that he “wrote more than 30 books on art, dance, music, and history. His work included novels, nonfiction, poetry and even travel books (June 16, 2001).”
Here is only a fraction of the story. Without question, Highwater was a dancer, choreographer, writer and lecturer. Outside of his publicly documented career, little else about him is certain. The confusion has only deepened given that now various writers assert Highwater was “in fact” an Armenian. Having said that numerous Native American writers and others still claim Highwater is not only of Greek but that he was Gregory J. Markopoulos the Greek-American experimental filmmaker.
Even the date of Highwater’s birth remains unknown. It is likely to have been sometime between 1923 and 1933. In 1954, Highwater left his Los Angeles home and went to San Francisco, where he taught modern dance. It is reported that in March 1955, Highwater and other instructors formed the San Francisco Contemporary Dancers, with Highwater serving as both director and choreographer.
In 1967, Highwater moved to Manhattan’s SoHo district. From the moment he arrived, he claimed he had earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in California, and later a doctorate from the University of Chicago (he was to recant these claims after 1984). No sooner was he in New York than Highwater saw his first article published in the Saturday Review. Later that same year he began to write the book Rock and Other Four Letter Words (New York: Bantam Books, 1968).
It was on July 13, 1969 that Highwater first referred to himself as a Cherokee Indian in a Sunday News interview. Just as he had in San Francisco, Highwater sustained himself through journalism. During this period, his journalism knew no bounds. He gradually wrote for Smithsonian, Diversion, Esquire, Look, Saturday Review, Vogue, Horizon, American Heritage, Harper’s Bazaar and Dance.
During the early 1970s, Highwater gradually began to sign his articles with a new name, J. Marks. Not long afterwards, he used the name “Jamake Mamake Highwater, but later dropped the middle name. In this period of transition he began to write books about Native American art, dance, and legends.
The first link to a Greek identity for Highwater came to light in either a 1970 or even 1974 interview (sources are in disagreement). He stated he had received an affidavit from his adoptive mother stating his birth mother was Marcia Highwater, a 15-year-old “Cherokee Indian girl” who was carried away from her Oklahoma reservation by Alexander Markopoulos, his birth father, who had come to America from his native Greece at 16 years of age in 1924. In later interviews, Highwater further elaborated that Markopoulos was a rodeo clown. He would later change these details, saying his Greek-born father was really a circus aerialist.
By 1975, with the publication of his Fodor’s, Indian America, the author who started as “John Marks” became, forevermore, “Jamake Highwater” (New York: David McKay Co). From 1979 through 1985, Highwater frequently lectured at New York University, as well as at conferences and workshops across the country. In 1977, Highwater began hosting television programs centering on Native Americans.
Around 1980, as Highwater’s books, lectures and broadcasts became increasingly popular with general audiences, Native Americans also began to raise objections to the factual content of Highwater’s seemingly endless stream of books, lectures, and television programs on Indians and Indian culture. These Amerindian critics soon began to question Highwater’s Indian ancestry.
As all of this was transpiring, Highwater was making a fabulous amount of money. In 1982, he founded the nonprofit trust, the Native Land Foundation to promote world folk art. But the controversy would not go away. In 1984, respected Native American activist Hank Adams, an Assiniboine-Sioux, published his scathing exposé, of Jamake Highwater, “The Golden Indian” in ‘Akwesasne Notes (No. 16, Late Summer 1984: 10-12). Adams’ incredibly detailed case against Highwater was based on Highwater’s own contradictory reports, given in interviews, about his Indian ancestry. The documented evidence Adams offered demonstrated, beyond any doubt, that Highwater’s tissue of lies was contradictory at every point. The core evidence for Adams’ case remains solid.
This story was picked up by journalist Jack Anderson. Anderson reported that, “under persistent questioning…Highwater finally admitted that he lied repeatedly about many of the details of his life. Asked why someone of such genuine and extraordinary talent felt he had to concoct a spurious background, Highwater said he felt that doors would not have opened for him if he had relied on his talent alone… Although he still insists he is an Indian, Highwater has dropped any claim to Indianhood from his approved press release. ‘I’m not going to say I’m an Indian any more… But (expletive deleted), I’m an Indian… I’ve taken a lot of (expletive) for being an Indian.’ Anderson went on to coolly observe that Highwater also made a pile of money as an Indian (The News, February 16, 1984).”
There is the only one aspect of Hank Adams’ initial investigative story on Jamake Highwater which was in error: Adams offered “the theory that Highwater is really the Greek American George John Markopoulos… that Markopoulos changed his identity from choreographer and experimental filmmaker to spokesperson for Native American culture and is Americanizing Greek mythology at the expense of the true native American culture.” In researching Highwater’s past, he had located his origins as “John Marks,” and then as “Gregory John Markopoulos.”
The connection to Gregory J. Markopoulos (1928-1992) is totally false. Markopoulos, with whom Highwater is confused, was of Greek descent, who remains an internationally respected filmmaker. The subsequent hurricane of news reports on the Highwater controversy proved this point. It is significant that, at the time of Jamake Highwater’s death Hank Adams once again offered a highly detailed assault against Highwater’s claims to be of Indian descent. But this time, all mention of Gregory J. Markopoulos is omitted.
But even after the scandal and public admission, Highwater’s books and other documents do not appear to have been removed from library shelves.
Do Native Americans still believe Highwater was a Greek masquerading as an Indian? Was he an American Indian? Certainly not. Was this same man Gregory J. Markopoulos, the filmmaker? Again, no. Was the man who died as Highwater originally born as Gregory John Markopoulos, a person of Greek descent? Once again, we simply do not really know.
Whoever Jamake Highwater may have been, he continues to insult and plague Native Americans as well as Greek-Americans.