Harley "SwiftDeer" Reagan

Harley "SwiftDeer" Reagan (who has also gone by the nicknames "Swifthorse" and "Thunder Strikes") and his supporters make various claims which others, including the Cherokee Nation, dispute.

Claims made by Reagan

Ancestry

Reagan claims that he is of Cherokee and Irish decent. This is disputed by the Cherokee Nation:

"What we find are numerous false prophets out there playing Indian and making a buck. Frankly, we are overwhelmed with these folks," says Dr. Richard Allen, a research and policy analyst for the Cherokee Nation who has been receiving complaints AbOUT Reagan for more than 10 years. "To start with, [Reagan] claims he grew up on a Cherokee reservation in Texas. The Cherokee don't even have reservations. We've always owned our land, fee simple." Allen says Reagan's claims are merely a marketing technique. "He's not a member of the Cherokee Nation." — (Buchanan)

For many years a number of Native American leaders have stated that Mr. Reagan is a Caucasian man who has adopted a false Indian identity, as have many of the people listed as venerable teachers by Sedonia Cahill, Bird Brother[,]and The Great Round in their publications. — (Hagan)

Qualifications in martial arts

Reagan claims to be a "worldwide soke of the American Indian Fighting Arts Association", an organization of which he is a co-founder. However, soke is an Old English term from the time of the Norman Conquest of England, that is unrelated to Native Americans.

Reagan has invented what he terms "an American martial arts system", Chulukua-Ryu, which he states is a combination of his "knowledge and expertise in Jiu-Jitsu and Karate". It is taught at the American Indian Fighting Arts Association. Reagan states that it is the only such martial arts system "accredited by the International Society of Black Belts". The International Society of Black Belts does not exist outside of the promotional literature for Reagan's American Indian Fighting Arts Association.

[...] seminars

Reagan appeared on the Home Box Office's program Real [...] in 1992, touting his [...] therapy "Quodoushka" as a Cherokee ritual. The chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma at the time, Wilma Mankiller, threatened to sue HBO for misrepresentation, and a resolution was passed by the Cherokee condemning Reagan and other "plastic shamans". Reagan now carefully states that Quodoushka is a blend of many ancient [...] traditions.