(The Sentinel) – A University of Kansas professor who claims to be of Indian descent is falsifying his ancestry, according to Shawnee Tribe Chief Ben Barnes.

KU History Professor Kent Blansett is slated to appear as a keynote speaker and Native American expert at the September 2023 Great Plains History Conference. His ancestry on the conference site is detailed as “Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Shawnee, and Potawatomi descendant from the Blanket, Panther, and Smith families.”

Shawnee Tribe Chief Ben Barnes tells the Sentinel that Blansett’s ancestry claims are false.

“All of the five have confirmed that he’s not a citizen,” Barnes said. “I wish I could honestly tell you what’s going on at KU, because I’ve not gotten a satisfactory answer.”

Barnes said he first became aware of Blansett just before the Pandemic when he found out Blansett would be speaking at a conference he was planning to attend.

“I’m a member of the American Society for Ethno-History,” Barnes said, adding there was going to be a conference at KU at which Blansett was to speak. “I got to looking and I’m like ‘holy crap, this guy, he’s not even native.’

“We did a little more digging and found there’s a little cadre of them, and so it becomes very difficult for Shawnee people to enter in to that fishbowl of the American Society for Ethno-History, which I’ve attended since 2014.”

Barnes said KU effectively ignored his complaints.

“I contact the university say, ‘Man, this is messed up,’” he said. “And they thought...

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