Jamake Highwater

Lisa Mitten (lmitten@vms.cis.pitt.edu)
Wed, 5 Feb 1992 16:35:00 EST

Please refer to the New York Times obituary of Gregory Markopoulos, kindly provided by Mr. Highwater's publishing agency, which definitively establishes the separate identities of Markopoulos and Highwater, contrary to the claim referred to in this posting to NATIVE-L. This obituary proves that the article that appeared in Akwesasne Notes, late summer, 1984, written by Hank Adams comes to incorrect conclusions concerning Mr. Highwater having been born Gregory Markopoulos and later re-inventing himself.

This was formerly RE: NATIVE SPIRITUALITY, and concerned the validity of
author/filmmaker/media darling Jamake Highwater.

The lengthy article mentioned by me (Lisa Mitten) in an earlier posting
can be found in the Late Summer 1984 (vol.16,no.4) issue of AKWESASNE NOTES.
It is >>very lengthy<< for email posting, but for those unable to find this
old issue of NOTES, I will be happy to send a copy of the article to anyone
who wants to send me their snailmail address.

Briefly, Jamake Highwater was born George John Markopulos in 1928. In 1954
he emerged as "J Marks", a choreographer-dancer based in San Franscisco.
He disappeared in 1971 to Europe and reappeared around 1974 as Jamake
Highwater, gaining national prominence with the publication of his book
THE PRIMNAL MIND in 1981.

Lisa Mitten

[ I saw this person on a PBS television series in the early 1980s called
something like "Great Ideas of the World" - moderated by philospher
Mortimer Adler. I remember being very impressed with the perspective
represented by the person identified as Jamake Highwater - and that of
a woman named Betty Sue Flowers, I think it was, who was Dean of some
college at a Texas university, I think it was. Adler was attempting to
argue for these fundamental ideas (truth, beauth, goodness, liberty,
justice, etc.) being absolute, while Highwater, Flowers, and a few others
were very suspicious of that attempt.

Has this guy ever attempted to defend himself in a public forum? How
could we go about finding out what he has to say for himself? One would
think that, given all these charges against him he might have taken the
trouble to say something.
--Gary ]