Indianz.Com > News > Trump supporter in coyote headdress and ‘war paint’ indicted for role in D.C. insurrection
Trump supporter in coyote headdress and ‘war paint’ indicted for role in D.C. insurrection
Friday, January 15, 2021
Indianz.Com
One of the most recognizable defendants from the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is a Donald Trump supporter who bases his persona on a warped interpretation of Native traditions.
In a video interview with ORF, the Austrian national broadcast company, the figure known commonly as Jake Angeli described his outward appearance as being inspired by Native people. He said he was wearing a coyote on his head because of its symbolism in Navajo culture.
“According to the Navajo, the coyote is like the trickster, almost like a malevolent force, so I’m wearing the skin of a trickster,” Angeli told ORF in an interview conducted in Phoenix, Arizona, late last year.

Federal prosecutors also noted that Angeli has admitted using peyote, a sacrament of the Native American Church. Under U.S. law, only practitioners of the Native religion are allowed to posses, transport and ingest the drug, which is known for its hallucinogenic qualities.
But to Angeli, peyote is a tool that helps him uncover sex trafficking rings, one of the issues central to the discredited QAnon theory. He considers Pence complicit in the purported crimes, according to federal authorities.
“So as a shaman, I am like a multi-dimensional or hyper-dimensional being, OK,” Angeli said in the interview with ORF. “I am able to perceive multiple different frequencies of light beyond my five senses.”
Angeli, whose age has been reported as 32, is being charged with six criminal counts in connection with the violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. The charges include civil disorder; obstruction of an official proceeding; entering and remaining in a restricted building; disorderly conduct and disruptive conduct in a criminal building; violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
Angeli remains in federal custody in Arizona following a court hearing on Friday. In making the case for his continued detention, prosecutors noted that he told the Federal Bureau of Investigation in a voluntary interview that he was planning to protest the inauguration of Democratic President-elect Joe Biden on January 20.
“I’ll still go, you better believe it. For sure I’d want to be there, as a protestor,” Angeli said, adding an expletive.
Angeli went on a hunger strike of sorts following his arrest on January 9, with his mother telling the local news media that he gets “very sick if he doesn’t eat organic food.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah M. Fine subsequently ordered Angeli’s attorney and federal officials to resolve the impasse.
Österreichischer Rundfunk, also known as ORF, is an Austrian national public service broadcaster.
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