TikTokers are speaking out in the wake of the accusations against creator Lance Tsosie, also known as Modern Warrior. Some say the attempt to hold a large creator accountable for his actions has quickly become an attempt to “destroy an Indigenous man” that has brought Indigenous women down in the process.
TikToker Amanda Marie, who accused Tsosie of “[denying her] informed consent” by having unprotected sex with her without telling her that he was having unprotected sex with other women, has said that she was pressured to post about her experiences with Tsosie by Chelsea Hart. Hart, another TikTok creator, has had an allegedly similar experience with Tsosie.
“Chelsea is absolutely using this moment to defame an Indigenous man,” Marie said in a now-deleted TikTok video posted on March 4. (Marie and Hart’s initial accusations against Tsosie were posted on March 2.) “All of this is for attention,” Marie said about Hart.
Marie also claims that Hart’s actions are “white women tears” motivated by a desire “to get followers.” She said that Hart used her to verify her experience with Tsosie and that she went public because Hart told her to. She also alleges that Hart has contacted her incessantly and abrasively about the situation.
“The truth is what needed to be out there. I needed to tell my story so that Lance didn’t use his platform any longer to take advantage of women,” Marie said of her initial video about Tsosie.
In short, Hart said that after experiencing pregnancy loss, they started a friendship with Tsosie that later became romantic. The two had unprotected sex, then Hart discovered that Lance was seeing other women. Hart thought that the pair were exclusive.
Marie originally said that her experience with Tsosie was similar to Hart’s. She had unprotected sex with him thinking that neither of them was having unprotected sex with anyone else. She said she later found out about other women.
According to a series of recap videos from TikToker Ebony Warrior Studios (@ebonywarriorstudios), Hart also allegedly pressured other well-known progressive TikTokers, like Aunt Karen, to call out Tsosie. (Aunt Karen later apologized for getting involved with the situation and posted a TikTok saying that she fell for Hart’s “yt [white] tears.”)
Ebony Warrior Studios also claimed that although Hart implied that they had confided in Tsosie about experiencing a miscarriage, they actually had an abortion. He also said that Hart essentially doxed Tsosie, who has been dealing with death threats due to his TikTok presence, by giving out his location and used slurs against Indigenous people on their Instagram account.
The TikToker also echoed what Marie said in her now-deleted video: Hart wants to destroy Tsosie. He also said that he believes that Tsosie has been inactive on TikTok (after uploading a now-deleted apology to Hart) because he has been advised by lawyers not to do so.
“The whole issue here was nobody was listening to Black and Indigenous people who were saying from the beginning that [Hart’s videos were] off, that something felt weird,” Ebony Warrior Studios said. “Yes, everyone believes that these women were used by Lance. But the fact that they took that and used their white woman tears to go overboard and try to destroy him, completely destroy him—and they risked his safety and his life.”
Ebony Warrior Studios told the Daily Dot via Instagram direct message that he doesn’t know any of the creators involved personally. “The videos I made were based off of all the information presented (that they posted),” he told the Daily Dot.
In Hart’s takedown of Lance, Ebony Warrior Studios explains that WitchyTwitchy, a Navajo creator, got “[dragged] in” to the situation because people assumed that she was romantically involved with Tsosie while he was purportedly with Hart and Marie.
WitchyTwitchy told the Daily Dot that the correlation came after Tsosie reposted a video of hers around the time that Hart and Marie’s videos first came out.
“And everybody just assumed I was the ‘other woman’” that Hart had referenced finding out about in their initial video about Tsosie, WitchyTwitchy told the Daily Dot. She said received a mass influx of hate comments and people reporting her videos, even though she said she repeatedly confirmed that she was not involved with Tsosie or the situation at hand.
Soon enough, her TikTok account was temporarily banned because of the situation.
WitchyTwitchy said that when she first saw Hart’s video, she worried that the accusations against Tsosie would “bleed over to the Native community” on TikTok and that people would use the accusations against Tsosie as an excuse to be racist against Indigenous people.
She said she her concerns were spot on: Her TikTok account became a casualty of the momentum to take down Tsosie.
“So I made a post saying like, basically, ‘When you’re holding a Black or Indigenous person, a person of color accountable for their actions, don’t let your subconscious racism affect that,” she told the Daily Dot. “So people were accusing me of lying about not being involved.” The TikToker also said she was accused of victim-blaming.
WitchyTwitchy said to try and put an end to the hate she was receiving, she contacted Hart and Marie asking them to ask their followers to stop harassing her. Both creators made videos telling their followers to stop but tagged WitchyTwitchy in them, which she said just brought even more people to her page.
All the hate and harassment caused her TikTok account to get banned, WitchyTwitchy said, and she lost her tip feature and creator fund privileges, meaning that she no longer was able to make money from TikTok. (WitchyTwitchy said she has now regained access to her account but still hasn’t regained access to TikTok’s creator fund.)
On the point of white women’s potentially weaponized tears, WitchyTwitchy said that seeing Hart and Marie’s videos gain a lot of traction and receive so much support was upsetting, given that multiple Native women had come forward about an Indigenous man shortly before Hart posted their initial video.
“[The TikToks from Indigenous women] just didn’t gain any traction outside native TikTok whatsoever. [The accusations were] violent, full-on, not-debatable assault,” WitchyTwitchy told the Daily Dot. “These three Native women have clear cut, evidence-based, non-debatable assaults happen to them, and no one cared. But the minute this [white] lady gets on camera and cries about finding out that this guy’s like sleeping with somebody else, the whole world stops and the whole app blows up.”
She said that the reception that Hart and Marie’s videos received and the lack of attention around the videos from Native women were in line with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis, which refers to murder rates for Indigenous women that are “10 times the national average.” Many of their murder cases go unsolved.
“Native women have been screaming from the rooftops about this ongoing, massive problem. And no one ever listens to us, outside the Native community,” WitchyTwitchy said. “I’m annoyed and frustrated that this completely overshadowed every single other Native issue that we’ve been screaming about because the world stops for crying white ladies.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Marie and Hart via email and Tsosie through Instagram direct message.
Update 4:27pm CT, March 14: In an email statement to the Daily Dot, Aunt Karen said Hart approached her with “claims that Lance Tsosie sexually assaulted her.”
“[Hart] stated on multiple times she did not consent to some of his sexual advances and statements,” she told the Daily Dot. “She stated he took advantage of her because he knew she had lost a child. She admired that he wanted a child however, told her that he didn’t want a child with a white woman.”
Aunt Karen also said Hart told her that Tsosie “likes to sleep with white women and marry them, but will not have mixed children because he didn’t approve of mixed raced native children,” but Aunt Karen said she now believes that Hart “fetishized” Tsosie.
Aunt Karen added that she believes Tsosie “challenged misogyny” on TikTok and acted hypocritically.
“I don’t agree with anyone misrepresenting themselves in order to have sex,” Aunt Karen said.
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