Ward Churchill

[Kevin]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Churchill

"Churchill has stated, "I am myself of Muscogee and Creek descent on my father's side, Cherokee on my mother's, and am an enrolled member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians."[11][12] He wrote elsewhere that he is one-eighth Creek and one-sixteenth Cherokee.[13] In 1993, Churchill told the Colorado Daily that, “he was one-sixteenth Creek and Cherokee???.[14] Churchill told the Denver Post in February 2005 that he is three-sixteenths Cherokee.[6] The United Keetoowah Band clarified that Churchill was never an enrolled member, but was awarded an honorary associate membership in 1994, as were Bill Clinton and others;[15][16] honorary membership is not an indication of ethnicity.[17] The Keetoowah Band states that Churchill still holds the associate membership, that it hasn't been rescinded, and that the Keetoowah Band stopped recognizing such "honorary" memberships in 1994.[17][18][19]

The Rocky Mountain News, in 2005, published a genealogy of Churchill, and reported "no evidence of a single Indian ancestor" [of Churchill's]. The News reports that both of Churchill's birth parents are listed as white on the 1930 census, as are all of his other known ancestors on previous censuses and other official documents.[20] The Denver Post's genealogical investigation resulted in the same conclusion."

[earthw7]

Sorry but just finishing the research on the small pox
and ward stole them.

he is a fake

[Tsisqua]

AIM's take on Churchill....

AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT GRAND GOVERNING COUNCIL


MINISTRY FOR INFORMATION
P.O. Box 13521
Minneapolis MN 55414
612/ 721-3914 . fax 612/ 721-7826
Email: aimggc@worldnet.att.net
Web Address: www.aimovement.org

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ward Churchill was scheduled to speak at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York on February 3, 2005. His appearance was canceled by the college after he caused a public furor over his loathsome remarks about the 9-11 tragedy in New York. AIM's Grand Governing Council has been dealing with Churchill's hateful attitude and rip-off of Indian people for years.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council representing the National and International leadership of the American Indian Movement once again is vehemently and emphatically repudiating and condemning the outrageous statements made by academic literary and Indian fraud, Ward Churchill in relationship to the 9-11 tragedy in New York City that claimed thousands of innocent people’s lives.

Churchill’s statement that these people deserved what happened to them, and calling them little Eichmanns, comparing them to Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, who implemented Adolf Hitler’s plan to exterminate European Jews and others, should be condemned by all.

The sorry part of this is Ward Churchill has fraudulently represented himself as an Indian, and a member of the American Indian Movement, a situation that has lifted him into the position of a lecturer on Indian activism. He has used the American Indian Movement’s chapter in Denver to attack the leadership of the official American Indian Movement with his misinformation and propaganda campaigns.

Ward Churchill has been masquerading as an Indian for years behind his dark glasses and beaded headband. He waves around an honorary membership card that at one time was issued to anyone by the Keetoowah Tribe of Oklahoma. Former President Bill Clinton and many others received these cards, but these cards do not qualify the holder a member of any tribe. He has deceitfully and treacherously fooled innocent and naïve Indian community members in Denver, Colorado, as well as many other people worldwide. Churchill does not represent, nor does he speak on behalf of the American Indian Movement.

New York’s Hamilton College Kirklands Project should be aware that in their search for truth and justice, the idea that they have hired a fraud to speak on Indian activism is in itself a betrayal of their goals.

Dennis J. Banks, Ojibwa Nation
Chairman of the Board
American Indian Movement
Phone: 218-654-5885


Nee Gon Nway Wee Dung, aka, Clyde H. Bellecourt, Ojibwa Nation
National Executive Director
American Indian Movement
Cell: 612-251-5836
Office: 612-724-3129


Press Contact:
WaBun-Inini, aka, Vernon Bellecourt, Ojibwa Nation
Executive Committee Member
Director Council on Foreign Relations
American Indian Movement
Office: 612-721-3914
Cell: 612-889-0796


See the following:

Us vs AIM

Us vs AIM Backgound

Indian Country Today: Editors' Report

Keetoowah Tribe Response

The Public's Response

Churchill Cartoon

For more information regarding Churchill’s fraudulent enrollment:

United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians of Oklahoma
Enrollment officer: 918-431-0385 or 918-456-8698

http://www.aimovement.org/moipr/churchill05.html

[wolfhawaii]

Sorry but just finishing the research on the small pox
and ward stole them.

he is a fake

Not sure about the plagiarism charges; I have read a couple of his books and they are heavily footnoted. Academic literature tends to be highly derivative and as long as the proper sources are given, it works out......apparently until a major controversy erupts in another area in which the writer becomes an embarrassment to the institution he is associated with. I understand some of his more controversial contentions, but have to agree they were in bad form for someone who claims Cherokee.  Most enrolled Cherokee folks don't appreciate minimally connected people who go around waving a card as if it entitled them to be sogwili ukshojaneda (jackass). People I know at the United Keetoowah Band told me that Churchill was supposed to have helped the UKB write a history of the Band which he is said not to have done. He spoke at University of Hawaii some years ago when the furor first erupted but i was unable to approach him to ask questions. Overall his tone and demeanor were very unCherokee which is the clincher for me, not his skin tone or his family's racial listing on the census.

[LittleOldMan]

While I am sure there are many professors of all races that would be qualified to fill a post a s professor of Native American studies.  It seems to me that in all fairness the post should go to a qualified Native American who was raised in the culture.  His/Her insights would be so much more Germaine to the subject don't you think.  "LOM"

[Kevin]

I guess they figured anyone being 3/16th Cherokee would do a splendid job......and I thought it was a crime to lie on applications and accept state and federal money under false pretenses.....

more from Wikpedia:

"According to Thomas Brown, one of Churchill's critics in the academy, support for Churchill has dwindled. Brown states that in February 2005, 199 CU faculty members signed a newspaper article supporting Churchill, but in July 2007, only four CU faculty signed another letter protesting his imminent firing. [55]"  - see what happens when you don't have a full tank of Cherokee blood in your  veins? 3/16th just didn't cut it for these folks one could surmise.

A rumor:
(from an anonymous source)
Churchill and Little Soldier are going to start " a Indian school" somewhere in the Appalachia mountains.

[frederica]

I don't think his Blood quantum had anything to do with his being fired. That is if he even had one.  His behavior did him in.  I not sure how many people an individual can intimidate, spit on, break their arm, among other things can get by with without eventually having some repercussions. As far as the plagiarism, I'm not sure if the people he plagiarize followed through, I know two did contact the University about the situtation, not only plagiarized but misquoted. And I not sure the painter followed through on the infringement. In other words, I don't think it went to Court.  Loose cannons might be interesting for a while, but doesn't last forever.  Wikipedia in my opinion is not the most reliable source. It's pretty loose. People I know in Colorado were sick of hearing about it, and just wondered why they didn't get him out. But the University didn't exactly have clean hands in this deal, and didn't want a backfire law suit.

[Kevin]

Given the extreme minority status of NAs with accompanying lack of economic and political clout, they slid by pretty easily hiring a leftist wannabe with no bona fides for his purported heritage, when among the applicants I have no doubt were at least a couple of 'real deal' NAs qualified for the position. Typical arrogance of Academia and their foisting of the White Man's Burden on students who apparently have no critical thinking ability. He had no blood quantum, it's a moot point and I really wonder what the good professors thought of someone being 3/16th of any race.

[wolfhawaii]

. He had no blood quantum, it's a moot point and I really wonder what the good professors thought of someone being 3/16th of any race.

Maybe he had an ancestor who was an amputee ......mathematically 3/16 doesn't work out as a BQ (no offense intended to any disabled persons)

[Kevin]

I like what Steve Russell, columnist for Indian Country today had to say:

http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416968

Russell: When does ethnic fraud matter?   
Posted: April 04, 2008
by: Steve Russell

[A.H.]

I think there is too much simple media sparked gossip in this topic. 

Just read this report:

http://www.colorado.edu/news/reports/churchill/download/WardChurchillReport.pdf

Yes, he is guilty of superficial scholarship and errors..

but..

Reply by him on 911 controversy:

http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read.html?id=2739

He speaks like an intelligent man with quite radical opinions that are (mis)understood very simple-mindedly by the general public and right wing politicians..

But as that serious report shows - he is apparently guilty of superficial scholarship in some cases. Not all black & white though.

 

[Kevin]

I distinguish between his 9/11 proclamation(s) and his academic offenses. The former brought scrutiny upon him,  which in turn prompted some tenured professors to be empowered by law to investigate and they found reason to have him fired, a wee bit more serious than mere " superficial shcolarship and errors".  I would expect nothing less from the academic community. What will remain forever unknown is the extent to which his false claims of Indian heritage influenced his hiring. That false claim of heritage is every bit as serious as his academic 'sins' IMO.

[apukjij]

i have met this man, i think i have read almost every bit of prose he has ever composed, he claimed to be Native, this makes him a liar, or at the very least delusional.
However i was grateful with what he shared when i asked him about Annie-Mae.
And his books fueled a whole generation of youthful Wapana'ki Warriors here in maritime kkkanada, in fact some of what he published are the finest treatises on the white people that have ever been written.
i asked the Chair of Native Studies what she thought of the ancestry controversy, her only response was she was troubled because as far as she knows, "we the People are to the final arbitrator as to who is one of us".

[ska]

Sorry to piggy-back this question on the Churchill thread.

In a previous post on this thread, Kevin mentioned an article by Steve Russell in which Russell seems to suggest that Andrea Smith is not Cherokee.

Can anyone please fill me in on this?  I have used her books in my classes, including Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide and The Color of Violence.

[Kevin]

Ward should  be the first person on the boat back to Europe, Apukjij. I can't imagine any group that gets fired up by the words of Ward Churchill ever accomplishing much, but that's just my opinion.