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| '''Ward LeRoy Churchill''' (born ], ]) is an ] writer, activist, and academic. He is a professor of ] at the ], and author of over a dozen books and many essays. | |||
| ==Background== | |||
| ===Early life and education=== | |||
| Churchill was born and grew up in a blue-collar family in ]. His parents, Maralyn and Jack Churchill, divorced while Ward was still a toddler. In March ], his mother married Henry Carlton Debo, an employee of ] in downstate ], as a result of which Churchill has two half-brothers, Tom and Danny, and a half-sister, Terry. When he enrolled in Elmwood High School, Churchill went by the name Ward Debo, taking his stepfather's surname, but when he graduated in ], he was listed in his yearbook, the ''Ulmus'', as Ward L. Churchill. | |||
| He was drafted by the ] and saw active service in the ] from ] to ]. His military records, obtained by the press through the ], show he was trained as a projectionist and light truck driver. ] ], a veteran and talk radio host, exposed these military records after Churchill had claimed that he was a ] trained in ].{{Inote|Newman, 11 February 2005|Newman20050211}} He later received his ] and ] in ] from Sangamon State University, now the ]. | |||
| In ], he joined the ] as an assistant professor and was granted tenure the following year. | |||
| ===Writing=== | |||
| As a scholar, Churchill has written on Native American history and culture, and is particularly outspoken about what he considers the ] inflicted on the ] peoples of North America by ]an settlers — repression that he argues continues to this day. | |||
| In ''Fantasies of the Master Race'' (1992), Churchill examines the portrayal of Native Americans and the use of Native American symbols in popular American culture. He focuses on such phenomena as ]'s mystery novels, the film '']'', and the ] movement, finding what he sees as examples of cultural ] and exploitation. Churchill calls author ], who claims to reveal the teachings of a ] Indian ], the "greatest hoax since ]." <!--quote needs a reference--> | |||
| Churchill's ''Indians 'R' Us'' (1993), a sequel to ''Fantasies of the Master Race'', further explores Native American issues in popular culture and politics. He examines the movie ''],'' the ] killings, ], sports ]s, the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, and ], calling them tools of genocide. Churchill is particularly outspoken about what he characterizes as ] exploitations of ] and Native American sacred traditions, and what he scorns as the "do-it-yourself Indianism" of certain contemporary authors. <!--reference--> | |||
| ''Struggle For The Land'' (reissued 2002) is a collection of essays in which Churchill asserts that the U.S. government systematically exploited native land and permitted the killing or displacement of the Native Americans who once inhabited it. He details Indian efforts in the ] and ] centuries to prevent defoliation and industrial practices such as ] they considered destructive. | |||
| Churchill's ''A Little Matter of Genocide'' (1998) is a survey of ] from ] to the present. He compares the treatment of North American Indians to a number of genocides in history, such as those in ] and ], and those of the ], ], and ] by the ]s. | |||
| In ''Perversions of Justice'' (2002), Churchill argues that the U.S. legal system was adapted to gain control over Native American people. Tracing the evolution of federal Indian law, Churchill argues that the principles set forth were not only applied to non-Indians in the U.S., but later adapted for application abroad. He concludes that this demonstrates the development of America's "imperial logic," which depends on a "corrupt form of legalism" to establish colonial control and empire. <!--quotes need references--> | |||
| In ''Agents of Repression'' (1988), co-authored by Jim Vander Wall, the authors describe what they term "the secret war" against the ] and ] carried out during the late ] and ] by the ] under the ] program. ''The COINTELPRO Papers'' (reissued 2002), also with Jim Vander Wall, examines a series of original FBI memos that detail the Bureau's activities against various leftist groups, from the ] in the ] to activists concerned with ]n issues in the ]. | |||
| === Activism === | |||
| Churchill has been active since at least 1984 as the co-director of the ]-based ], a breakaway chapter of the ]. In ], he and other local AIM leaders — including ], Glen Morris, Bob Robideau, and David Hill — broke with the national AIM leadership, including ], ] and Vernon Bellecourt, claiming that all AIM chapters are autonomous. The ] continues, with the AIM claiming that the local AIM leaders are tools of the government being used against Indians. | |||
| Churchill has been a leader of Colorado AIM's annual protests in Denver against the ] holiday and its associated parade. These protests have brought Colorado AIM's leadership into conflict with some leaders in the Denver ] community, the main supporters of the parade. Churchill and others have been arrested while protesting for acts such as blocking the parade. | |||
| Local American Indian support and advocacy organizations in the Denver metro area believe that the activities of the Colorado AIM chapter damage the work of the Colorado Indian Commission and Denver Indian Center. These organizations are allegedly relunctant to speak out against Churchill. | |||
| In April 1983, Churchill traveled to ] and ] as a representative of the AIM and the International Indian Treaty Council to meet Colonel ] of ] while a U.S. travel ban to that country was in place. The visit was intended to seek support from al-Qaddafi regarding the U.S. government's alleged violation of Indian treaties. | |||
| ]]] | |||
| === Artwork === | |||
| Apart from his academic position and writing, Churchill has attained a certain noteriety as a visual artist. Works by Churchill, such as lithographs, woodcuts, and drawings are fairly widely exhibited in galleries of the American Southwest, and to some degree elsewhere. As with the work "Winter Attack", discussed below, Churchill frequently takes as subject matter of visual compositions historical photographs or other past works, particularly ones associated with Native American figures. | |||
| ==9/11 essay controversy== | |||
| ===The essay=== | |||
| ] | |||
| Churchill wrote an essay <!--when did he write it?-->called "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens" about the ], in which he argued that American foreign policies provoked the attacks, describing the "technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire" working in the ] as "little ]." | |||
| Churchill argued that the impact on the population of ] of decade-long economic sanctions, together with the ] policies of President ], and the history of ] against the ] world, had contributed to a climate in which 9/11 was what he called a "natural and inevitable response." | |||
| The "roosting chickens" phrase comes from ]'s comment about the ] of U.S. president ] that Kennedy "never foresaw that the chickens would come home to roost so soon." | |||
| Churchill explained what he meant in a February 2005 interview with '']'': | |||
| <blockquote>If you want to avoid September 11s, if you want security in some actual form, then it's almost a ] framing, you have to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. As long as you're doing what the U.S. is doing in the world, you can anticipate a natural and inevitable response of the sort that occurred on 9/11. If you don't get the message out of 9/11, you're going to have to change, first of all, your perception of the value of those others who are consigned to domains, semantic domains like ], then you've really got no complaint when the rules you've imposed come back on you. </blockquote> | |||
| In an allusion to ]'s depiction of Nazi war criminal ] as an ordinary person promoting the activity of an evil system, Churchill referred to the "technocrats" working at the World Trade Center as "little Eichmanns." He wrote: | |||
| <blockquote>As for those in the World Trade Center, well, really, let's get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire, the "mighty engine of profit" to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always been enslaved and they did so both willingly and knowingly. </blockquote> | |||
| He wrote that the victims were: | |||
| <blockquote>... too busy braying, incessantly and self-importantly, into their cell phones, arranging power lunches and stock transactions, each of which translated, conveniently out of sight, mind and smelling distance, into the starved and rotting flesh of infants. If there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I'd really be interested in hearing about it. </blockquote> | |||
| Churchill compared the American people to the "good Germans" of ], claiming that the vast majority of Americans had ignored the civilian suffering caused by the sanctions on Iraq during the ], which he characterized as a policy of ]. | |||
| The essay was later expanded into a book, ''],'' which won Honorable Mention for the Gustavus Myer Human Rights Award in 2004. | |||
| ===The controversy=== | |||
| National attention was drawn to the essay in January 2005, when Churchill was invited to speak at ] as a member of a panel during a debate entitled "Limits of Dissent". | |||
| The text of the essay was quoted on the ], ] edition of the ] program ''].'' ] initiated a campaign against Churchill, imploring his viewers to e-mail the college to cancel Churchill's invitation. A flood of 6,000 e-mails resulted. In the ensuing uproar, the lecture was changed to a larger venue, but was ultimately cancelled by the college's president, Joan Stewart, because of what were called "credible threats of violence". <!--quote needs a reference--> Churchill has written that he received threats against his life as a consequence of the news coverage. | |||
| In response to what he called "grossly inaccurate media coverage concerning analysis of the September 11, 2001 attacks," Churchill clarified his views: | |||
| <blockquote>I am not a "defender" of the September 11 attacks, but simply pointing out that if U.S. foreign policy results in massive death and destruction abroad, we cannot feign innocence when some of that destruction is returned. I have never said that people "should" engage in armed attacks on the United States, but that such attacks are a natural and unavoidable consequence of unlawful U.S. policy. As ], quoting ], said, "Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable."</blockquote> | |||
| He continued: | |||
| <blockquote>It is not disputed that ] was a military target, or that a ] office was situated in the World Trade Center. Following the logic by which ] spokespersons have consistently sought to justify target selection in places like ], this placement of an element of the American "command and control infrastructure" in an ostensibly civilian facility converted the Trade Center itself into a "legitimate" target. Again following U.S. military doctrine, as announced in briefing after briefing, those who did not work for the CIA but were nonetheless killed in the attack amounted to no more than "collateral damage". If the U.S. public is prepared to accept these "standards" when they are routinely applied to other people, they should not be surprised when the same standards are applied to them. </blockquote> | |||
| On ], ], Churchill resigned as chairman of the Ethnic Studies department at the ], but remains a tenured professor. | |||
| Colorado ] governor ] and other ] and ] state lawmakers publicly called for Churchill's dismissal.<!--I removed the sentence that was here about allegations, because we haven't mentioned any allegations yet.--> The Colorado House of Representatives, with unanimous support from Republicans and Democrats, adopted a resolution condemning Churchill's statements. | |||
| The Board of Regents of the University of Colorado, meeting in executive session on ] 2005, adopted a resolution apologizing to the American people for Churchill's statements, and ratifying interim chancellor Phil DiStefano's review of Churchill's actions. DiStefano was directed to investigate whether Churchill had overstepped his bounds as a faculty member, whether his actions were cause for dismissal, and whether his writing is protected by the ]. The university's Standing Committee on Research Misconduct agreed that his words were protected by the First Amendment, but agreed to investigate subsequent claims made against Churchill of ], fabrication and ] fraud (see ]). | |||
| In response to the cancellation of Churchill's speech at Hamilton, Hawaiian Studies professor Dr. Haunani-Kay Trask invited him to speak at the ] on ], 2005, where Churchill responded to his critics. | |||
| === A "new McCarthyism" === | |||
| A fellow professor at the University of Colorado, Emma Perez, alleges that the attacks on Churchill are an organized "test case" by ]s to stifle liberal criticism of the ], and to undermine the funding of ] departments nationwide. . ] and many other organizations have similarly characterized the efforts to negatively characterize Churchill, and anyone who defends him, as a "witch hunt". For example, | |||
| <blockquote> | |||
| Hoffman went on to express her support for academic freedom. She said she feared a "new McCarthyism" in the uproar over Ward Churchill, and added, "We are in dangerous times again," to the applause of the faculty. | |||
| </blockquote> | |||
| <blockquote> | |||
| This was enough. A cry arose for her to resign. | |||
| </blockquote> | |||
| <blockquote> | |||
| After all, this campaign against Ward Churchill has been endorsed and given official legitimacy by the governors of Colorado and New York and other elected officials at every level, from one end of the country to the other. It has been promoted by the prominent Republican strategist Newt Gingrich, by the editorial pages of many major newspapers, and by the screeching Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly, and by the whole rightwing radio and TV talkshow circuit. | |||
| </blockquote> | |||
| In 2005, students at the University of Colorado at Boulder overwhelmingly picked Ward Churchill for its Teaching Recongnition Award. Following the political pressure to distance themselves from Professor Churchill, the University of Colorado Alumni Association, which sponsors the award, announced that they would withhold the award from Churchill. Given annually for 44 years, this is the first time the award's was withheld from the person who won it. | |||
| == Allegations against Churchill == | == Allegations against Churchill == | ||
| As a result of the controversy over the essay, additional allegations became the subject of debate in the media and on Internet ]s. These included disputes over his claim of partial ] heritage, and allegations of ] and ]. University of Colorado administrators ordered an investigation, which is currently underway, into the allegations of plagiarism. He has also been accused of intimidating his colleagues, and has allegedly made remarks advocating that soldiers kill their commanding officers. <!--Which remarks? Source?--> | As a result of the controversy over the essay, additional allegations became the subject of debate in the media and on Internet ]s. These included disputes over his claim of partial ] heritage, and allegations of ] and ]. University of Colorado administrators ordered an investigation, which is currently underway, into the allegations of plagiarism. He has also been accused of intimidating his colleagues, and has allegedly made remarks advocating that soldiers kill their commanding officers. <!--Which remarks? Source?--> | ||
| The ] has taken the Churchill affair as something of a '']'', and has run dozens of articles trying to dig up misconduct. See ]. | The ] has taken the Churchill affair as something of a '']'', and has run dozens of articles trying to dig up misconduct. See ]. | ||
| === Questioned ethnicity=== | === Questioned ethnicity=== | ||
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| When asked by a member of the audience about the officers' families, Churchill responded, "ow do you feel about Adolf Eichmann's family?" | When asked by a member of the audience about the officers' families, Churchill responded, "ow do you feel about Adolf Eichmann's family?" | ||
| ==Works== | |||
| ===Books=== | |||
| *''Marxism and Native Americans'', edited by Churchill (], 1984, paperback: ISBN 089608177X, hardcover: ISBN 0896081788) | |||
| *''Culture versus Economism: Essays on Marxism in the Multicultural Arena'' (Indigena Press, 1984) | |||
| *''Agents of Repression: The ]'s Secret Wars Against the ] and the ]'', co-authored with Jim Vander Wall (], 1988, paperback: ISBN 0896082938, hardcover: ISBN 0896082946) | |||
| *'']: Documents from the FBI's Secret War Against Domestic Dissent'', co-authored with Jim Vander Wall (], 1991, ISBN 0896083594) | |||
| *''Struggle for the Land: Indigenous Resistance to Genocide, Ecocide and Expropriation in Contemporary North America'' (Common Courage Press, 1992, ISBN 1567510000, hardcover: 1993, ISBN 1567510019). Released in a revised and expanded edition as ''Struggle for the Land: Native North American Resistance to Genocide, Ecocide, and Colonization'' (City Lights Publishers, 2002, hardcover: ISBN 0872864154, paperback: ISBN 0872864146) | |||
| *''Fantasies of the Master Race: Literature, Cinema, and the Colonization of American Indians'' (Common Courage Press, 1992, ISBN 0872863484) | |||
| *''Cages of Steel: The Politics of Imprisonment in America'', co-edited by Jim Vander Wall (Activism, Politics, Culture, Theory, Vol. 4, Maisonneuve Press, 1992, ISBN 0944624170). Re-released as ''Cages of Steel: The Politics of Imprisonment in the United States'' (AK Press, 2004, ISBN 1904859127). | |||
| *''Indians Are Us?: Culture and Genocide in Native North America'' (Common Courage Press, 1993, paperback: ISBN 1567510205, hardcover: ISBN 1567510213) | |||
| *''Since Predator Came: Notes from the Struggle for American Indian Liberation'' (Aigis Press, 1995, ISBN 1883930030) | |||
| *''From A Native Son: Selected Essays on Indigenism 1985-1995'' (South End Press, 1996, ISBN 0896085538) | |||
| *''Islands in Captivity: The International Tribunal on the Rights of Indigenous Hawaiians'' (South End Press, 1997, paperback: ISBN 0896085678, hardcover: ISBN 0896085686, out of print). Re-released, co-edited by Sharon Venne (South End Press, 2005, hardcover: ISBN 0896087387). | |||
| *''Pacifism as Pathology: Reflections on the Role of Armed Struggle in North America'', with Mike Ryan, an introduction by Ed Mead (], 1998, ISBN 1894037073) | |||
| *''A Little Matter Of Genocide: Holocaust And Denial In The Americas 1492 To The Present'' (City Lights Books, 1998, hardcover: ISBN 0872863433, paperback: ISBN 0872863239). | |||
| *''Draconian Measures: The History of FBI Political Repression'' (Common Courage Press, 2000, out of print, hardcover: ISBN 1567510590, paperback: ISBN 1567510582) | |||
| *''Acts Of Rebellion: The Ward Churchill Reader,'' (], 2002, paperback: ISBN 0415931568, library binding: ISBN 041593155X) | |||
| *''Perversions of Justice: Indigenous Peoples and Angloamerican Law'' (City Lights Publishers, 2002, paperback: ISBN 0872864111, hardcover: ISBN 0872864162) | |||
| *'']: Reflections on the Consequences of U.S. Imperial Arrogance and Criminality'' (AK Press, 2003, ISBN 1902593790) | |||
| *''Kill the Indian, Save the Man: The Genocidal Impact of American Indian Residential Schools'' (City Lights Publishers, 2004, ISBN 0872864340). | |||
| *''Speaking Truth in the Teeth of Power: Lectures on Globalization, Colonialism, and Native North America'' (], 2004, ISBN 1904859046) | |||
| *''Confronting The Crime Of Silence: Evidence Of U.S. War Crimes In Indochina'', co-edited by Natsu Saito (AK Press, 2005, ISBN 1904859216) | |||
| *''To Disrupt, Discredit And Destroy: The FBI's Secret War Against The Black Panther Party'' (], 2005, paperback: ISBN 041592958X, hardcover: ISBN 0415929571). | |||
| ===Audio and video=== | |||
| *''Doing Time: The Politics of Imprisonment'', audio CD of a lecture, recorded at the Doing Time Conference at the ], September 2000 (AK Press, 2002, ISBN 1902593472) | |||
| *''Life In Occupied America'' (AK Press, 2003, ISBN 1902593723) | |||
| *''In A Pig's Eye: Reflections on the Police State, Repression, and Native America'' (AK Press, 2002, ISBN 1902593502) | |||
| *''US Off The Planet!: An Evening In ] With Ward Churchill And Chellis Glendinning'', VHS video recorded July 17, 2001 (Cascadia Media Collective, 2002) | |||
| *''Pacifism and Pathology in the American Left'', 2003 audio CD recorded at a AK Press warehouse in Oakland (AK Press Audio) | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * - Free Speech Radio News February 09, 2005 | |||
| * - Free Speech Radio News, February 03, 2005 | |||
| * The Network Show, from February 18, 2005 features extended Audio/Video exclusive interview with Churchill | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| ===General=== | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * by ] writing for ]. | |||
| * (by John P. LaVelle) (PDF file) | |||
| ===Articles related to 9/11 essay=== | |||
| * | |||
| * (''Rocky Mountain News'') | |||
| * | |||
| * (''New York Times,'' February 2 2005) | |||
| * (CNN, January 31, 2005) | |||
| * (''Denver Post,'' February 01, 2005) | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * (by Jon Caldara, OpEd, February 27, 2005 | |||
| * (''Capitalism Magazine'') | |||
| * plus other links | |||
| * | |||
| * (a legal case for firing Churchill) | |||
| * (Associated Press/''Denver Post,'' February 02, 2005) | |||
| ===Disputes over Churchill's ethnicity=== | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| === Colorado's "Rocky Mountain News" on the "Churchill affair" === | |||
| *Churchill's essays lack originality, says N.M. law professor By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News February 11, 2005 | |||
| *Red-flagged career Churchill's tenure at CU marked by warnings of trouble By Charlie Brennan And Stuart Steers, Rocky Mountain News February 17, 2005 | |||
| *Churchill's quick rise 'doesn't compute' Former CU official who backed his hire surprised by tenure By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News February 17, 2005 | |||
| *Shadows of doubt (Rocky Mountain) News finds problems in all four major areas before CU panel By Charlie Brennan, Kevin Flynn, Laura Frank, Berny Morson and Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News June 4, 2005 | |||
| *The charge: Plagiarism Did Ward Churchill publish the work of others as his own? By Laura Frank, Rocky Mountain News June 7, 2005 | |||
| *'Connect the dots' a wild goose chase By Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News June 9, 2005 Ward Churchill provided some cryptic directions 11 years ago when questions were raised on the University of Colorado campus about his Indian heritage. | |||
| *CU asks for more info on professor Documents sought to pursue alleged research misconduct By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News July 27, 2005 | |||
| *Complaints by former wife's family sent to Churchill panel By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News August 27, 2005 | |||
| *''Charges of Research Misconduct at CU'', 7 of 9 charges forwarded to a more thorough investigation by experts, 2 charges deemed inappropriate, charge by former wife also considered outside the mandate of the initial investigating committee. Churchill claims to be unfazed, but will be denied sabbatical. September 10, 2005 | |||
| ===Cartoons by Marty Two Bulls=== | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| ==References== | |||
| *Cesarani, David. ''Adolf Eichmann: The Mind of a War Criminal'', (BBC.co.uk, ] ]) Retrieved ] ] | |||
| *] 2005)]. Retrieved ] 2005. | |||
| {{wikiquote}} | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
Revision as of 23:15, 29 November 2005
Allegations against Churchill
As a result of the controversy over the essay, additional allegations became the subject of debate in the media and on Internet weblogs. These included disputes over his claim of partial Native American heritage, and allegations of academic fraud and plagiarism. University of Colorado administrators ordered an investigation, which is currently underway, into the allegations of plagiarism. He has also been accused of intimidating his colleagues, and has allegedly made remarks advocating that soldiers kill their commanding officers.
The Rocky Mountain News has taken the Churchill affair as something of a bete noir, and has run dozens of articles trying to dig up misconduct. See external references section.
Questioned ethnicity
Churchill has said that he is less than one-quarter Indian , and that he was an associate member of the Keetoowah tribe. In an article in Socialism and Democracy magazine, he 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."
The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians has issued a statement that Churchill is a not a current member of their tribe, but was formerly an honorary associate member:
Ward Churchill received an “Associate Membership” from the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma (UKB) council in May, 1994. He was not eligible for tribal membership due to the fact that he does not possess a “Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood” (CDIB) which is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Interior / Bureau of Indian Affairs. Because Mr. Churchill had genealogical information regarding his alleged ancestry, and his willingness to assist the UKB in promoting the tribe and its causes, he was awarded an ‘Associate Membership’ as an honor. However, Mr. Churchill may possess eligibility status for Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, since he claims 1/16 Cherokee.
The Denver Post reported that a review of Churchill's matrilineal genealogy on Ancestry.com shows no evidence of Native American ancestry going back to his great-great-grandparents. Based on Census and Social Security Administration records all matrilineal ancestors of Ward Churchill are listed either as "White" or as "race unknown."
The Rocky Mountain News did a similar a review of all of Churchill's relatives and family records and reached the conclusion that Churchill's claims of American Indian ancestry are not supported. Kevin Flynn reporter wrote that "an extensive genealogical search by the Rocky Mountain News identified 142 direct forebears of Churchill and turned up no evidence of a single Indian ancestor among them."
In an interview in The Rocky Mountain News, Churchill stated: "I have never been confirmed as having one-quarter blood, and never said I was. And even if (the critics) are absolutely right, what does that have to do with this issue? I have never claimed to be goddamned Sitting Bull".
Moreover, it is not unusual for Americans who have some Native American blood, but whose families live within the mainstream community, and who know their heritage only from family tradition, to encounter difficulty proving their ethnicity to the satisfaction of administrators of affirmative action programs.
Some members in the Native American community also question Churchill's claim of partial Indian heritage. The University of Colorado is currently investigating whether he misrepresented his ethnicity in order to "make his scholarship more widely accepted."
Suzan Shown Harjo, a Hodulgee Muscogee Creek/Cheyenne Indian and well-known Indian activist who has known Churchill for fifteen years, said she has discussed with Churchill his claims of being a Creek Indian. She has indicated that Churchill could not name his family members that are enrolled in the Creek Tribe. Creek-Cherokee historian Robert W. Trepp did not find Churchill's family members on the Muscogee (Creek) Nation rolls.
Dennis Banks, an Anishinabe Indian and a co-founder of AIM, and the national leadership of AIM, has issued press releases on a number of occasions over the years stating that Churchill does not represent the American Indian Movement and is not an Indian.
There has been unsubstantiated speculation that Churchill was hired by the University of Colorado partly because of statements about his ethnic background, and that assertion of Native American ancestry without the ability to prove it might constitute misrepresentation and grounds for termination.
According to Law professor Paul Campos:
Indeed Churchill lacks what are normally considered the minimum requirements for a tenure-track job at a research university: he never earned a doctorate, and his only degrees are a bachelor's and a master's from a then-obscure Illinois college. To the extent that Churchill was hired because he claimed to be a Native American, he would seem to be guilty of academic fraud.
Fabrication and plagiarism
In the article "The Genocide That Wasn't: Ward Churchill's Research Fraud", sociology professor Thomas Brown accused Churchill of academic fraud based on an article Churchill wrote about an incident in which the U.S. Army is alleged to have deliberately infected Mandan Indians with smallpox in 1837. Brown's article argues that the sources Churchill cites do not support Churchill's claims. Historian and political scientist Guenter Lewy agrees that Churchill has mischaracterized his sources, and calls Churchill's claim of 100,000 deaths from the alleged smallpox incident "obviously absurd".
In two articles published in the 1990s, University of New Mexico law professor John LaVelle alleged that Churchill fraudulently made false claims about the General Allotment Act. LaVelle also accuses Churchill of plagiarism.
Recently, allegations reappeared that Churchill had plagiarized the work of Fay G. Cohen of Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia. An internal Dalhousie University report concludes that "he article ... is, in the opinion of our legal counsel, plagiarism," Dalhousie spokesman Charles Crosby said, summarizing the report's findings in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News. Cohen also accused Churchill of telephoning her and threatening her after she made the complaint.
There are allegations that "Winter Attack", a 1981 serigraph signed by Ward Churchill, may be a copyright infringement of a 1972 drawing by Thomas E. Mails. , . Churchill has responded that "he whole issue is utterly contrived." He said he spoke to Mails about adapting the imagery before using it, an adaptation which he said "here was nothing unusual about." Ryan Mails, the son of the late Thomas Mails, said that he could not imagine that his father "would ever grant permission to anyone to copy one of his pieces."
Three other authors have come forward to accuse Churchill of publishing their work without their permission. Robert T. Coulter, a lawyer and member of the Potawatomi Nation, has accused Churchill of taking a class that Coulter taught on the status of American Indian nations and having those notes published without written permission in a book of essays that Churchill had published. In addition, Churchill allegedly added endnotes to the article that were not in the original article. Coulter has not only criticized Churchill's use of the article without permission, but also the addition of the endnotes. He said: "I would never have permitted that — especially Ward Churchill. He's not a lawyer. He doesn't have the skill or expertise to add to a paper on my own subject."
The Governor calls it treason
In an April 2004 interview with Satya magazine, Churchill said:
If I defined the state as being the problem, just what happens to the state? I've never fashioned myself to be a revolutionary, but it's part and parcel of what I'm talking about. You can create through consciousness a situation of flux, perhaps, in which something better can replace it. In instability there's potential. That's about as far as I go with revolutionary consciousness. I'm actually a de-evolutionary. I don't want other people in charge of the apparatus of the state as the outcome of a socially transformative process that replicates oppression. I want the state gone: transform the situation to U.S. out of North America. U.S. off the planet. Out of existence altogether.
Colorado governor Bill Owens called this comment "treasonous," arguing that "Churchill has clearly called for violence against the state, and no country is required to subsidize its own destruction. That's what we're doing with Ward Churchill." On February 6, 2005, the Denver Post reported that this comment would be included by the university in its review of Churchill's tenure. Although there has been some suggestion that the Smith Act may be invoked in order to prosecute Churchill for his remarks, the debate is mostly focused on whether the First Amendment protects the tenure of a professor of a public university. Many, including Governor Owen, argue that the University of Colorado (or any other public university) is not required to sanction faculty that support the overthrow of the government.
On June 23, 2005, Churchill told an audience in Portland, Oregon:
For those of you who do, as a matter of principle, oppose war in any form, the idea of supporting a conscientious objector who's already been inducted in his combat service in Iraq might have a certain appeal. But let me ask you this: Would you render the same level of support to someone who hadn't conscientiously objected, but rather instead rolled a grenade under their line officer in order to neutralize the combat capacity of their unit? ... Conscientious objection removes a given piece of cannon fodder from the fray. Fragging an officer has a much more impactful effect.
When asked by a member of the audience about the officers' families, Churchill responded, "ow do you feel about Adolf Eichmann's family?"