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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?"