Ward Churchill

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Ward Churchill
Sangamon State University
(BA, MA)
OccupationAuthor

Ward LeRoy Churchill (born October 2, 1947)[1] is an American activist and author. He was a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado Boulder from 1990 until 2007.[2] Much of Churchill's work focuses on the historical treatment of political dissenters and Native Americans by the United States government, and he expresses controversial views in a direct, often confrontational style.[3] While Churchill has claimed Native American ancestry, genealogical research has failed to unearth such ancestry and he is not a member of a tribe.

In January 2005, Churchill's 2001 essay "

U.S. foreign policy over the latter half of the 20th century; the essay is known for Churchill's use of the phrase "little Eichmanns" to describe the "technocratic corps" working in the World Trade Center.[4]

In March 2005, the University of Colorado began investigating allegations that Churchill had engaged in research misconduct.[5] Churchill was fired on July 24, 2007.[6] Churchill filed a lawsuit against the University of Colorado for unlawful termination of employment. In April 2009, a Denver jury found that Churchill was unjustly fired, awarding him $1 in damages.[7][8] In July 2009, however, a District Court judge vacated the monetary award and declined Churchill's request to order his reinstatement, holding that the university had "quasi-judicial immunity". Churchill's appeals of this decision were unsuccessful.

Early life and education

Churchill was born in Urbana, Illinois, to Jack LeRoy Churchill and Maralyn Lucretia Allen. His parents divorced before he turned two. He grew up in Elmwood, Illinois, where he attended local schools.[9]

In 1966, Churchill was

Weather Underground.[10] In 2005, the Denver Post reported on fabrications in Churchill's service record. Department of Defense personnel files showed that Churchill was trained as a film projectionist and light truck driver, but they do not reflect paratrooper school or LRRP training.[9][11]

Churchill received his B.A. in technological communications in 1974 and his M.A. in

University of Illinois at Springfield).[9]

Career

University of Colorado Boulder

In 1978, Churchill began working at the

Political Science departments.[12]

Churchill received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Alfred University in 1992.[13]

In 1994, then CU-Boulder Chancellor James Corbridge refused to take action on allegations that Churchill was fraudulently claiming to be an Indian, saying "it has always been university policy that a person's

race or ethnicity is self-proving."[14]

In 1996, Churchill moved to the new Ethnic Studies Department of the University of Colorado. In 1997, he was promoted to

full professor. He was selected as chairman of the department in June 2002.[15][16][17] Documents in Churchill's university personnel file show that Churchill was granted tenure in a "special opportunity position".[16]

In January 2005, during the controversy over his 9/11 remarks, Churchill resigned as chairman of the ethnic studies department at the University of Colorado — his term as chair was scheduled to expire in June of that year.[18]

In 2005, the University of Colorado's Research Misconduct Committee conducted a preliminary investigation into whether Churchill misrepresented his ethnicity to "add credibility and public acceptance to his scholarship".[19] The committee concluded that the allegation was not "appropriate for further investigation under the definition of research misconduct".[20] The university has said that it does not hire on the basis of ethnicity.[14]

On July 24, 2007, Churchill was fired for academic misconduct.[6]

Research misconduct investigation

Churchill testifying in the civil trial of Ward Churchill v. University of Colorado.

The quality of Churchill's research had been seriously questioned by legal scholar John LaVelle and historian Guenter Lewy.[21][22][23] Additional critics were sociologist Thomas Brown, who had been preparing an article on Churchill's work; and historians R. G. Robertson and Russell Thornton, who said that Churchill had misrepresented their work.[24][25]

In 2005,

research misconduct against Churchill.[19] The allegations included three allegations of plagiarism, allegations of fabrication or falsification regarding the history of the Dawes Act and the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, and alleged claims that smallpox was intentionally spread to Native Americans by John Smith in 1614 and by the United States Army at Fort Clark in 1837
.

On May 16, 2006, the university released its findings; the Investigative Committee unanimously concluded that Churchill had engaged in "serious research misconduct", including falsification, fabrication, and plagiarism.[5] The committee was divided on the appropriate level of sanctions.[5] Following further deliberations by university bodies,[26][6][27] on July 24, 2007, the university regents voted seven to two to uphold all seven of the findings of research misconduct. The regents voted eight to one to fire Churchill.[6][27]

The next day, Churchill filed a lawsuit in state court claiming that the firing was retribution for his expression of politically unpopular views.[28] The jury in Churchill's suit for reinstatement weighed the university's claims of academic misconduct per jury instructions it received in the case. On April 1, 2009, the jury found that Churchill had been wrongly fired, and awarded $1 in damages.[7] On July 7, 2009, Judge Larry Naves found that the university was entitled to quasi-judicial immunity as a matter of law, vacated the jury verdict, and determined that the university did not owe Churchill any financial compensation.[29][30] Churchill appealed, but Judge Naves's decision was upheld by a three-judge panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals[31][32] and by the Colorado Supreme Court.[33]

United States Supreme Court declined to hear Churchill's case.[35][36]

A 2011 report by the Colorado Committee to Protect Faculty Rights of the Colorado Conference of the American Association of University Professors investigating academic freedom at the University of Colorado - Boulder determined that Churchill's termination was unjustified.[37][38]

Writing

According to the University of Colorado investigation, Churchill's academic publications "are nearly all works of synthesis and reinterpretation, drawing upon studies by other scholars, not monographs describing new research based on primary sources." The investigation also noted that "he has decided to publish largely in alternative presses or journals, not in the university presses or mainstream peer-reviewed journals often favored by more conventional academics."

Gavriel Rosenfeld criticized Churchill for "numerous errors reflecting sloppy or hasty scholarship".[39]

In 1986, Churchill wrote the essay "Pacifism as Pathology: Notes on an American Pseudopraxis" criticizing

anti-globalization movement in the following few years.[42] George Lakey, a co-founder of the pacifist Movement for a New Society, published a detailed response in 2001 titled "Nonviolent Action as the Sword that Heals: Challenging Ward Churchill's 'Pacifism As Pathology'".[43][44] The 2007 edition published by AK Press includes a preface by Derrick Jensen.[45] A third edition was published in 2017 by PM Press with updates by Churchill and Ryan, and a foreword by Dylan Rodríguez.[46]

Churchill's Indians Are Us? (1994), a sequel to Fantasies of the Master Race, further explores Native American issues in popular culture and politics. He examines the movie

do-it-yourself Indianism" of certain contemporary authors. John P. LaVelle of the University of New Mexico School of Law published a review of Indians Are Us? in The American Indian Quarterly. Professor LaVelle, an enrolled member of the Santee Sioux Nation, states that Indians Are Us? twists historical facts and is hostile toward Indian tribes.[21] It was in this book that Churchill first made the assertion that the United States distributed "smallpox-infested blankets" to Indian tribes, an assertion which he repeated several times over the next decade. The assertion has been criticized as a falsification.[47]

Churchill argues that in the American continent the Indigenous populations were subjected to a systematic campaign of extermination by settler colonialism: "For Churchill, the greatest series of genocides ever perpetrated in history - in terms of magnitude and duration - occurred in the Americas...".[48] He discusses American policies such as the Indian Removal Act and the forced assimilation of Indigenous children in American Indian boarding schools operating in the mid-1800s to early 1900s.[49] He has called manifest destiny an ideology used to justify dispossession and genocide against Native Americans, and compared it to Lebensraum ideology of Nazi Germany.[50]

Blood quantum

Churchill argues that the United States instituted blood quantum laws based upon rules of descendancy in order to further goals of personal enrichment and political expediency.[51] For decades in his writings, Churchill has argued that blood quantum laws have an inherent genocidal purpose. He says: "Set the blood quantum at one-quarter, hold to it as a rigid definition of Indians, let intermarriage proceed as it [has] and eventually Indians will be defined out of existence".[52]

Churchill's assertions about the blood quantum were raised when research-misconduct allegations were brought against him in 2005 (see above). He has been accused of using his interpretation of the Dawes Act to attack tribal governments that would not recognize him as a member.[51]

September 11 essay

Churchill wrote an essay in September 2001 entitled

Hamilton College invited Churchill to speak.[4] This led to both condemnations of Churchill and counter-accusations of McCarthyism by Churchill and his supporters. Following the controversy, the University of Colorado interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano said, "While Professor Churchill has the constitutional right to express his political views, his essay on 9/11 has outraged and appalled us and the general public."[18]

Art

Churchill's subjects are often

1990 Indian Arts and Crafts Act. It requires that, to identify and exhibit works as being by a Native American, artists and craftsmen must be enrolled in a Native American tribe or designated by a tribe as an artisan.[54]

Churchill's 1981

serigraph Winter Attack was, according to Churchill and others, based on a 1972 drawing by the artist Thomas E. Mails.[55] Churchill printed 150 copies of Winter Attack and sold at least one of them. Other copies are available online for purchase. Churchill says that, when he produced Winter Attack, he publicly acknowledged that it was based on Mails's work.[55] The online journal Artnet mentions Churchill's artwork and the controversy surrounding its originality.[53]

Personal life

In 1977, Churchill began living with Dora-Lee Larson. The relationship was later described in divorce documents as a common-law marriage. Larson filed for divorce in 1984 and asked to have her address kept secret because of “past violence and threats” from Churchill.[9]

Churchill later married Marie Annette Jaimes, who also worked at the University of Colorado. Their marriage ended in 1995.[9]

Churchill's third wife was Leah Kelly. On May 31, 2000, the 25-year-old Kelly was hit by a car and killed. Churchill has written that Kelly's death left a "crater" in his soul.[9]

As of 2005, Churchill was married to Natsu Saito, a professor of ethnic studies.[9]

Ancestry

In 2003, Churchill stated, "I am myself of

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."[56][57] In 1992, Churchill wrote elsewhere that he is one-eighth Creek and one-sixteenth Cherokee.[58]
In 1993, Churchill told the
Denver Post in February 2005 that he is three-sixteenths Cherokee.[11]

In a statement dated May 9, 2005, and posted on its website, the United Keetoowah Band said: "The United Keetoowah Band would like to make it clear that Mr. Churchill is not a member of the Keetoowah Band and was only given an honorary 'associate membership' in the early 1990s because he could not prove any Cherokee ancestry". The Band added that Churchill's claims of Keetoowah enrollment were deemed fraudulent by the United Keetoowah Band.[60]

Two days later, the United Keetoowah Band replaced its earlier statement with the following: "Because Mr. Churchill had genealogical information regarding his alleged ancestry", and because he was willing "to assist the UKB in promoting the tribe and its causes, he was awarded an 'Associate Membership' as an honor". The Band clarified that Churchill "was not eligible for tribal membership due to the fact that he does not possess a 'Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB)", and added that associate membership did not entitle an individual to voting rights or enrollment in the tribe. The Band's spokesperson, Lisa Stopp, stated the tribe enrolls only members with certified one-quarter American Indian blood.[61][62] While the United Keetoowah Band voted to stop awarding associate memberships in 1994,[61][63] the Band indicated in 2005 that Churchill still held an associate membership.[64][65]

Churchill has never asked for CDIB certification, and has said that he finds the idea of being "vetted" by the US government offensive.[61][62]

In June 2005, the Rocky Mountain News published an article about Churchill's genealogy and family history. The newspaper's research "turned up no evidence of a single Indian ancestor" among 142 direct ancestors [of Churchill's] identified from records.[63] The News reported that both Churchill's birth parents were listed as white on the 1930 census, as were all but two of his great-great-grandparents listed on previous census and other official documents.[63] The News found that some of Churchill's accounts of where his ancestors had lived did not agree with documented records. Nevertheless, numerous members of Churchill's extended family have longstanding family legends of Indian ancestry among ancestors.[63]

Some of Churchill's Native American critics, such as

Muscogee Creek), argue that without proof, his assertion of Native American ancestry might constitute misrepresentation.[14]

In a 2005 interview in The Rocky Mountain News, Churchill said, "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."[66]

Activism

Churchill has been a leader of Colorado AIM's annual protests in Denver against the Columbus Day holiday and its associated parade.[67]

Works

Books, as editor

  • Marxism and Native Americans. Boulder, Colorado:
    ISBN 978-0-89608-178-9
    .
  • Sharon Venne, ed. (1997). Islands in Captivity: The International Tribunal on the Rights of Indigenous Hawaiians. Boulder, Colorado:
    ISBN 978-0-89608-738-5
    .
  • Natsu Saito, ed. (2006). Confronting The Crime of Silence: Evidence of U.S. War Crimes in Indochina.
    ISBN 978-1-904859-21-5
    .

Books, as author and co-author

Articles

Audio and video

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Curriculum vitae of Ward L. Churchill" (PDF). wardchurchill.net. Retrieved April 1, 2023.
  2. ^ Jury Says Professor Was Wrongly Fired; New York Times; Kirk Johnson and Katherine Q. Seelye; April 2, 2009
  3. ^ Chapman Page 92–93
  4. ^ a b Brennan, Charlie (February 3, 2005). "College journalist touched off firestorm". Rocky Mountain News. Archived from the original on October 16, 2008.
  5. ^ a b c d Wesson, Marianne; Clinton, Robert; Limón, José; McIntosh, Marjorie; Radelet, Michael (May 9, 2006). Report of the Investigative Committee of the Standing Committee on Research Misconduct at the University of Colorado Boulder concerning Allegations of Academic Misconduct against Professor Ward Churchill (PDF). University of Colorado Boulder. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 23, 2006.
  6. ^ a b c d Morson, Berny (July 25, 2007). "CU regents fire Ward Churchill". Rocky Mountain News.
  7. ^ a b Johnson, Kirk; Seelye, Katharine Q. (April 3, 2009). "Jury Says Professor Wrongly Fired". The New York Times. Retrieved April 2, 2009.
  8. ^ John, Aguilar (April 2, 2009). "Churchill wins his case, awarded $1 in damages – Reinstatement at CU to be decided at future hearing". Daily Camera. Archived from the original on April 5, 2009. Retrieved April 3, 2009.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Curtin, Dave; Pankratz, Howard; Kane, Arthur (June 9, 2005). "Questions stoke Ward Churchill's firebrand past". Denver Post. Archived from the original on October 1, 2007. Retrieved May 7, 2023.
  10. ^ photostat of Denver Post article, Claire Martin and (name illegible), Denver Post Archived June 19, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, January 18, 1987. Retrieved February 7, 2010
  11. ^ a b Pankratz, Howard (February 3, 2005). "CU prof affirms Indian heritage: Tribe says he's not full member". Denver Post.
  12. ^ "Conference report" (PDF).
  13. ^ "Alfred University, Honorary Degrees, 1990–1999". Archived from the original on May 24, 2003. Retrieved August 28, 2007.
  14. ^ a b c Brennan, Charlie; Steers, Stuart (February 17, 2005). "Red-flagged career: Churchill's tenure at CU marked by warnings of trouble". Rocky Mountain News.
  15. ^ Morson, Berny; Brennan, Charlie (February 16, 2005). "Churchill tenure questioned: Prof was granted job security without usual review process". Rocky Mountain News.
  16. ^ a b Dodge, Jefferson (February 24, 2005). "Churchill's personnel files released by CU-Boulder". Silver & Gold Record. Archived from the original on September 22, 2006.
  17. ^ "Honorary Degrees, 1990–1999". Special Collections & Archives. Herrick Memorial Library, Alfred University. Archived from the original on May 24, 2003.
  18. ^ a b Ward Churchill Resigns Administrative Post Archived September 24, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, University of Colorado Boulder, January 31, 2005
  19. ^ a b DiStephano, Philip; Gleeson, Todd; Getches, David (March 24, 2005). Report on Conclusion of Preliminary Review in the Matter of Professor Ward Churchill. University of Colorado Boulder. Archived from the original on June 29, 2012.
  20. ^ Hale, Pauline (September 9, 2005). "Statement Regarding Decision Of Standing Committee On Research Misconduct" (Press release). CU-Boulder Office of News Services. Archived from the original on November 28, 2007.
  21. ^
    JSTOR 1184946. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on December 8, 2006. Retrieved February 14, 2007.
  22. JSTOR 1409527. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on December 8, 2006. Retrieved February 14, 2007.
  23. ^ Lewy, Guenter (November 22, 2004). "Were American Indians the Victims of Genocide?". History News Network.
  24. ^ Jaschik, Scott (February 9, 2005). "A New Ward Churchill Controversy". Inside Higher Ed.
  25. ^ Brown, Thomas (2006). "Did the U.S. Army Distribute Smallpox Blankets to Indians? Fabrication and Falsification in Ward Churchill's Genocide Rhetoric" (PDF). Plagiary: Cross-Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification. 1 (9): 1–30. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 12, 2007.
  26. ^ Rosse, Joseph; Bhagat, Sanjai; Bradburn, Mark; Bruff, Harold; Glyde, Judith; Guberman, Steven; Mody, Bella; Morris, Linda; Nauenberg, Uriel; Pierpont, Cortlandt (June 13, 2006). Report and Recommendations of the Standing Committee on Research Misconduct Concerning Allegations of Research Misconduct by Professor Ward Churchill (PDF). University of Colorado Boulder.
  27. ^ a b Dodge, Jefferson (July 26, 2007). "Regents dismiss Ward Churchill". Silver & Gold Record. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved January 8, 2008.
  28. ^ "First amended complaint & jury demand" (PDF). Ward Churchill v. University of Colorado. July 25, 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 30, 2007.
  29. ^ McGhee, Tom (July 7, 2009). "No job, no money for Ward Churchill". Denver Post. Retrieved July 7, 2009.
  30. ^ Churchill v. University of Colorado, Order Granting Defendants' Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law and Denying Plaintiff's Motion for Reinstatement of Employment (2009), archived from the original on 1 July 2011.
  31. ^ "Ward Churchill Won't Get Job Back, Appeals Court Rules". Law Week Colorado. November 24, 2010. Retrieved November 26, 2010.
  32. ^ Churchill v. University of Colorado at Boulder, 293 P.3d 16 (Colo. App. November 24, 2010).
  33. ^ "Supreme Court declines to hear controversial professor's appeal". Reuters. January 4, 2013. Retrieved January 4, 2013.
  34. ^ Churchill v. University of Colorado at Boulder, 285 P.3d 986 (Colo. September 10, 2012).
  35. ^ "Ex-university professor Ward Churchill won't get Supreme Court appeal on firing". FoxNews.com. April 1, 2013.
  36. ^ Churchill v. University of Colorado at Boulder, 569 U.S. 904 (April 1, 2013).
  37. ^ "CU's treatment of Ward Churchill, Phil Mitchell makes it questionable employer, report finds". Westword. November 9, 2011. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  38. ^ CCPFR Reports on the University of Colorado's Terminations of Phil Mitchell and Ward Churchill (Report). Colorado Conference of the American Association of University Professorsdate=2011.
  39. doi:10.1093/hgs/13.1.28
    .
  40. ^ Churchill, Ward. "Pacifism as Pathology: Notes on An American Pseudopraxis" (PDF). Zine Library. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 14, 2012. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  41. ISBN 9780826343758
    .
  42. ^ Kauffman, L. A. (December 10, 1999). "Who were those masked anarchists in Seattle?". Salon.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2008. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  43. ^ Lakey, George (2001). The Sword that Heals: Challenging Ward Churchill's 'Pacifism as Pathology'. Training for Change.
  44. ^ Lakey, George (March 1, 2001). "Nonviolent Action as the Sword that Heals". TrainingForChange.org. Training for Change. Archived from the original on February 8, 2009. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  45. ISBN 978-1904859185
    .
  46. ^ Rai, Milan (December 2017). "Ward Churchill & Michael Ryan, Pacifism as Pathology: Reflections on the Role of Armed Struggle in North America". Peace News. No. 2612–2613. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  47. hdl:2027/spo.5240451.0001.009
    .
  48. JSTOR 45135468
    . Churchill argues that settler-colonies around the world established during European expansion post-1492 in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina, are not only potentially but inherently genocidal...In Churchill's view, settler-colonies involve genocide in their very being.
  49. ISBN 978-0-87286-343-9
    (hardcover).
  50. ISBN 978-0-87436-928-1
    . The size of the aggregate native North American population in 1500 is currently estimated at about 15 million. By 1890 it had been reduced by some 97.5 percent, to less than a quarter-million. That year, it was announced that "aboriginal land-holdings" amounted to only 2.5 percent of US territory. Anglo-America's professed "manifest destiny" to acquire "living space" by liquidating the "inferior" peoples who owned it had been fulfilled.
  51. ^ a b "The charge: Mischaracterization". Archived from the original on December 25, 2005. Retrieved May 12, 2017., The Rocky Mountain News; June 7, 2005
  52. ^ Churchill, Ward, Kill the Indian, Save the Man, San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 2004, p. 88
  53. ^ a b "Artnet News: Art Troubles for WTC "Little Eichmanns" Critic". Artnet. March 15, 2005. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  54. ^ Croteau 220–221
  55. ^ a b Chohan, Raj (February 24, 2005). "'Original' Churchill Art Piece Creates Controversy". KCNC-TV (CBS Broadcasting). Archived from the original on September 6, 2008. Retrieved January 16, 2008.
  56. S2CID 143631746. Archived from the original
    on February 6, 2005.
  57. ^ "Ward Churchill". Ethnic Studies. University of Colorado. Archived from the original on January 7, 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-09.
  58. ISBN 0-89608-424-8
    . Churchill told the University of Colorado investigative committee that he wrote this essay in its entirety.
  59. ^ Rave, Jodi (February 12, 2005). "Free Speech for Fake Indian". Rapid City Journal. Retrieved July 27, 2008.
  60. ^ Brennan, Charlie (May 18, 2005). "Tribe snubs prof: Cherokee band says Churchill's claim of membership a fraud". Rocky Mountain News. Archived from the original on November 26, 2005. Retrieved May 7, 2023.
  61. ^ a b c Brennan, Charlie (May 21, 2005). "Tribe clarifies stance on prof: Milder statement explains Churchill's 'associate' label". Rocky Mountain News.
  62. ^ a b Herdy, Amy (May 20, 2005). "Tribe shifts stand, acknowledges Churchill's alleged Cherokee ancestry". Denver Post. Archived from the original on May 22, 2005.
  63. ^ a b c d Flynn, Kevin (June 9, 2005). "The Churchill files; Are Ward Churchill's claims of American Indian ancestry valid?". Rocky Mountain News. Archived from the original on October 1, 2007. Retrieved July 25, 2007.
  64. ^ Clark, Elizabeth Mattern (May 19, 2005). "Keetoowah Band says Churchill is honorary, Indian tribe states membership is not recognized". Daily Camera.com. Archived from the original on February 23, 2009.
  65. ^ The Tahlequah Daily Press, February 4, 2005
  66. ^ "Year in quotes". Rocky Mountain News. December 25, 2005.
  67. ^ "Rocky Mountain News: Columbus parade could see less strife". Transform Columbus Day.

Further reading

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