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How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage?

By Jeralyn, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Tue Apr 05, 2005 at 09:09:33 PM EST
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David Lane, lawyer for embattled Professor Ward Churchill, wrote a letter Monday to University of Colorado acting chancellor Philip DiStefano, concerning the faculty committee investigation into Churchill's Indian heritage:

[Lane] wants officials to clarify how they intend to prove he is an American Indian, asking if they plan to use "the Nazi standard for racial purity."

"Do you wish to employ the Nazi standard for racial purity? Do you wish to employ the standard adopted by the United States government for determining Japanese ancestry in order to qualify for internment?"

Four of five pages of the letter were an attack on CU's investigation:

[Lane] accused the university of "the grossest violation of due process and fundamental fairness" in the handling of Churchill's case and asked that the complaint against him be dismissed.

In an interview, Lane said:

"It's offensive he's being asked to show his pedigree..."Is he really a registered dog with the American Kennel Club?"

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    How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? | 29 comments (29 topical)
    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Apr 05, 2005 at 10:29:28 PM EST
    Hmmm... So you if you are loud and obnoxious and offensive, that gives you a free pass on all other ethical and professional lapses. Sounds like a good defense for a certain Texas congressman...

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Apr 05, 2005 at 10:52:09 PM EST
    Who gives a hoot about Churchill? He gets into a situation where his rights are legally violated, let ACLU represent him. I didn't resign when they represented Oliver North so I won't if they defend this clown either. That's why I pay my dues to ACLU. Because Churchill is a nobody who warrants as much attention as Jim Nabors. Actually, less.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Apr 05, 2005 at 11:32:13 PM EST
    My God, what a real joke, Churchill is now being used by just about-all sides for the old race/political agenda lines, just like to know how many people that look like Churchill have American Indian blood and don't know it? My Grandmother was 50 percent north American Indian, but all American to the end of her life, Two of her son's were combat vet's world war two. long live Churchill, keep fighting.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 03:30:53 AM EST
    My great grandmother was 100% Jewish and that managed to get erased from family history until I did a little genealogical research. That's all it should take for CU as well. Nobody's talking about locking him up in a concentration camp or giving him a hot shower of Zyklon-B. If the guy lied on his application to get racial preference points (he certainly would never have been tenured based solely on his academic credentials), then CU needs to know that. And the Dani Newsums and David Lanes of the world should pause to consider that a truly qualified member of a racial minority may have been passed over because some white guy lied. Or he told the truth and deserved the preference points. Either way, knowing the truth is good for affirmative action, and good for the university--hence the investigation.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#5)
    by roger on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 05:43:37 AM EST
    Ditto, Of course, that's the real story, how did Churchill get tenure in the first place? He must be the least qualified prof in the country.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 06:24:32 AM EST
    My backwoods profs at a small state school in North Dakota near the reservation are more qualified to teach than "Professor Churchill" and many of them are more than 1/64th cherokee or whatever he says he is. Churchill's ideas are recycled marxism, nothing new. In fact, read some Marx, Churchill has come up with no original thinking at all. He's under investigation for stealing paintings and selling them as his own, and plagerism. Any of which is grounds for firing him. You keep your job on your merits, not backdoor tenure. Being an idiot should be enough, but in our PC world, we can't point out fallacies apparently. Citizens of Colorado are paying this guy over a hundred thousand a year to indoctrinate students with an extreme point of view. You wouldn't let Pat Robertson teach your student would you. Think about that. He teaches in a department that has NO OVERSIGHT. This is unheard of in a real school. Shame on U of C. Science, Math, and English writing and thinking skills. Teach people HOW to think not WHAT to think. There's way to much fluff classes. No wonder a college degree doesn't mean much anymore with curriculum that teaches you nothing that'll help you in the REAL world.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#7)
    by pigwiggle on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 07:12:59 AM EST
    This whole circus, is he isn’t he, really fills out the more absurd side to racial preference. His lawyer would like to use to his advantage the memory of some truly abominable ideas/acts founded on racial inequality/preference to divert attention away from alleged fraud calculated to gain advantage from racial inequality/preference. But his lawyer does ask a valid question, irrespective of motive. How much American Indian blood do I need to take advantage of American Indian set-asides? My father was adopted, born in Idaho adjacent to a res. (no, his biological folks don’t want contact and won’t release medical records); he has a dark complexion, dark eyes and hair. My brother, a forensic anthropologist, tells me that my fathers skull, as well and his and my own, have characteristics common to American natives. Is this enough to claim Indian ancestry? Do I get preferential treatment?

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 07:37:49 AM EST
    This points out one of the problems with racial guidelines. In order not to offend the large numbers of people who fill out various forms, certain matters are left vague. But, later on, when legal specifics become more important, the early imprecisions come back to bite 'ya in the rump.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#9)
    by roy on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 08:21:12 AM EST
    The lawyers raises some good points. If the University is going to base any decision on whether Churchill is Indian, they need to state what standard they're using before making the determination. That's just part of good science and due process. Maybe the race issue should be thrown out. It'd be lame if they hired a white guy because he faked being Indian, but can you really fire somebody for being the wrong race? The EEOC might having something to say about that. If being percieved as Indian gives Churchill credibility, then that's an ongoing ad hominen fallacy by his audience. On the other hand, lying is bad, and I don't see anything about racial identity that makes it OK to lie about that.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#10)
    by Quaker in a Basement on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 08:38:43 AM EST
    Maybe they can use the old segregationist "even one drop" standard.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 10:00:31 AM EST
    I suppose they could use whatever standards are used to determine if someone is a genuine representative of a tribe, when the tribe has dispersed and the person is trying to get government recognition and the benefits thereof (ie, the ability to put up a casino.)

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 11:01:15 AM EST
    The Cherokee Nation, of which Churchill at one point claimed to be a member, has its own standard. You have to be able to trace a bloodline to someone who was a member in the 1899-1906 census. Or be descended from Will Rogers apparently. That seems pretty fair and easy to prove since all of the census records, birth and death records since 1850 and before are now searchable online. That's assuming the census takers did a good job of getting everybody written down of course, but during that time tribal leaders pushed their people hard to make sure they got counted, because it affected how much land they got.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#13)
    by roy on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 11:13:01 AM EST
    Ditto, Easy, simple standards are attractive but not always right. I'm 1/64th Cherokee, for instance, but my ancestors didn't trust Whitey enough to sign up as members of the tribe. For my purposes, it was no big deal, it was just a little harder to get scholarship money. But in Churchill's case, a man's career and a university's reputation are on the line. Not that I have any better ideas...

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 01:53:34 PM EST
    How 'bout simply asking Churchill why he claims he's Americsn Indian? It's a positive assertion on his part. IIRC, he said that he grew up thinking he was American Indian because of his mom and her stories and household traditions. Which, if held to be sufficient, has just opened up 'The Jerk' standard for racial preferences. My Harvard Admissions essay could read: I was born a poor black child and nobody could gainsay it.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#15)
    by roy on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 02:15:50 PM EST
    BumperStickerist, If he believes he's an Indian, maybe that's good enough in this case. That belief would affect his academic work just as much as it would for a "real" Indian. So he would have genuinely earned whatever credibility Indian ancestry imparts. Lots of people (like me) keep griping that he "lied" about it to get the job, but if he's simply mistaken about his own ancestry then it's hard to justify firing him for it. (Also, hooray for Steve Martin's older works)

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#16)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 02:29:32 PM EST
    "I didn't resign when [the ACLU] represented Oliver North so I won't if they defend this clown either." Here, here. It's our right as Americans to make fools out of ourselves, and loudly, at that. I won't give up my seltzer bottle 'til they pry it from my pruney, dead fingers.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#17)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 02:35:35 PM EST
    Another raft of unsubstantiated attacks on Prof. Churchill. The hairsplitting of his enemies doesn't notice the fact that it hasn't been demonstrated that his ethnicity had ANYTHING to do with his hiring, or his tenure. As for the 'reading, riting, rithmatic' comment above -- try teaching those skills to the Fake Unelected President. Churchill's job is to stimulate and inform. He works at a UNIVERSITY, not a junior high. Stimulating has ALWAYS meant controversy. Whether it was my Greek prof. telling stories of Lesbos, where her preferences lay, or any of the other prof.s who spent time explaining why the author of some text was fool. That's university -- it isn't spoonfed nonsense for shop clerks. Quite obviously, few commenting above ever had the so-called Liberal Arts education. Probably they were busy shooting 'coons down by the holler. Here's a clue: comments making claims ought to include FACTS. Facts are not the assertion that assumptions are proven by being assumed.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#18)
    by roy on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 03:04:26 PM EST
    Paul,
    ...it hasn't been demonstrated that his ethnicity had ANYTHING to do with his hiring, or his tenure.
    Nobody in this thread said anything about tenure. You're right about the hiring part, but the University determined there was some evidence that he uses his percieved ethnicity to improve his academic credibility. Do you think the University is making up that evidence (note: honest question, not sarcasm)?
    Here's a clue: comments making claims ought to include FACTS.
    I agree, absolutely.
    Quite obviously, few commenting above ever had the so-called Liberal Arts education. Probably they were busy shooting 'coons down by the holler.
    Whoops!

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#19)
    by roy on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 03:11:19 PM EST
    I'd like to preemptively point at myself and say "people did too mention tenure". But, if Churchill used his Indianness to increase his credibility, wouldn't that credibility factor into the tenure decision.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#20)
    by Richard Aubrey on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 07:32:51 PM EST
    My father attended Norwich Free Academy with a guy named Tantaquidgeon. He was a Pequot. By accident, a couple of years ago, I found a book on the history of the Pequots. There were about six of them in the Sixties. Mostly, it's on account of Cooper didn't write "Last of The Pequots". The Mohicans had a museum/craft shop type of thing near Norwich which both kept the tribal identity alive and brought in a few bucks. There was, maybe still is, a New England chain of markets called The Mohican. My grandfather managed one. No Pequot superstores. Anyway, since the Pequots and a bright attorney started boning up on the gaming laws, there have been more Pequots, and lots and lots of money in their casino. There may be a connection. I encountered a red-haired, green-eyed young lady and, when talking about her education plans, I found her tuition was free because she was NA. One-quarter was all it took. Whitey Churchill made the assertion. It's for him to prove it. I have said for some time that, with affirmative action being based on thinner and thinner distinctions, we may be sending away to South Africa to get retired judges from their race courts. Sounds like the time is now. [This commenter is now limited to four comments a day. All in excess will be deleted.]

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#21)
    by jimcee on Wed Apr 06, 2005 at 09:04:57 PM EST
    Well I guess you're asking the reviewers to prove a negative when it seems rather simpler that he can prove the positive. In other words what is his BIA number and why did the Feds stop him from selling his "art" as NA art if he is really NA? This really does show what a fraud Affirmitive Action is doesn't it? By the bye, I love "The Jerk" analogy... "I was raised a poor Native American boy..."

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#22)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Apr 07, 2005 at 02:39:37 PM EST
    jimcee - Funny, you can't sell native indian art without a BIA number, but you can teach at a state university as a native american. I often wonder at the thought process of school administrators. It appears they have turned the asylum over to the inmates. All without consulting the tax payers.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#23)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Apr 07, 2005 at 03:06:47 PM EST
    The BIA's withholding of their vaunted number is very well known -- it's POLITICAL. Plenty of actual, living tribes have been refused BIA certification, in many cases because there is a ('developer'-friendly) in-group, and the rest of the community. Guess which ones get the number. Gambling is a contentious issue in tribes. Many, especially the Crossfire Way people who mix heartfelt Christianity into their beliefs, feel that gambling is NOT an advancement for their cultures. But the pro-gambling 'neighborhoods' will get their BIA number, and the rest won't, so they can't vote on the matter. Finally, I have made the point several times that to the tribes, (invited) PARTICIPATION is 'indianness.' It is not the indian tribes that are pushing for BIA numbers to become approved by the white gov't. IF there was a great run on fed-certified 'indianness' to get benefits, then the tribes wouldn't be the most impoverished people in the country. The BIA owes seven billion dollars to the tribes that ARE certified -- this isn't lost on those who carry on without US Sam and his demand that his greed be theirs. That's what Uncle Sam has long called 'assimilation.' 'Share the greed -- screw the culture.' The (Republican-driven) 'gamblification' of California's communities is disgusting to me and to millions of others who recognize that Las Vegas is NOT a model city. One of Backroom Arnie's first acts was to try to put a huge casino at the foot of the Bay Bridge near Oakland. When that project didn't get local approval, the project for replacing the quake-unsafe Bay Bridge, already underway, was canceled. No play for his rich backers, you can forget your bridge.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#24)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Apr 07, 2005 at 06:59:54 PM EST
    One thing that you will find is that Indian genes are not necessarily dominant. I know many people who look white who are 1/4 or more Indian. The famous artist Chethlahe Paladin was 1/2 Navajo--you couldn't tell by looking at him. He looked white. Several of his kids (by a white woman) were blond and light-skinned ( I knew them when they were little. Perhaps by now they are no longer blond). They are all, as far as I know, legally Navajo.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#25)
    by jimcee on Thu Apr 07, 2005 at 08:20:44 PM EST
    I find it hard to believe that there are as many people defending WC when they could be doing better with some other cause. Paul in LA, you're the exception.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#26)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Apr 07, 2005 at 08:31:44 PM EST
    PIL - There are already one large Indian Casino within 10 miles of Oakland, and several card casinos. Now if you want to close them down, suits me, but let's don't be swapping sides.

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#27)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Apr 07, 2005 at 08:42:00 PM EST
    The investigation should have concluded after the university determined that Churchill's essay was within the realm of academic freedom. End of story. Now to go off on a witch-hunt regarding plagiarism and racial identity is appallingly offensive. It is obvious the right wing doesn't have anything to dismiss this man on and now they're trying to desparately find something. I hope Churchill sues the hell out of the university and the state! It is offensive that Churchill should have to prove to the white folks that he is a Native American!

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#28)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Apr 13, 2005 at 12:56:09 AM EST
    Ward Churchill says that he will "survive allegations" in this interview with the student newspaper of Eastern Washington University, where he recently spoke; he refers to the "controversy" and the "identity" issue with relation to American Indian Studies issues. in it as well. Here's a bit:
    He made it very clear that the various allegations and attacks that the media has made on his academic credibility and character as a whole are unfounded and can be refuted. “I am going to win all of this, ya know, just strai[gh]t down the line, the issues they have raised. There is not an issue that they raised, or allegation that they raised, that I can not only rebut, but slam dunk, beginning with the identity issue,” said Churchill, “I can just go right down the list. This whole little attempt to backslide out of the free speech issue into academic integrity or academic misconduct issue is just going to make them look more stupid.” He also explained that when an allegation is refuted, it could be seen as helping him to accomplish what he has set out to do. [italics added]
    The Chronicle of Higher Education has published this article concerning repercussions for other professors as a result of the "Ward Churchill controversy" and related issues of academic freedom "Inquiring Minds: Investigation begets Investigation after Ward Churchill" (Apr. 15).

    Re: How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? (none / 0) (#29)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Apr 13, 2005 at 01:29:16 AM EST
    Also linked in The Easterner (Eastern Washington U's online student newspaper) is its Apr. 5th account of Churchill's presentation as well, entitled "Ward Churchill Finally Says His Piece". It adds to previous reports regarding the allegations pertaining to his American Indian identity. Here is a particularly relevant passage:
    Dr. Deirdre Almeida, Director of the American Indian Studies Department spoke first and opened saying, “I would like to say to you, Professor Churchill, I would like to apologize to you for any disrespect that you have felt has been shown to you by the Eastern Washington administration over your visit here.” Dr. Almeida praised Churchill’s character and perseverance. “A man of your character and standing as a scholar, more importantly as a Native American scholar does not deserve that type of treatment, and I am thrilled you did not let that deter you from coming here and being with us today,” [Dr. Almeida] said. [my correction added]
    Prof. Churchill's comments re: the battle with the EWU administration and the various political issues relating to it put those references in the context of that University's president's search for another university executive position in Colorado. Reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, the whole thing gets "curiouser and curiouser."

    How Will CU Prove Churchill's Indian Heritage? | 29 comments (29 topical)