Ward Churchill

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Ward Churchill

Ward Churchill (born 1948) is a tenured professor of Ethnic Studies at University of Colorado at Boulder. He is very vocal on all Native American issues, the FBI and police states. His published work characterises the United States as an imperialist power with a history of genocide. He came to national attention when he claimed that the victims of 911, in the World Trade Center in New York were "little Eichmanns." The University of Colorado has conducted a investigation into various allegations against him, including plagarism and the Committee on Research Miscoduct has found evidence of "serious research misconduct." The Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano has relieved Churchill of his duties, pending a final resolution of his case.

Contents

Biography

This section is very incomplete.

Ward Churchill received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Sangamon State University, now the University of Illinois at Springfield. He has been active in Colorado AIM since at least 1984. In 1993, he and other AIM leaders including Russell Means, Glen Morris, Bob Robideau and David Hill broke with the national AIM Grand Governing Council (GGC) leadership, especially Clyde and Vernon Bellencourt, claiming that all AIM chapers are autonomous. This schism continues, with the GGC claiming that the autonomous 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 Columbus Day holiday and its associated parade. These protests have brought the AIM of Colorado leadership into conflict with some leaders in the Denver Italian-American community, the main supporters of the parade. Churchill and other protesters have been arrested several times in relation to acts of civil disobedience, such as blocking the parade.

Scholarly work

Ward Churchill in his writings regarding genocide maintains that study of the near extermination of Native Americans ought to be considered a legitimate historical topic and not marginalized or denied [1].

Controversy

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September 11 essay

His latest book, On the Justice of Roosting Chickens deals with claims that the United States is imperialist and its consequences, especially regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks. The "Roosting Chickens" of the title comes from a Malcolm X speech about the assassination of president JFK, as the violence that Kennedy did not stop came back to "roost". Churchill refers to this speech in the essay "Some People Push Back", included in the book. For example, in the quote below, Churchill questions the innocence of the victims of the attack:

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.[2]

In January 2005, attention was drawn to the essay after he was invited to speak at Hamilton College as a member of a panel titled "Limits of Dissent". In response to what he calls "grossly inaccurate media coverage concerning my analysis of the September 11, 2001 attacks", Churchill clarified his views:

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 Martin Luther King, quoting Robert F. Kennedy, said, "Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable."

A few quotes from the essay have received significant media attention, including mention on the January 28, 2005 edition of the Fox News Channel program The O'Reilly Factor who suggested that listeners email the college. A flood of 6,000 emails resulted. Following the mention on Fox, Churchill has become a focus of attention by local media in Colorado with a special meeting of the Board of Regents of the University of Colorado held on Thursday, February 3, 2005 and a call by the Governor of Colorado for his resignation. Churchill has support of members of his department and a portion of the student body on the basis of academic freedom and a desire to address the reasons for the underlying antagonism to the US that many argue continues to lead to terrorist attacks. Student demonstrations and statements pro and con seem evenly divided.

The Board of Regents of the University of Colorado, meeting in executive session at the The Fitzsimons campus of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center on February 3, 2005 adopted a resolution apologizing to the American people for Churchill's statements regarding the victims of 9/11 and ratifying interim chancellor Phil DiStefano's review of Ward Churchill's actions. He was directed to investigate whether Churchill overstepped his bounds as a faculty member and whether his actions are cause for dismissal. DiStefano will explore two questions: Do Churchill's comments provide grounds for dismissal? And is this conduct or speech protected by the First Amendment against university action? The meeting, which was conducted in Aurora, Colorado about 30 miles from the Boulder campus, the seat of the controversy, was attended by a few vocal protestors. There were several arrests [3] Resolution of the Board of Regents.

Ward Churchill has been praised by Noam Chomsky: "Ward Churchill has carved out a special place for himself in defending the rights of oppressed people, and exposing the dark side of past and current history, often marginalized or suppressed. These are achievements of inestimable value."

Following the uproar provoked by the media coverage, Churchill resigned his position as chairman of the Ethnic Studies Department. He continues to hold a position as professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado but his annual income has been reduced to $94,000 from $104,000 as the result of his resignation as head of the department. The scheduled appearance at Hamilton College was first changed to a larger space, but was utimately cancelled by president Joan Stewart due to "credible threats of violence". Although Hamilton College has a history of welcoming controversy, it turns out that those who invited Churchill to Hamilton had been unaware of the most controversial aspects of his writings.

Accusations of fabrication of Indian heritage

Accusations that Churchill has fabricated his Indian origins have been made by the AIM GGC and others. 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."[4] He told the Denver Post in its February 3, 2005, edition that he is three-sixteenths Cherokee and is an associate member of the Keetoowah Band in Oklahoma, which has a one-fourth blood quantum threshold for regular membership. He said that he could be a full member of the much larger Cherokee Nation, but that he chose the Keetoowah Band because they are more "hard-line". However, the same article includes a quote from Ernestine Berry, who was "on the tribe's enrollment committee and served on the tribal council for four years": "He was trying to get recognized as an Indian. He could not prove he was an Indian (Cherokee) at all." [5] It is not unusual for Americans of mixed blood, especially those descended from Native Americans of different tribes to have difficulty definitively establishing their Native American heritage. Family traditions may be accurate, but are sometimes difficult to document.

Media

Books

  • Kill the Indian, Save the Man : The Genocidal Impact of American Indian Residential SchoolsISBN: 0872864340 (2004)
  • On the Justice of Roosting Chickens: Reflections on the Consequences of U.S. Imperial Arrogance and Criminality, (2003) ISBN 1902593790.
  • Struggle for the Land : Native North American Resistance to Genocide, Ecocide, and Colonization, (2002). Hardcover ISBN 0872864154, paperback ISBN 0872864146.
  • Acts Of Rebellion: The Ward Churchill Reader.(2002) ISBN: 0415931568
  • A Little Matter Of Genocide: Holocaust And Denial In The Americas 1492 To The Present, (1998) Hardcover ISBN 0872863433, paperback ISBN 0872863239.
  • From A Native Son: Selected Essays on Indigenism 1985-1995 (1996) ISBN: 0896085538.
  • Agents of Repression: The Fbi's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movementby Ward Churchill, James Vanderwall (1988) ISBN: 0896082938
  • Pacifism as Pathology: Reflections on the Role of Armed Struggle (1986),(2003)ISBN: 1902593588
  • Life in Occupied America (2003) ISBN: 1902593723

Audio

  • Doing Time: The Politics of Imprisonment
  • Life In Occupied America
  • In A Pig's Eye: Reflections on the Police State, Repression, and Native America
  • US Off The Planet!: An Evening In Eugene With Ward Churchill And Chellis Glendinning
  • Pacifism and Pathology in the American Left
  • Z Mag Ward Churchill Audio

See also

External links

Articles Related to Controversy

Articles Related to American Indian Movement



References

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