Posted on 03/13/2005 11:13:57 PM PST by Stoat
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ONE OF WARD CHURCHILL'S EX-WIVES SPEAKS
By Michelle Malkin · March 13, 2005 06:12 PM
The never-ending Ward Churchill saga continues. Pirate Ballerina has a four-page rant reportedly from one of his ex-wives, "Dr. M. Anne Jaimes" of San Francisco. She essentially accuses him of stealing her work and says he is guilty of "being Indian careerism." (Links are to PDF pages.) It's a wacky enough diatribe that it rings true.
Meanwhile, the highly-publicized buyout talks between CU and Churchill have been halted: DENVER -- Settlement talks between the University of Colorado and the professor who compared some Sept. 11 victims to a notorious Nazi broke down Friday after a newspaper reported the teacher had once been accused of plagiarism.
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More about Churchill at pirateballerina.com
What follows is our transcription of the four-page "response to a news inquiry" pdf files. We have done our best to transcribe the text exactly as it appears, including typos and misspellings. (jwpaine and Sarah D., transcribers)
[editor's note: we cannot vouch for the provenance of these documents, nor can we attest to their authenticity. We have been unable to find any other occurrence of these documents on the internet.]
[begin transcription of Page 1 ]
In response to a news inquiry regarding my past association and
perspective-in-hindsight on Ward L. Churchill - or any interested
parties: Date: 2/18/05; by Dr. M. Anne Jaimes, San Francisco, CA
First please note that this statement is primarily based on what can
be documented, regarding the personal relationship and professional
association I had with Ward Churchill (WC) unless I otherwise note
as hearsay. I had known WC over a few years, meeting at a Western
Social Science Association Conference (WSSA) in Albuquerque, New
Mexico, in 1979, where we were both participating in the American
Indian Studies program. I had been introduced to him by my mentor at
the time, V[ince?] Delora jr (a senior Native/ Lakota scholar now
retired) from the University of Arizona (Tucson). Dr. Deloria had
invited us both to present papers, and I was a "traveling" graduate
student from Arizona State University (ASU, Tempe), when WC informed
me he was employed in the Equal Opportunity Programs (EOP) at the
University of Colorado in Boulder. Another person who was witness to
this first introduction is Dr. Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, a scholar in
Indigenous Studies and a colleague (we both are tenured faculty in
the CSU system in California); she now resides near me in the Bay
Area, and I mention her because she also knows of WC, and has had
"professional" dealings with him in a way similar to my own. I would
run into WC occassionally at these annual conferences, and I then
saw him as an interesting friend. It was not until I was working for
now deceased Congressmen Paul Simon (from WC's home state of
Illinois) during 1983 to 1984, in the House of Representatives (to
my disappointment during the Reagan years instead of the Carter
presidency when I applied), that we got involved in a more serious
relationship. When he came to the capitol on business in 1984, I was
also working as a congressional liason on "health and education" for
the Navajo Nation Tribal Office located there. He was an influential
factor in talking me into returning West, and eventually considering
applying for a position at the Boulder University in Colorado; since
I had a background in legislation of federal grants for EOP
programs. I moved to Boulder in 1984 from Arizona, and eventually
got the position while renting from WC in a co-habitation
arrangement. We lived together for four years under a "prenuptial
agreement." and later married in 1988, in Santa Fe, New Mexico with
witnesses, while stillo residing outside of Boulder Colorado at 1484
Wicklow St. I initiated divorce proceedings in 1994, and we were
divorced in 1995, in the Boulder County Courts. On the question of
whether he is a "real Indian," I think I can speak to this, in
theory, since I did a 300pg doctoral dissertation (ASU, 1990) on
"American Indian identification for service program eligibility
policy by the federal government." I am, myself, a tribally enrolled
California Mission Indian from the [Juaneno?]/Acjachemen Band, San
Capistrano Mission outside of Riverside, CA; this can be vouched for
by the current presiding tribal chair, Sonia Johnston. To my
knowledge, WC has support for his claim to be Cherokee/ Creek
"Indian by some, including being recognized, as an "associate member"
of a
[begin transcription of page two]
smaller band of Cherokees (Keetoowah); this Band has presumedly since moved from Oklahoma to Arkansas , where WC's family now resides. However, it has been cited that he is not recognized as a member of the larger Cherokee Nation tribe still located in Oklahoma . My doctoral dissertation does deconstruct why these identity issues of who is an "Indian" and who is not it so problematic for this particular population, and as a direct result of the impact of U.S. colonialism; I have termed this in my thesis work "statistical extermination" since the Allotment Years (1877), in the designation of "half blood" compared to "full blood," as a "blood quantum" criteria designation imposed on all American Indians (in this, one John Lavelle is wrong on his counterpoint interpretation in "scholarship under scrutiny," cited in Rocky Mtn. News, 2/11/05). Hence, this colonizing situation has caused a "divide and conquer" divisiveness that has pit tribe against tribe, as well as individuals from the same family and kinship group. It is also on record that I helped develop the first American Indian Studies Program with WC, in which I was a grant writer and taught as an instructor for several years. This can be substantiated by Dr. Evelyn Hu-DeHart at the Boulder University , in Ethnic Studies Department, as well as Dr. Cordella Candelaria; the latter who is the one who initially solicited us both to do so while employed there. While I was recovering from breast cancer, I took a "visiting professorship" at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY, 1991-92), that included a Humanities fellowship on "the politics of identity." A main reason for this was to get away from our increasingly difficult relationship in a turbulent environment, and which I felt was a primary factor in contributing to my unhealthy medical condition. I was cronically ill while living with WC (which numerous doctor appointments can attest to), and I realized, when I contracted asthma as well as breast cancer, his smoking alone (about four packs a day) was injurious to my health the duration of our co-existance together. I am happy to report I am in good health today. By the time I returned from upper state New York , there were signs that he was living a separate life from the estranged marriage. I heard he told people we had an "open marriage," if he told them at all, but he forgot to tell me. It even got to the point where his protective friends and colleagues were encouraging me to leave town. Therefore, it became obvious I was the one expected to leave the Boulder community, even though my divorce lawyer at the time cautioned me to stay in residence. You could say his double life was the last straw, since the environment around him was always tense and stressful, and with an "us against them" mentality, whether it was about academic politics or his movement activism. At the same time, there were some good people around, especially Theresa Halsey of "Indian News," who is a dear friend still living in Boulder , and the only one I stay in contact with from there. During these disturbing years, WC was also co-director with Glenn Morris of the Confederated American Indian (CAIM) Chapter in Denver ; of which I was a community supporter who also gave contributions to the Denver / Boulder Chapter. This group, led by Russell Means, has been in conflict with the National American Indian Movement (NAIM) since the early 1990's, led by his brother Bill Means and others (who once
[begin transcription of page three]
worked with WC in the movement). This strife escalated in 1993, in which I was present at two tribunals (in Edgemont S. D., and San Raphel, CA), where CAIM, among other issues, accused some NAIM leaders of being implicated in the death of AIM member, Anna Mae Aquash (in the mid-1970s); she was a Canadian Indian woman who came to the States and joined the movement, and who was found murdered execution style in S. Dakota. At the same time, NAIM was disparaging the CAIM leadership of Morris and Churchill in the Denver / Boulder Chapter, and under the "misguided" endorsement of Russ Means, according to NAIM. In the mid-1980s I was sent to represent the international arm of AIM with "The Working Group on Indigenous Peoples" under the auspices of the United Nations (1985) Geneva , Switzerland and in Strausberg , France (1986), before the movement split. In those earlier years, I did collaborate with WC on writings and publication projects. However, I eventually came to feel my ideas and work were being appropriated for his own personal agenda, which is to sell his repetitious books, and to become another hollow media icon with hefty honorariums from his speaking engagements. He does have a master's degree in communications and a probable minor in psychology, which is indicative of his hyperbolic and incendiary style, and with apoplectic fits if he is defied; to say he is a "control freak" is putting it mildly. Our heated disagreements and arguements caused further friction in the relationship during the later turbulent years in the marriage, in which I felt increasingly sabotaged by him until I was able to de-program and break away. Thus, this is a typical cliche of a marriage gone sour, and which ended in a rancorous divorce with "settlement" issues still pending; this unfinished business, which WC will most likely deny, in mainly due to the ineptness of my unethical divorce lawyers at Frie and Arndt law firm (in Boulder), who terminated my legal contract with them for spurious reasons. I have not seen nor spoken to WC since our 1995 divorce, and since I initiated a restraining order on him in the separation proceedings. Some see me as a player while others will say I was duped, state (hard to read here) he prefered an "Indian" woman by his side in those days. I have been called a "loose canon," but I prefer to see myself as a "wild card." I have also been condemned by his enemies, which are many, and in which I have even been falsely accused of outrageous and undocumented acts as his "co-conspirator;" this is still on going today, and is slanderous in the defamation of my character and good family name due to my past "guilt by association." In point of fact, I was the one who was maligned (in the Carol Standing Elk, of NAIM, incident recently reported in a Denver Post news article, "clashes with churchill," 2/17/05, by one Arthur(?)), and there were about 30 witnesses, including Russ Means and his wife at the time, Gloria Grant Means, who I was with in helping to take care of their young children while at the Press conference in San Francisco; there is also a San Francisco police report to substantiate this as a total fabrication in terms of my alleged involvement! Reporters and others need to check their facts instead of fueling these lies! I am aware that since the divorce, WC has attempted to erase any indication, as evidence we ever collaborated with each other; even going so far as to re-publish a
[begin transcription of page four ]
collection of his essays (the original "Fantasies of the Master
Race," in 1992 from Common Courage Press), in which I was the
initial editor. City Lights Press (in San Francisco) has since
published this book with my name stricken, as well as my maternal
grandfather's dedication in the first book. I still believe in the
American Indian cause for justice, but I came to see that the means
did not justify the ends in being associated with him and the
egomanic driven, chauvenistic AIM politics he is enmeshed in; in
what I call "being Indian careerism." I therefore think one should
ask what are his real motives, which seem disengenuous to say the
least. And is this worth the cost of 15 minutes of fame ? I think
not! Rather the news should be covering the case of the Berkeley
professor, who was "...fired after publishing a scientific paper
regarding the uncontrolled contamination of irreplaceable native
Mexican corn varieties by genetically engineered corn. Dr. Ignacio
Chapela, whose corn article was published in the science journal
"Nature," was denied his tenure due to pressure from the biotech
company Monsanto," even though a Berkeley tenure review panel voted
unanimously in favor of his tenure. It is noted "There is definitely
something wrong here." But I have only seen thisoninternetmemos
( http://www.organicconsumers.org/uc.html )] I can only say to the
public in response to the news inquiry on the feeding frenzy
controversy regarding the focus on WC and the "freedom of speech"
debate involving academic freedom, no one should confuse the message
with the messenger, especially when there are more reasonable voices
and works out there from the liberal to the left, whom I support
(ie. writers Barbara Ehrenreich (sic ?) and Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz; TV
satirist John Stewart; the courageous Michael Moore; media critic
authors Fritz, Keefer, & Nyhan, to name a few). So the question is
posed as to whether WC is some kind of folk hero or a cult guru?; my
experience and association with him incline me to the latter, in
which no one should follow another in blind, bad faith if they can
help it.
Sincerely, Dr. M. Anne Jaimes, in San Francisco
[signed] M A Jaimes
[end of transcription]
One of the good guys covering this Ward Churchill stuff is from a Denver radio station... 850 KOA , Mike Rosen.
His show starts at 9 am RMTime. He's had Michelle on before, I hope he gets her on now.
Later read
bttt
More on Chief Sitting Bullsh*t of the Cigar-Store Indian Tribe.
ping
I'm betting this guy gets dismissed now with very little coin in his cigarette laden pockets.
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This says a lot.
Psych Ward Churchill
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