Ward Churchill (I play an Indian on campus), is also a Che Guevara wannabe.
Posted on 02/04/2005 4:54:22 PM PST by KidGlock
Prof's Indian roots disputed
By Stuart Steers, Rocky Mountain News
February 3, 2005
The United Keetoowah Band Cherokee says University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill is not a member of their tribe.
"He's not in the database at all and is not a member of the Keetoowah," said Georgia Mauldin, the tribal clerk in Tahlequah, Okla.
In his books and articles, Churchill has described himself as a member of the Keetoowah Cherokee tribe in Oklahoma. In past interviews, he's claimed to be one-sixteenth Cherokee.
But the Keetoowah say that's not true.
Attempts to contact Churchill for comment Wednesday on his background were unsuccessful. But Churchill's claim to American Indian roots has been challenged repeatedly by people in that community.
One Montana woman has an especially personal tale of confronting Churchill on his claim to American Indian heritage. She was taking one of Churchill's classes at CU in 1994 when she wrote an article for the Colorado Daily newspaper, saying there was no evidence he had any American Indian background.
"For so long it was whispered on campus that he really isn't an Indian," said Jodi Rave, who studied journalism at CU. "Here you had the director of the Indian studies program and he's not an Indian."
Rave is a Mandan-Hidatsa Indian originally from North Dakota. Today, she is a reporter and columnist with the Missoulian newspaper in Missoula, Mont. She was recently a fellow in the prestigious Nieman program for journalists at Harvard University.
In one of her journalism classes at CU, Rave was assigned to write a profile, and she decided to profile Churchill.
"To have somebody of that stature masquerading as an Indian was intriguing to me," Rave said. "On two separate days I asked him questions. I was up-front in asking him questions (about his background)."
Rave says she discovered that Churchill had enrolled in the Keetoowah tribe under a program initiated by a former tribal chairman that let almost anyone sign up. She says the Keetoowah later discontinued that program and disenrolled the people who had joined under it.
When her article came out, Rave says Churchill was furious and insisted that he did have American Indian lineage.
"He called me and said, 'Jodi Rave, this is your professor and I need to talk to you right away.' He was surprised I had a story published that called into question his identity."
He also defended his American Indian background and said her story was unfair.
Rave said she was enrolled in one of Churchill's classes when the article came out, and her grade went from an A to a C-minus.
She says Churchill can write what he wants, but his claim of American Indian heritage is bogus.
"There's no denying what he writes resonates with a lot of people, but when he says this is something he's experienced as a Native American man, that's fraudulent," Rave said.
The question of who is and who is not an American Indian is a sensitive one in that community. Many Indians resent the idea that only those who grew up on a reservation or have two American Indian parents are real Indians.
"Tracking blood lines is the business of Nazi Germany and South Africa (under apartheid)," said professor George Tinker, who teaches American Indian culture and religious tradition at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver. "That's not an Indian issue at all."
Tinker said that it should be up to the tribes themselves to decide who is an Indian.
Why do you have to document your indian heritage and not document anything else?
#17
That would be enough to remove him for his teaching position.
"Lie after lie after lie..."
The internet is here, and these charlatans are being found out "one after one after one".
FMCDH(BITS)
See the guy he has on next??? Sheesh.
Heh eh eh heh....good one.
FMCDH(BITS)
HMMM Keemo Sabe --Me say white man college prof speak with
forked tongue and look like character in that old rock and roll song "Liar Liar Pants on fire"
Maybe I should try to join up, steer them away from the plantation...(assuming they need steering away that is)
Ward Churchill (I play an Indian on campus), is also a Che Guevara wannabe.
Missed it...What's happening?
Another brain-dead comment by an American professor who apparently knows nothing about the Federal and State lawsuits that forced Indians to account for their people. A**hole.
Federal and State lawsuits that *required* tribes to document their history, peoples and lands previously owned.
Thanks. I didn't know that it was like that.
I stand corrected. Although ten lousy books in some ways is worse than one.
Join up.
You get to start your own casino and fish with a net.
What else is there in life?
Yah but I'd recommend applied psychiatry with a stick.
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