Heritage, writings split Indian activists

Rocky Mountain News ^ | 2-12-05 | Kevin Flynn

[Snapple]

If you think Ward Churchill is controversial in his academic setting, you should see how divisive a force he is in the Indian world.

The University of Colorado professor, who has set off a firestorm with the publicizing of his 3-year-old essay rationalizing the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has been a lightning rod for years among those involved in American Indian arts, academics and activism.

He simultaneously inspires great admiration and loathing.

"He is horribly divisive, and he is a thug," said Suzan Shown Harjo, president of the Morningstar Institute in Washington, a national American Indian rights organization. "He's gone on the attack against a lot of good people."

But Noam Chomsky, the noted political author and MIT linguistics professor that Churchhill cited as an intellectual ally, said much of Churchill's work is "excellent, penetrating and of high scholarly quality."

[Snapple]

Harjo has been on Ward Churchill's trail for a long time.

Ward Churchill is a dangerous person. He is really just a white man exploiting Indians for his radical agenda to destroy the US.

More from paper:

Harjo, a Cheyenne and Muskogee, said Churchill has "almost no influence" among American Indians except in Denver. "His influence is with other white people."

Artist David Bradley, of Santa Fe, N.M., a Chippewa, said he and Churchill ran afoul over Bradley's support of a law saying that people holding themselves out as American Indian artists are required to show they are actually Indians.

"That's what caused him to first attack me, before I ever heard of the guy," Bradley said. "Out of the clear blue sky, he published this attack."

Bradley said that Churchill "destroys our credibility."

"He's a white man who earns his living masquerading as an Indian. He's a pseudo-Indian profiteer. He takes opportunities intended for our people, our legitimate speakers, who can honestly speak about the American Indian experience."

[atomicpossum]

Churchill is really just another liberal snake oil salesman activist. The more outlandish the claim, the more he can be assured that he will shake things up enough to draw in a core of support from the fringes. With enough support, he gets notice, gets attention, and therefore makes a living.

[Snapple]

I am waiting for the Colorado papers to put the missing felon, lawyer, and AIM activist, Lee Hill, together with Ward Churchill and AIM.

Where is Lee Hill???? Where are his knives and burglar tools?

Why did AIM manipulate the investigation into the JonBenet Ramsey murder?? Answer: they wanted to discredit law enforcement and the government. They wanted people to believe a big lie: that the FBI and government were protecting a ring of powerful pedophiles.

For more on AIM manipulation the Ramsey murder investigation see:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1336690/posts

[Tom Bombadil]

But Noam Chomsky, the noted political author and MIT linguistics professor that Churchhill cited as an intellectual ally, said much of Churchill's work is "excellent, penetrating and of high scholarly quality."

Go live in an old gulag camp in Siberia Noam. Oh, I forgot, they never existed. Then I guess you'll have to settle for a nice villa in North Korea.

Anyway, take your sorry academics and your friends and leave.

[Snapple]

For good Indian commentary on Ward Churchill see
http://www.indiancountry.com/

Check out their recent editorials and also writer Suzan Shown Harjo.

This Indian publication is very interesting. I think it is a real voice for Indian concerns--not a voice for anarchists who hide behind Indians and claim to be Indians.

Indians can't stand him--with the exception of a few violent anarchistic, communist, AIM radicals.

[Snapple]

Funny how "all roads lead to Noam."

[RAY]

Ward Churchill got just what he wanted from the start, much free press! He now is a celebrity. The press makes such monsters!

The press will hang around waiting for his next anti establishment statements. People like this serve very little if any constructive purpose - they can't get their perverted needs satisfied through good work so they become rebels, rebels "without a cause" -- they do anything to cause diversions and to get attention.

[dirtboy]

But Noam Chomsky, the noted political author and MIT linguistics professor that Churchhill cited as an intellectual ally, said much of Churchill's work is "excellent, penetrating and of high scholarly quality."

To the hard left, truth and facts are indistinguishable from lies and fabrications. The end result, the conclusion drawn are all that matter.

[Snapple]

Yes, he is a sociopath, a so-called "rebel without a cause."

Except that he needs to be stopped because he is dangerous to living things and does great damage to real Indian issues.

[TomGuy]

But Noam Chomsky, the noted political author and MIT linguistics professor that Churchhill cited as an intellectual ally, said much of Churchill's work is "excellent, penetrating and of high scholarly quality."

That seems to be in dispute. Chomsky has published his share of hate-America, so he apparently sees a comrade in Churchill. But Churchill's work may not be quite as 'excellent, penetrating and of high scholarly quality' as Chomsky thinks. Birds of a feather?

Thomas Brown, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX, writes in his essay, Ward Churchill and the Mandan Indian Smallpox Epidemic:

...This article analyzes Churchill’s accusations against of the US Army of a genocide. Churchill argues that the US Army created a smallpox epidemic among the Mandan people in 1837 by distributing infected blankets. While there was a smallpox epidemic on the Plains in 1837, historians agree that it was accidental, and the Army wasn’t involved.

...

Ward Churchill was previously accused of plagiarism and research fraud in two published articles by University of New Mexico law Professor John Lavelle.[1] Churchill’s tale of the Mandan genocide appears to fit the pattern that LaVelle first laid out.

[maestro]

......ANYTHING,......BUT,.....THE........" DNA ",......PLEASE!

/CU as a Science Leader!

[Snapple]

Thank you for the very interesting article about the Smallpox issue.

[Time is now]

Noam Chomsky? See him clinging to the turd that is leftist ideology, thinking it will save him, as both get sucked down the toilet of wasted thoughts...

[Snapple]

Ok, but you can't be prosecuted for your ideas. Please try to find out what Ward Churchill does that might be a crime.

These ideas are bad because the ideas cause people to hurt and kill others.

People who express these views seldom confine themselves to only speech. They usually act on their ideas.

[Racehorse]

Churchill says he is at least one-sixteenth Cherokee and also Creek, and that it has been verified by several Cherokee researchers. But he hasn't offered the name of any ancestor who has been shown to be American Indian. Critics who researched his family tree found only white branches.

The Cherokee must be the most sexually appealing people ever to have existed.  Does anyone reading this thread not know at least one person who claims to have some Cherokee blood pulsing through their veins?

[sergeantdave]

There's a number of Indian wannabes hanging around the reserve near where I live.

These white boys wear the beads and ribbon shirts. Have a "medicine" bag hanging from a belt. They hold sweats. Get money for "spiritual" advice from other stupid white Indian wannabes. The elders in the tribe get quite peeved. Every two years or so they need to form a war party and run them off the reserve.

[Snapple]

Well, the Cherokee Indians were so civilized, they even owned slaves. (joke)

They were Christians and farmers in Georgia who had taken on the ways of White Americans. They were educated, too.

I seem to have some ancestor who was a big cheese among the Cherokee, but I don't know that he was Cherokee. He may have been their minister. A lot of my relatives were from the Indian territories that are now Arkansas and Oklahoma. One seems to have been a doctor to Indians at a school.

Cherokee were pretty mainstream.

A lot of black and White Americans have Cherokee blood in their veins.

Most Indians died off in America very early--European germs reached them from early explorers.

Human beings are much more likely to die from a germ they get from a family member. Indians are more genetically related than other racial groups, so they die from diseases they catch from other Indians as if these Indians were family members.

Now that Indians are more genetically mixed, it probably is healthier for them. Still, Indians do have a lot of health problems. Some of this is poverty, but some of this may be due to the fact that Indians are so closely related to each other.

I am no expert, so see what you read. A lot of Indians are diabetic. It is a huge problem. It is probably a combination of a different diet and genetics.

[Racehorse]

They were Christians and farmers in Georgia who had taken on the ways of White Americans. They were educated, too.

During our early Texas history, our dealings with Indians was akin to a no quarters asked or given blood feud, especially and particularly with the Comanche. Our dealings with the Cherokee Indians were . . . however . . . simply despicable.  Among those who participate in Texian history discussions, the subject still tends to provoke temper tantrums and denials.

[StonyBurk]

Leaving the relative question--is Churchill really the
living reflection of Roger Baldwin the convict who concocted the ACLU as a transmission belt to Soviet Communist dictatorship?An old white man I've come to appreciate Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1733 "a learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one."
and th enext year published "the family of fools is ancient."I learned in fourth grade it was unwise to insist
I was of ancestry other than Irish and German.there are
plenty of scounderals and near saints in my own heritage
without the fantasy.

[Snapple]

I agree. Even though these people took on many customs of the White people, they were still pushed out.