School drops probe of professor's heritage (Dip'Wadd' Churchill Update)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 8/23/05 | AP - Denver

[TexasCajun]

I'm an Indian too! My grandmother was one-quarter Cherokee!

Now lets talk Bureau of Indian Affairs, something about a big ole trust fund. Pay up!

[TexasCajun]

Aren't Indians exempt from most Federal and State taxes?

[Tired of Taxes]

That's an important note to this story. Thanks for posting that explanation.

I know a lot of people who cling to a small percentage of Indian heritage - or some other heritage. They may have no connection other than a distant ancestor, yet they just so WANT TO BE this or that. That may be where Churchill is. He comes across as delusional.

[TwoDogs]

Yep, I will never voluntarily set foot in that state.

We try to keep as many foreigners as possible out of Colorado so I am glad to hear that you will never come here.

Let us here in Colorado make fun of the Boulderites, hippy-dippies, commie pinko's and other liberal trash we have in the Peoples Republic of Boulder.
There is no need for you to further clutter our state.

[fish hawk]

If you want to see an interesting story concerning this, rent "Grey Owl", a video. Grey Owl pretended to be Indian most all his life (he was actually British) He went on to get involved in environmental things and saving state and federal parks etc. Pierce Brosnan (sp. The guy who played James Bond) played the part. It was known by a few that he was not Indian but was not revealed until a few years after his death.

[Red Boots]

I'm an Indian too! My grandmother was one-quarter Cherokee

You know, the worst of it is that my kids actually are part Cherokee. My husband is 1/8, but the paperwork you had to do to prove it looked so daunting that I just didn't bother when my daughter applied for college.

[Tired of Taxes]

Thanks for the recommendation.

For the record, I honestly don't see anything wrong with someone "adopting" a culture as their own.

But, adopting it as your own and then capitalizing from it is another matter. And that's what Churchill has done.

[Kenton]

Hey Ward. Here's something you can't get around.

Real Indian LOOK LIKE INDIANS.

You, on the other hand, look like an old white hippie.

Speaking only for myself, I'm a little tired of sanctimonious, pompous white people who claim to be Cherokees, and rail on about how evil white people were to "Our People". If I had a nickle for every phony "cherokee" I've ever met I'd retire right now.

If I want to know what an Indian thinks, I'll ask a real Indian, OK? They're all over the place around the place I was born, and they ALL look like real Indians.

You don't. Give it up.

[oldbrowser]

"It can be taken as that 'we're not functioning as boards of racial purity with a board of white guys that sit around and decide who's an Indian and who's not.'"

Actually they are not functioning AT ALL. This is where the Governor of Colorado is supposed to step in and make some changes.

[fish hawk]

I forgot to mention on my first post that after you qualify for tribal membership you are issued a ID card with your picture on it. That is so you can take advantage of our fishing rights and also to use at the health clinics etc.

[hophead]

My father always told me I was part of the WOPAHO tribe from southern Sicilian coast. We had a sign we hung on our camper when we went camping that said "The WOPAHOS".

[KC_Conspirator]

And I continue to throw resume's that come across my desk with anything from the University of Colorado in it right into the trash, where it belongs as long as Churchill is still there.

[Starter]

Sigh. Folks, can you hold the venom for a minute? Look at the story:

A letter from the university dated Friday said a faculty panel decided to drop the matter, Ward Churchill said Monday.

So far, the only people to comment on the Churchill case are Churchill and his lawyer, and they're a bit biased on the matter. The University itself has not said that it's dropping any charges. Might they? Yeah. In fact it's probably pretty likely, given how gutless the university has been in the past. But they haven't done so yet.

A bit of conjecture: This whole "They're dropping the charges" thing may be a ploy on the part of Churchill's lawyer. That way, if University hasn't planned to drop the charges does continue the investigation into the plagarism and the ethnicity, he can claim that the University is caving to "the right-wing crazies" and continuing their "witch hunt", which will hopefully rouse the public behind Churchill's cause and shame the University into dropping the investigation.

[Pokey5945]

Colorado absolutely did not cave. Remember, you are only getting Churchill's spin to the media, which emphasizes the charges they dropped.

The fact is that CU is proceeding to try Churchill on charges of plagiarism and fabrication. He will go down on these charges--bet on it.

CU was smart to drop the ethnic fraud charge. If they had kept that in, it would give Churchill an excuse to cry "racism" when they fire his ass for research fraud. By taking ethnicity off the table, all the focus will now be on Churchill's research fraud, which he cannot defend in a plausible manner.

[Jonah Johansen]

"It can be taken as that 'we're not functioning as boards of racial purity '

Does this mean that anyone can claim to be any race or nationality and government agencies must accept their claim no matter what their physical appearance may be.

Thus a person who is blond haired blue eyed with very light complexion, whose parents and grandparents had similar appearance and were born in Sweden can claim to be an African American and as much as the government agency may doubt the claim they must accept it as valid.

If so what is to prevent large numbers of people from falsely claiming minority ethnic status, in order to gain certain benefits. Is there any reason why suburban upper middle class white kids can not claim to be Hispanic, when applying to Ivy League Schools and thus have extra points to their score.

In fact isn’t this the Achilles heal of all affirmative action programs and a possible way for those who oppose it to end it

[Enterprise]

I agree. In effect, they aren't functioning at all. Cowards.

[Pokey5945]

"In fact isn’t this the Achilles heal of all affirmative action programs and a possible way for those who oppose it to end it."

Bingo. AA is premised on assumptions of purity of identity. As identity blurs, so does the rationale for race-based AA. I think you'll see a transition on the part of AA advocates to class-based preferences instead of race-based. And those will sell well to poor whites.

[kennedy]

He also has said his mother and grandmother told him he was part Indian, and he thought of himself that way while growing up in Illinois.

My grandmother used to tell me that I was acting like a wild Indian. Is that the same thing?

[kidd]

I think your post makes sense. However, we really don't know that the investigation has been dropped either.

If Freepers would carefully read the article, they will note that the only source of information for this entire story is from Ward Churchill himself.

There is absolutely NO credible evidence, in this article, that CU has caved.