Free Republic

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...

The reason it's important for Native nations to speak out about Native identity issues is that they are the only ones who can say who their citizens are and are not. If they don't speak out, other people and entities will fill the silence. It's important for Native mothers and fathers to speak out because pseudo-Indians do things that affect our children. Churchill will not be discriminated against on the basis of being Indian, but he is placing our children and grandchildren in harm's way by creating ill will and hostility against Indians. Native kids and elders who actually look...