 Picture of Ward Churchill Ward Churchill (born 1948) is an activist who claims to be of mixed white and Native American heritage. He is co-chairman of the American Indian Movement of Colorado (Colorado AIM), and a tenured professor of Ethnic Studies at University of Colorado at Boulder. He is very vocal on Native American issues, the FBI and police states. His published work characterizes the United States as an imperialist power with a history of genocide.
Biography
This section is very incomplete.
Ward Churchill received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Sangamon State University, now the University of Illinois at Springfield. He has been active in Colorado AIM since at least 1984. In 1993, he and other AIM leaders including Russell Means, Glen Morris, Bob Robideau and David Hill broke with the national AIM Grand Governing Council (GGC) leadership, especially Clyde and Vernon Bellencourt, claiming that all AIM chapters are autonomous. This schism continues, with the GGC claiming that the autonomous AIM leaders are tools of the government being used against Indians.
He has been a leader of Colorado AIM's annual protests in Denver against the Columbus Day holiday and its associated parade. These protests have brought the AIM of Colorado leadership into conflict with some leaders in the Denver Italian-American community, the main supporters of the parade. Churchill and other protesters have been arrested several times in relation to acts of civil disobedience, such as blocking the parade.
In early February of 2005, the Keetoowah Band Cherokee publicly announced that Churchill was not actually a member of their tribe, as he had claimed. Several other Indian groups have opined that Churchill is a fraud.
Scholarly work
Ward Churchill in his writings regarding genocide maintains that study of the near extermination of Native Americans ought to be considered a legitimate historical topic and not marginalized or denied [1] (http://www.sdonline.org/33/ward_churchill.htm).
Controversy
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September 11 essay
His latest book, On the Justice of Roosting Chickens asserts that the United States is imperialist and that its misfortunes are consequence thereof, including the September 11, 2001 attacks. The "Roosting Chickens" of the title comes from a Malcolm X's offhand comment after the assassination of president JFK that Kennedy "never foresaw that the chickens would come home to roost so soon" – (this remark led Elijah Muhammad to command Malcolm X to remain silent for several months). Churchill refers to this remark in the essay "Some People Push Back", included in the book. In the quote below, Churchill asserts that some of the victims of the attack were not innocent:
- As for those in the World Trade Center, well, really, let's get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire – the "mighty engine of profit" to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always been enslaved – and they did so both willingly and knowingly.[2] (http://www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/s11/churchill.html)
In January 2005, attention was drawn to the essay after he was invited to speak at Hamilton College as a member of a panel titled "Limits of Dissent". In response to what he calls "grossly inaccurate media coverage concerning [his] analysis of the September 11, 2001 attacks", Churchill clarified his views:
- I am not a "defender" of the September 11 attacks, but simply pointing out that if U.S. foreign policy results in massive death and destruction abroad, we cannot feign innocence when some of that destruction is returned. I have never said that people "should" engage in armed attacks on the United States, but that such attacks are a natural and unavoidable consequence of unlawful U.S. policy. As Martin Luther King, quoting Robert F. Kennedy, said, "Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable."
A few quotes from the essay have received significant media attention, including mention on the January 28, 2005 edition of the Fox News Channel program The O'Reilly Factor who suggested that listeners e-mail the college. A flood of 6,000 e-mails resulted. Following the mention on Fox, Churchill has become a focus of attention by local media in Colorado with a special meeting of the Board of Regents of the University of Colorado held on Thursday, February 3, 2005 and a call by Bill Owens, Governor of Colorado, for his resignation. Churchill has support of members of his department and a portion of the student body on the basis of academic freedom and a desire to address the reasons for the underlying antagonism to the US that many argue continues to lead to terrorist attacks. Student demonstrations and statements pro and con seem evenly divided.
The Board of Regents of the University of Colorado, meeting in executive session at The Fitzsimons campus of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center on February 3, 2005 adopted a resolution apologizing to the American people for Churchill's statements regarding the victims of 9/11 and ratifying interim chancellor Phil DiStefano's review of Ward Churchill's actions. He was directed to investigate whether Churchill overstepped his bounds as a faculty member and whether his actions are cause for dismissal. DiStefano will explore two questions:
The meeting, which was conducted in Aurora, Colorado about 30 miles from the Boulder campus, the seat of the controversy, was attended by a few vocal protestors. There were several arrests [3] (http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2691641,00.html) Resolution of the Board of Regents (http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E53%257E2691701,00.html).At least one Regent of the University sought to defend Churchill's academic freedom.Comments by CU Regent Michael Carrigan (http://www.thecherrycreeknews.com)
Ward Churchill has been praised by Noam Chomsky: "Ward Churchill has carved out a special place for himself in defending the rights of oppressed people, and exposing the dark side of past and current history, often marginalized or suppressed. These are achievements of inestimable value."
Following the uproar provoked by the media coverage, Churchill resigned his position as chairman of the Ethnic Studies Department. He continues to hold a position as professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado but his annual income has been reduced to $94,000 from $104,000 as the result of his resignation as head of the department. The scheduled appearance at Hamilton College was first changed to a larger space, but was utimately cancelled by president Joan Stewart due to "credible threats of violence". Although Hamilton College has a history of welcoming controversy, it turns out that those who invited Churchill to Hamilton had been unaware of the most controversial aspects of his writings.
Other writings
On Feburary 6, 2005, the Denver Post reported that comments made by Churchill in an April 2004 interview with Satya magazine were causing further controversy and would be included in the review of Churchill's tenure. [4] (http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2693730,00.html) Colorado governor Bill Ownens labeled Churchill's comments "treasonous" and futher said, "Churchill has clearly called for violence against the state, and no country is required to subsidize its own destruction. That's what we're doing with Ward Churchill." Owens may have been responding to the following statement made by Churchill in the interview:
- If I defined the state as being the problem, just what happens to the state? I’ve never fashioned myself to be a revolutionary, but it’s part and parcel of what I’m talking about. You can create through consciousness a situation of flux, perhaps, in which something better can replace it. In instability there’s potential. That’s about as far as I go with revolutionary consciousness. I’m actually a de-evolutionary. I don’t want other people in charge of the apparatus of the state as the outcome of a socially transformative process that replicates oppression. I want the state gone: transform the situation to U.S. out of North America. U.S. off the planet. Out of existence altogether. (emphasis added) [5] (http://www.satyamag.com/apr04/churchill.html)
Accusations of fabrication of Indian heritage
Accusations that Churchill has fabricated his Indian origins have been made by the AIM GGC and others. In an article in Socialism and Democracy magazine, he stated, "I am myself of Muscogee and Creek descent on my father’s side, Cherokee on my mother’s, and am an enrolled member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians."[6] (http://www.sdonline.org/33/ward_churchill.htm) He told the Denver Post in its February 3, 2005, edition that he is three-sixteenths Cherokee and is an associate member of the Keetoowah Band in Oklahoma, which has a one-fourth blood quantum threshold for regular membership. He said that he could be a full member of the much larger Cherokee Nation, but that he chose the Keetoowah Band because they are more "hard-line". However, the same article includes a quote from Ernestine Berry, who was "on the tribe's enrollment committee and served on the tribal council for four years": "He was trying to get recognized as an Indian. He could not prove he was an Indian (Cherokee) at all." [7] (http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E23827%257E2689334,00.html) It is not unusual for Americans of mixed blood, especially those descended from Native Americans of different tribes to have difficulty definitively establishing their Native American heritage. Family traditions may be accurate, but are sometimes difficult to document.
Media
Books
- 1986
- Pacifism as Pathology: Reflections on the role of armed struggle, ISBN 1902593588.
- 1988
- Agents of Repression: The FBI's secret wars against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement by Ward Churchill, James Vanderwall, ISBN 0896082938.
- 1996
- From A Native Son: Selected essays on indigenism 1985-1995, ISBN 0896085538.
- 1998
- 2002
- 2003
- On the Justice of Roosting Chickens: Reflections on the consequences of U.S. imperial arrogance and criminality, ISBN 1902593790.
- Life in Occupied America, ISBN 1902593723.
- 2004
- Kill the Indian, Save the Man: The genocidal impact of American Indian residential schools, ISBN 0872864340.
Audio
- Doing Time: The Politics of Imprisonment
- Life In Occupied America
- In A Pig's Eye: Reflections on the Police State, Repression, and Native America
- US Off The Planet!: An Evening In Eugene With Ward Churchill And Chellis Glendinning
- Pacifism and Pathology in the American Left
- Z Mag Ward Churchill Audio (http://www.zmag.org/churchillaudio.html)
See also
External links
Articles Related to Controversy
- Churchill's answer to FOX news controversy (http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_3512084,00.html)
- AK Press (http://www.akpress.com)
- South End Press (http://www.southendpress.org)
- CU prof's essay sparks dispute: Ward Churchill says 9/11 victims were not innocent people (http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_3501617,00.html)
- Full text of "Some People Push Back" (http://www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/s11/churchill.html)
- New York Times article Feb 2, 2005 registration and nominal payment required (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/02/education/02hamilton.html?)
- Professor resigns after 9/11 essay prompts protests Ethnic studies chair will retain teaching position Posted January 31, 2005 (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/01/31/professor.resigns.ap/)
- Ward Churchill Press Statement to Deverpost February 01, 2005 (http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E53%257E2686093,00.html)
- ABC News/Associated Press Colo. Regents Weigh Prof's 9/11 Comments January 30, 2005 (http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=456606&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312)
- 2004 interview with Satya magazine (http://www.satyamag.com/apr04/churchill.html)
Articles Related to National AIM and Autonomous AIM
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Ward Churchill
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