Ward Churchill

1
Ward Churchill

• Academic Freedom and the Footnote Police

2
Who is Ward Churchill?

• Churchill is of American Indian ancestry through
  both his parents, and has stated that he is an
  enrolled member of the United Keetoowah Band of
  Cherokee Indians.
• In 1966, Churchill was drafted into the United
  States Army. Military records obtained through
  the Freedom of Information Act show that
  Churchill was trained as a projectionist and
  truck driver.
• Churchill had been politically radicalized as a
  result of his experiences in Vietnam, and notes
  that he had taught bomb-making to members of the
  Weather Underground.

3

• Following his military service, Churchill
  received his B.A. and M.A. in Communications from
  Sangamon State University, now the University of
  Illinois at Springfield.
• He was presented with an honorary Doctorate of
  Humane Letters from Alfred University after
  giving a lecture there about American Indian
  history.
• In the late 1970s, Churchill began working as an
  affirmative action officer at the University of
  Colorado at Boulder. In 1990, he was hired as an
  assistant professor and was granted tenure the
  following year.

4

• As a scholar, Churchill has written on American
  Indian history and culture.
  
• In Agents of Repression (1988), co-authored by
  Jim Vander Wall, the authors describe "the secret
  war" against the Black Panther Party and American
  Indian Movement carried out during the late 1960s
  and '70s by the FBI under the COINTELPRO program.
  
• In Fantasies of the Master Race (1992), Churchill
  examines the portrayal of American Indians and
  the use of American Indian symbols in popular
  American culture.
• In Perversions of Justice (2002), Churchill
  argues that the U.S.'s legal system was adapted
  to gain control over American Indian people.

5
I cannot convey to you the amount of pride we
have in Ward Churchill, and the amount of pride
he gives us. - Russell Means, American Indian
Movement
6
The Little Eichmanns Controversy

• Churchill wrote an essay in September 2001
  entitled "Some People Push Back On the Justice
  of Roosting Chickens" about the September 11,
  2001 attacks.
• In that essay, Churchill argued that American
  foreign policies provoked the attacks, and
  further questioned the innocence of many of the
  people killed in the World Trade Center attacks,
  labeling them the "technocratic corps at the very
  heart of America's global financial empire" and
  repeating John Zerzan's phrase "little
  Eichmanns."

7
They did not license themselves to target
innocent civilians.There is simply no argument
to be made that the Pentagon personnel killed on
September 11 fill that bill. The building and
those inside comprised military targets, pure and
simple. As to 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. Recourse to
"ignorance" a derivative, after all, of the
word "ignore" counts as less than an excuse
among this relatively well-educated elite. To the
extent that any of them were unaware of the costs
and consequences to others of what they were
involved in and in many cases excelling at
it was because of their absolute refusal to see.
More likely, it was because they were too busy
braying, incessantly and self-importantly, into
their cell phones, arranging power lunches and
stock transactions, each of which translated,
conveniently out of sight, mind and smelling
distance, into the starved and rotting flesh of
infants. If there was a better, more effective,
or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty
befitting their participation upon the little
Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the
twin towers, I'd really be interested in hearing
about it.
8

• As things stand, including the 1993 detonation
  at the WTC, "Arab terrorists" have
  
• responded to the massive and sustained American
  terror bombing of Iraq with a
  
• total of four assaults by explosives inside the
  US. That's about 1 of the 50,000
  
• bombs the Pentagon announced were rained on
  Baghdad alone during the Gulf
  
• War(add in Oklahoma City and you'll get something
  nearer an actual 1).   
  
• They've managed in the process to kill about
  5,000 Americans, or roughly 1 of the
  
• dead Iraqi children (the percentage is far
  smaller if you factor in the killing of adult
  
• Iraqi civilians, not to mention troops butchered
  as/after they'd surrendered and/or
  
• after the "war-ending" ceasefire had been
  announced).    
  
• With that, they've given Americans a tiny dose of
  their own medicine.. This might be
  
• seen as merely a matter of "vengeance" or
  "retribution," and, unquestionably,
  
• America has earned it, even if it were to add up
  only to something so ultimately
  
• petty.   
• The problem is that vengeance is usually framed
  in terms of "getting even," a
  
• concept which is plainly inapplicable in this
  instance. As the above data
  
• indicate, it would require another 49,996
  detonations killing 495,000 more
  
• Americans, for the "terrorists" to "break even"
  for the bombing of
  
• Baghdad/extermination of Iraqi children alone.
  And that's to achieve "real
  
• number" parity. To attain an actual proportional
  parity of damage the US is
  

9
Response from Colorado Gov. Bill Owens

• Dear Friends
• We have come to a teaching moment at the
  University of Colorado. I applaud
  
• every person on the University of Colorado campus
  who has come to speak out
  
• against the indecent, insensitive and
  inappropriate comments and writings of
  
• Ward Churchill. 
• All decent people, whether Republican or
  Democrat, liberal or conservative,
  
• should denounce the views of Ward Churchill. Not
  only are his writings outrageous
  
• and insupportable, they are at odds with the
  facts of history. The thousands of
  
• innocent people - and innocent they were - who
  were murdered on September 11
  
• were murdered by evil cowards. Indeed, if anyone
  could possibly be compared to
  
• the evildoers of Nazi Germany, it is the
  terrorists of the 21st century who have an
  
• equally repugnant disregard for innocent human
  life.
  
• No one wants to infringe on Mr. Churchill's right
  to express himself. But we are
  
• not compelled to accept his pro-terrorist views
  at state taxpayer subsidy nor
  
• under the banner of the University of Colorado.
  Ward Churchill besmirches the
  
• University and the excellent teaching, writing
  and research of its faculty.
  
• Ideas have consequences, and words have meaning.
  If there is one lesson that we
  
• hope that all Coloradans take from this sad case
  - and especially our students it
  

10
Resolution of Colorado House of Representatives -
February 2nd 2005WHEREAS, The tragedy of
September 11, 2001, marked one of the darkest
days in American history and WHEREAS, The
terrorist attacks cost more than 3,000 innocent
people their lives and WHEREAS, The pain of the
families who lost loved ones in the September 11,
2001, attacks is immeasurable and WHEREAS, The
healing process for those who lost a family
member in the September 11, 2001, attacks is
still ongoing and WHEREAS, It is important for
the people of Colorado to aid in and support that
healing process and WHEREAS, Professor Ward L.
Churchill's essay, "Some People Push Back On the
Justice of Roosting Chickens" related to the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, strikes
an evil and inflammatory blow against America's
healing process and WHEREAS, Professor
Churchill's essay contains a number of statements
and contentions that are deplorable and do not
reflect the values of the people of the State of
Colorado and WHEREAS, Professor Churchill's
essay, which claims that the victims at the World
Trade Center were not innocent, states, "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." And Professor Churchill
goes on to compare the innocent victims of the
September 11, 2001, attacks to Adolph Eichmann,
the man who executed Hitler's plan to exterminate
the Jews during World War IIand WHEREAS, The
sentiment of these statements strikes at the
hearts of those who lost a loved one in the World
Trade Center attack and WHEREAS, The victims at
the World Trade Center were innocent in every
sense of the word and should always be remembered
as innocent victims of an unprovoked attack on
America now, therefore, Be It Resolved by the
House of Representatives of the Sixty-fifth
General Assembly of the State of Colorado, the
Senate concurring herein (1) That the General
Assembly expresses its heartfelt sympathy for the
victims of the September 11, 2001, tragedy and
their families and (2) That the General Assembly
commemorates the lives lost during the September
11, 2001, attacks.
11
Ward Churchill Responds to Criticism

• 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.
• It should be emphasized that I applied the
  "little Eichmanns" characterization only to those
  described as "technicians." Thus, it was
  obviously not directed to the children, janitors,
  food service workers, firemen and random
  passers-by killed in the 9-1-1 attack. According
  to Pentagon logic, were simply part of the
  collateral damage. Ugly? Yes. Hurtful? Yes. And
  that's my point. It's no less ugly, painful or
  dehumanizing a description when applied to
  Iraqis, Palestinians, or anyone else. If we
  ourselves do not want to be treated in this
  fashion, we must refuse to allow others to be
  similarly devalued and dehumanized in our name.

12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
Report of the Investigative Committee of the
Standing Committee on Research Misconduct at the
University of Colorado at Boulder concerning
Allegations of Academic Misconduct against
Professor Ward Churchill

• The University released its investigative
  committee
  
• findings on May 16, 2006. Seven Allegations of
  Research
  
• Misconduct were reviewed, including subjects of,
• - Smallpox Blanket Genocide
• - Misrepresentation of General Allotment Act
  (1887)
  
• - Plagiarism Annette Jaimes and Rebecca
  Robbins
  

18
Notes from Investigative Report

• Professor Churchill is one if the most widely
  read and
  
• influential writers in this country who deal
  with American
  
• Indian Issues.
• Professor Churchill described his approach more
  fully in the introduction to A Little Matter of
  Genocide
  
• Through the book, I have gone out of my way to
  provide what Noam Chomsky has called Rich
  Footnotes. 23 The reasons for this are several
  and devolve not merely upon the usual scholarly
  fetish with indicating familiarity with the
  literature. I do believe that when making many
  of the points Ive sought to make and with the
  bluteness which typically marks my work, one is
  well advised to be thorough in revealing the
  basis upon which they rest. I also believe it is
  a matter not just of courtesy, but of ethics, to
  make proper attribution to those to those upon
  whose ideas and research one relies. Most
  importantly, I want those who read this book to
  be able to interrogate what Ive said, to
  challenge it and consequently to build on it. The
  most expedient means to this end is the provision
  of copious annotation, citing sources both pro
  and con.
• Our Committee agrees wholeheartedly with
  Professor Churchills on full and accurate
  referencing and his stress on the role of
  citations in promoting constructive interrogation
  of the statements made by himself and other
  authors.

19
As things stand, the entire procedure appears to
be little more than a carefully-orchestrated
effort to cast an aura of legitimacy over an
entirely illegitimate set of predetermined
outcomes. It follows that I reject and will
vigorously contest each and every finding of
misconduct.- Ward Churchill A Travesty of an
"Investigation"