It seems that Ward Churchill, a man who has claimed Native American ancestry, has finally admitted what we all knew:

Churchill did address the issue of his ethnicity, admitting that he is not Native American.
“Is he an Indian? Do we really care?” he said, quoting those he called his “white Republican” critics.
“Let’s cut to the chase; I am not,” he said.
His pedigree is “not important,” Churchill said: “The issue is the substance of what is said.”
He went on to explain that the issue of whether he is Native American has been blown up by sloppy reporting and reporters quoting other reporters.

Let’s see if I have this right: First, he says that “his pedigree is not important”, then he calls his critics “white republicans.” If pedigree isn’t important for him, why is it important for his critics? Also, how did sloppy reporting “blow up” the issue of his ethnicity? Apparently, his ethnicity has been an issue for quite some time. The only reason it got “blown up” is because until this talk he had ducked the issue.
Of course, by trying to deflect criticism of his falsehoods regarding his ethnicity, he only draws more attention to it. What he fails to comprehend is that most people would agree that if a person can not be truthful about whom he is, then why should they think he is being truthful about anything else? The fact is one of the reasons he got the job at the University of Colorado at Boulder is because he claimed he was a Native American. So, he lied to the University in order to get what he wanted. I think a good case can now be made to terminate him regardless of the fact that he was given tenure. If the University is smart, they’ll drop him like a hot potato.
Churchill made this admission at the University of Hawaii during a talk he gave there February 22. He is some reaction to his appearance:

His speech drew mostly positive reaction from those who attended. But Tyrone Hogenauer said he was disappointed.
“I thought he was going to talk on free speech,” Hogenauer said.
Instead, Churchill talked about himself and attacked his critics the way they are attacking him, Hogenauer said: “It’s a sad thing.”
UH student Kirsten Chong said her professors assigned her to listen to the speech.
“He was humorous and he certainly didn’t pull any punches,” she said, adding that because she is native Hawaiian, she agrees with much of what he said.

Now that his secret is out, and his days as a University professor are about over, Churchill is milking his 15 minutes for as much exposure as it can get him. I predict that within days of being terminated from UCB, he’ll go on a speaking tour of college campuses and charge huge speaker fees. Then, he’ll probably write a book and sign a huge publishing contract. We can only hope that whatever he does, he goes back to the anonymity he so richly deserves.
UPDATE: Apparently, Churchill was misquoted. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin is now running the following correction to the article I linked to above:

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, incorrectly quoted University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill as admitting that he was not American Indian.
The story about Churchill’s Tuesday night speech at the University of Hawaii-Manoa said the professor noted that his “white Republican” critics were asking, “Is he an Indian? Do we really care?”
“Let’s cut to the chase, I’m not,” the quote in yesterday’s paper continued.
But a review of video and audio tapes of the speech shows that Churchill actually said: “Is he an Indian? We really care. We’re trying to protect the rights of Indians to divine for themselves, say this circle of flies in the form of white reporters circling a manure pile like it’s of all consequential importance. Cut to the chase on that.”
Churchill went on to say that he is an associate member of the Keetoowah tribe and that associates are enrolled in the band after their genealogy has been vetted by the enrollment office. He said that he is less than one-quarter Indian, so he does not qualify to be a full member.
The issue of whether Churchill has Indian blood is part of the national debate over the controversial professor who gained notoriety for comparing some Sept. 11, 2001, victims to Nazis.

The leaders of the Keetoowah tribe have denied that Churchill is a member, so as far as I can tell Churchill is still lying about his ethnicity.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 23rd, 2005 at 4:37 pm by Nick, and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.