Ward Churchill Mouths Empty Words about Proper Attribution in Footnoting

"[I]t is a matter not just of courtesy, but of ethics, to make proper attribution to those upon whose ideas and research one relies."---Ward Churchill!

"Churchill fabricated the most crucial details of his genocide story. Churchill radically misrepresented the sources he cites in support of his genocide charges, sources which say essentially the opposite of what Churchill attributes to them."---Professsor Thomas Brown

In his 1997 book A Little Matter of Genocide, Ward Churchill hypocritically claims that he believes that it is important to make proper attribution in his footnoting:

"I have gone out of my way to provide what Noam Chomsky has called "rich footnotes." 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 I've sought to make, and with the bluntness that typically marks my work, one is advised to be thorough in revealing the basis upon which they rest. I also believe that it is a matter not just of courtesy, but of ethics, to make proper attribution to those upon whose ideas and research one relies. Most importantly, I want those who read this book, to be able to interrogate what I've 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." [Page 11. 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]

That's what Ward Churchill said, but the C.U. Committees discovered that Churchill dishonestly mischaracterized the words of other scholars. Churchill gave his undocumented claims that the American Army deliberately infected Indians with smallpox a credibility they didn't deserve by seeming to cite genuine scholars.

Some people defend Churchill by claiming that all scholars make occcasional mistakes in writing and sourcing. This is true, but Ward Churchill's footnoting "mistakes" seem to happen when he is claiming that the American Army deliberately gave Indians smallpox. [if not available see Plagiary HTML]

Here are copies of pages from Churchill's books and the pages he ostensibly cites from other scholars in his footnotes. These PDF copies of pages from books illustrate what Churchill does, and are taken from the Rocky Mountain News:

PDF: Army-smallpox assertions (Churchill, Thornton references)

PDF: Army-smallpox assertions (Churchill, Stearn references

PDF: American Indian population (Churchill, Thornton references)

PDF: Capt. John Smith and smallpox vaccine (Churchill, Connell, Salisbury references)

I have read The Effect of Smallpox on the Destiny of the Amerindian (1945) by E. Wagner Stearn, Ph.D. and Allen E. Stearn, Ph.D. This is one of the books that Churchill "quotes" to make his case that the American Army committed genocide.

Churchill is really disrespectful of the Stearns' work. When he claims that proper attribution is an ethical imperative, Churchill is just mouthing cynical platitudes.

I don't think that the Stearns would be happy if they knew that Churchill claimed that their 1945 book provided evidence that the American Army committed genocide by giving Indians smallpox-infected blankets at Fort Clark, because this is what they actually said at the close of their book:

If, in the foregoing pages, some facts have been stated which incriminated the white conquerers and settlers, the history is replete with instances of great heroism and devotion of large numbers of white men throughout the centuries, who labored to alleviate the sufferings of, and finally brought the protection to, the conquered people through vaccination at their own trouble and expense (Stearn and Stearn pg.139).

The Rocky's Vince Carroll Refutes Churchill's Defenders

Vincent Carroll, the editor of the editorial pages of the Rocky Mountain News has written an excellent article about the charges now being put forth in a letter purportedly written by nine professors who are defending the tenured Plagiarist of Ethnic Studies Ward Churchill. Surprisingly, Ward Churchill's wife Natsu Saito [video] didn't sign the letter (hat tip to PirateBallerina for the letter).

Mr. Carroll writes (4-26-07):

Seven University of Colorado professors have issued a warning to their colleagues who were brave enough to serve on a committee that condemned a plagiarist and fraud. If that committee’s report on Ward Churchill isn’t retracted, the seven promise, they’ll consider “filing charges of research misconduct against the authors.”

This ominous pledge is also signed by two non-CU professors, one from Cornell and the other from Kansas, and alleges five specific “violations” of scholarly norms in the anti-Churchill report.

A last-ditch attempt to turn the tables? Of course, and from professors who in at least some cases share Churchill’s political outlook. But fear not: Even if the committee’s report were as rotten as this gaggle of Churchill defenders contends, it would still provide more than enough basis for the professor’s eventual, much-delayed firing. Indeed, the committee’s conclusion that Churchill is a serial plagiarist is not even challenged. Apparently that is now conceded by all sides.

To fairly assess all five allegations against the committee, I’d have to return to every source cited by each side; that wasn’t possible for this column. But I was nonetheless able to review the source that is the basis for one of the pro-Churchill group's claims. The verdict: It’s a trumped-up charge.

The pro-Churchill professors accuse the investigating committee of “suppressing text from a cited source that contradicts the report’s argument” in discussing an epidemic among the Mandan Indians in the 1830s.
[Full text]

In the comments that follow Mr. Carroll's article, some Churchill dead-enders are trying to defend their hero-plagiarist by claiming that Wardo is the victim of a witch hunt [video].

Cliff Notes!

Lemmings! [illustrative video!]

Picture credit

The pep rally for the tenured Plagiarist of Ethnic Studies Ward Churchill will be held on Saturday, April 28, 2007, from 10-3;30 in Muenzinger Auditorium EO50.

The announcement does not stipulate that there are any prohibitions against bloggers taking pictures [kewl video!].

By 1996 Ward Churchill had been exposed for his dishonest research by an Indian Professor of Law, John LaVelle, but CU ignored LaVelle's research.

Ward Churchill does not have freedom to fabricate deliberate lies about what the people he "quotes" have written. That's not free speech; that's research misconduct!

Was Churchill a Member of AIM Security in the Early 1970s?

Quotes of the day:

"An Indian is who an indigenous community says is an Indian."--Ward Churchill

"[Blood quantum] was not formalized until the passage of the General Allotment Act, mid-1880s. At that point they began to define Indian as being someone who was demonstrably and documentably of at least one-quarter by quantum blood indigenous in a given group. You couldn't be an eighth Cheyenne and an eighth Arapaho and be an Indian. You had to be a quarter Cheyenne or a quarter Arapaho or hopefully a quarter and a quarter. The reason for this was quite clear. They were identifying Indians for purposes of allotting them individual parcels of land in the existing reservation base at that point. If they ran out of Indians identifiable as such, then the rest of the land would be declared surplus. So it was clearly in the interests of the government to create a definition of Indianness that would minimize the number of Indians..." Ward Churchill [Churchill's claim about blood quantum is debunked by Lavelle's 1999 article: The General Allotment Act "Eligability" Hoax]

Our Feature Story

This article from Spring 2004 claims that the Tenured Plagiarist of Ethnic Studies Ward Churchill was "a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) security team at the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota in the early 1970's."

In 1985,Wardo claimed in a Soviet-Cuban propaganda mouthpiece, the Covert Action Information Bulletin, that "at least 342 AIM members and supporters were killed by roving death squads [at Pine Ridge] aligned with and supported by the FBI." Churchill claimed in the C.A.I.B. that the killings happened "between 1973 and 1976..."

Funny that these FBI-aligned death squads managed to miss an important member of the AIM security team like Wardo.

In his anti-FBI book Agents of Repression, Churchill claims that he was on Pine Ridge Indian reservation on 6-27-75, the day after the infamous 6-26-75 murder of two FBI agents:

"Author Churchill experienced one of these sweeps firsthand when, while driving across Pine Ridge on June 27, 1975, he stopped to urinate alongside the road, about five miles south of Porcupine. Over the ridge came an APC, accompanied by some 20 FBI and BIA police personnel, moving "on line," carrying M-16s, and dressed in Vietnam-style jungle fatigues, boots and bush hats. Most of the group were also wearing military-issue flack-jackets. Needless to say, the whole scene afforded a sense of deja vu to the viewer, given that he had spent a year in Southeast Asia in combat." [page 438, footnote #49]

During a November 4, 1999 radio interview with Native America Calling, AIMster Vernon Bellecourt stated (possibly sarcastically):

[I]n his book Agents of Repression, [Ward Churchill] stated that he was behind the hill from the Jumping Bull community the day after the gun fight that erupted there and killed two FBI agents...

Churchill, who reportedly told a Canadian audience that he was "a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) security team at the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota in the early 1970's," challenged Vernon Bellecourt's facts on Native America Calling but reaffirmed his earlier claim that he was travelling through Pine Ridge in the aftermath of the murders:

"In my book [ie Agents of Repression], I did not state that I was on the other side of the ridge from the Jumping Bull [Compound]... I was at Potato Creek which is some distance away on the Pine Ridge reservation. I had arrived there that day in an International Scout vehicle without a radio, I had no idea what was going on and was surprised by one of the FBI sweep operations, that’s what I recount. I was on my way to Spearfish, South Dakota to take up a faculty position, I had not resided in South Dakota nor had I been in South Dakota since I was 6-years-old, at the time I arrived at Pine Ridge. That’s simply another flat out, disinformational statement." [Full text].

I don't know if Churchill, who has claimed he was a member of the Pine Ridge AIM security team in the early 1970s, really was on Pine Ridge about the time of the FBI agents were murdered or whether he was just trying to give himself radical "cred," but I notice that in 1999 he claimed he had never been on Pine Ridge (except when he was six) until June 27, 1975.

If that is the case, how could Churchill have been a member of AIM security "at the Pine Ridge Reservation" in the early 1970s?

Speaking Truth to Power, Really!

The Chuppet Show!

The Ward Churchill Pep Rally [video] is scheduled for April 28, 2007. There will probably be updates on PirateBallerina and Drunkablog [video] about discrimination against bloggers.

Drunkablog is already asking:

Speaking of puppets, isn't it about time Ken Bonetti and the folks at Students and Faculty for "True" Academic Freedom got that flyer out about Saturday's meet 'n' agiteet? Does CU specify that flyers must be posted a certain amount of time before an event? It's less than a week away now.

It turns out that the chuppets are now planning to censor bloggers at their pep rally--only "real" media will be permitted to take pictures or tape the speakers.

It seems to me that if teachers at the University of Colorado are really interested in "speaking truth to power," they now have their chance. CU teachers should attend this rally and show the students how Professor Churchill and his terminally-ignorant, gullible, or cynical chuppets are manipulating them. All the teachers have to do is show the students what Churchill says and then show the students his footnotes. This is actually not rocket science. Teachers have an obligation to inform students about the difference between honest research and fraud [video].

Instead of ignoring the Chuppet Show, the teachers should all attend and use their free speech to stand up to Churchill's lies.

As early as 1996, the brilliant Indian law professor John LaVelle demonstrated that Ward Churchill was a historical fabricator, but Wardo was a cunning and powerful adversary. He had lawyers; he intimidated people by disguising himself as an Indian and exploiting "white guilt," so people didn't do anything to stop him.

The ugly truth is that Wardo is a narcissistic white man [video] who intimidates and bullies Indians or anyone who points out his lies.

By at least 2003, even I was writing about Ward Churchill's frauds. My motives were not political and had nothing to do with his 9-11 essay, which I didn't even know about until it was reported on in 2005. I had simply come across Churchill's works in the course of studying the propaganda surrounding the JonBenet Ramsey murder [video] and realized that Wardo was fabricating Indian history.

If Dean Saitta, Ken Bonetti, and Ben Whitmer choose to defend this vicious, violent, academic con-artist by mislabelling his frauds as "free speech," nobody can stop them from doing Ward Churchill's dirty work for him. There will always be chuppets---untalented opportunists who attach themselves to powerful cult leaders.

But why aren't the other C.U. teachers brave enough to confront Wardo's three chuppets? Probably the cowardly Wardo will not show up for his pep rally.

Wardo will probably leave all the dirty work to his chuppets---Saitta, Benotti, and Whitmer. Wardo always leaves some chuppets holding the bag. Ask the Indians.

American teachers now have the heroic example of the elderly Professor Liviu Librescu at Virginia Tech who blocked his classroom door with his body and protected his students at the cost of his life. He had survived the NAZIS and the Communists, so he knew he was called on to do something to stop the mass-murderer.

There were other heroes at Virginia Tech, too. Some young students and other teachers didn't have the personal experience of the Hitler's Holocaust or of Ceaucescu's Romania, but they did have the courage to stand up to a crazed murderer.

A few young male students barred the door of their classroom so that their wounded classmates would not be finished off. The killer had shot almost all of their classmates. He promised the wounded, "I'll be back," and moved on to another classroom.

A few young men in the classroom could have used this opportunity to escape, but they stood their ground and tried to save their wounded classmates. One of these heroes was even bleeding from an artery and later told his family that he wanted to escape. Instead, he tied up his wounds and blocked the door with his body. He said he couldn't just leave the other kids.

Ryan Clark, 23, lost his life trying to protect a defenseless college girl from the shooter. An honor student with a double-major, Ryan rose to his obligations as dorm resident and as a man. Ryan has earned a lot more than a four-point average at Virginia Tech. Ryan was a member of the marching band, but on April 16, 2007, Ryan fell as a soldier and a hero. His devastated parents, family, and friends must be so proud of him. He was a real man.

Other teachers also helped their students, and students told their teachers what was happening and sounded the alarm.

It seems to me like it would be a good thing for the entire CU faculty to confront Ward Churchill by marching through the door and attending his ridiculous pep rally on April 28, 2007.

Ward Churchill has been a known liar for many years, but he was protected by a politicized, gullible, or corrupt faculty.

It is really hypocritical of Wardo's politicized chuppets to claim that the "right wing" is after Wardo. That may be true since 2005, but if CU academics were true liberals--in the classical meaning of the word--why didn't they rise to their obligations as academics and liberals and toss this this bullying fraud out the door [video] a long time ago? Instead, CU academics locked the kids in the classroom with this dangerous liar.

I would be ashamed to be that kind of teacher.

Bird Friday!

Here is a full-length Disney cartoon called "Der Fuehrer's Face."

Grant Crowell Interviews Ann Neal, the President of ACTA

PirateBallerina has posted a November 2006 transcript of videographer Grant Crowell's interview with Ann Neal, the President of American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA).

The interview with President Neal is also posted on Youtube.
Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4;
Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8;
Part 9; Part 10

President Neal discusses the role of academic freedoms and responsibilities for professors.

Thank you for publishing this interesting interview, Mr. Crowell!

Who Gagged Kenny Bonetti?

University of Colorado academic adviser and "peace activist" Ken Bonetti, the contact person beating the drums for Ward Churchill's 4-28-07 Pep Rally, says that that "'media,' but no one else," can record the speakers at this event. Bonetti claims that a DVD [video] will be made.

It appears that the University of Colorado is now letting the partisans [video] of the Tenured Plagiarist of Ethnic Studies define what is media.

In the USSR, writers, reporters, news organizations, and other independent organizations were banned unless they were registered by the party in power. Only people who toed the party line [video] were given registration and permitted to write or report the news.

In the Soviet Union, the ideological noose was tightened on writers, media, and other organizations by ordering frequent reregistrations. Organizations that failed to get registered or reregistered became illegal. Writers who weren't members of the writers' union were not permitted to publish. This process came to be known as a purge.

A Russian photographer explains why he collaborated with the regime [video], even though he was horrified by the regime's brutality. He was young; he had a new job and he didn't want to "lose everything." [The Church of Christ the Savior--destroyed by Stalin and shown in this video--was rebuilt during the Yeltsin years.]

Communists have registrations and reregistrations (purges) because they are afraid to compete in the marketplace of ideas.

I would like to know how Wardo's apparatchik Bonetti defines "media."

I wonder what would happen if Bonetti took a flyer [video] and invited bloggers [video] to tape and photograph the meeting? Is Bonetti free to do that? He is in charge of the arrangements, right? Right?

Free Kenny Bonetti!

Narcissist Maoist MIM Takes Umbrage!

Picture credit

"God sees everything."--George Wilson in The Great Gatsby

On 4-4-07, I noted the obvious: the Maoist MIM is a narcissist. MIM took exception to this description.

If MIM doesn't like looking at himself through the eyes of others, perhaps this narcissist should wear dark glasses [video] like his idol Wardo.

On 4-7-07 the Maoist MIM expressed umbrage about being called a narcissist [video] and threatened to retaliate if Ward Churchill is not reinstated in his teaching duties. If the Great White Wardo [video] is reinstated, MIM laughably offers to "let by-gones be by-gones."

Here is the ridiculous narcissist MIM "dictating" his terms:

We are glad to hear rumors that MIM is narcisstic about reporting on FBI, because that will make it easier for our pursuers to guess what we are going to do next, being bourgeois narcissistic pieces of shit just like them. We would not want a misunderstanding, an idea that MIM is not taking this persynally this time...

For this episode to end, FBI is going to have to get square with Ward Churchill. If MIM finds out that Ward Churchill is going to miss another year of teaching this fall, there is no telling what MIM narcissists will do as retaliation. There will be legal retaliation of some kind. FBI's best hope is that Ward Churchill wins within the next couple months. In that circumstance, MIM would let by-gones be by-gones.

Towanda the Avenger!

Yikes!

"[The Tenured Plagiarist of Ethnic Studies] Ward Churchill pointed out that COINTELPRO continues to exist just under new names and it has new technology at its disposal."--Maoist MIM (4-3-07)

And this just in from our Some People Push Back department:

Evelyn: Excuse me. I was waiting for that space.
Girl #1: Yeah, tough!
Girl #2: Face it, lady, we're younger and faster.
Evelyn: ... Towanda. (screams and smashes into the car) Towanda!! Yes ma'am!
Girl #2: what are you doing? Are you crazy?
Evelyn: Face it, girls. I'm older and I have more insurance. [video]