Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Ward Churchill's Unoriginal Big Lie!

"Mischief makers tried to provoke the Indians against the whites by telling them that they were to be exterminated by smallpox, introduced in clothing sent to them"---Stearn and Stearn. The Effect of Smallpox on the Destiny of the Amerindian (102)

The University of Colorado's Tenured Plagiarist of Ethnic Studies Ward Churchill has claimed in many articles (see pages 40-41) that the American Army deliberately infected Indians with smallpox by giving them infected blankets.

When scholars and newspapers showed that Churchill's "sources" actually said the opposite of what he claimed, Churchill began to tell newspapers he had new proof of his claims.

In 2005, Churchill told the Rocky Mountain News (6-8-05):

"What happened at Fort Clark was far worse than I indicated. Far worse....And now I've got the documentation, the paper, to prove it. So next time I iterate it, it's going to be a much sharper finding on genocidal intent with Fort Clark."

Ward Churchill still has not produced the paper documentation of the U.S. Army's genocidal intent.

In 2005, Ward Churchill told the University of Winnipeg student newspaper The Uniter (11-17-2005; see pages 10-11) something a bit different:

"...[W]ith regard to my so-called academic misconduct or regarding fabricating historical events...

[I]n 1837...the U.S. Army [deliberately gave smallpox- infected blankets] to the Mandan at Fort Clark in the upper Missouri river. I never developed it in any depth [Actually,Ward Churchill has made this claim in six articles he published between 1994 and 2003. These articles are listed in the CU Report on pages 40-41], it is self-evident that it happened by what my people have told me [Ward Churchill falsely claims that he is an Indian, so he doesn't have to provide any evidence]. I put a couple citations behind it for people to look at and draw their own conclusions, the citations don’t say what I said, which is not unusual but in this case this is considered fraud. I never considered an in-depth treatment of it [See pages 40-41], but I am now. And guess what? Not only what I said was true but it was far worse than what I said. They should have left it alone. It turns out there was an actual war department policy, not a couple of lonely officers at an outpost that could be an anomaly."

Churchill "cites" The Effect of Smallpox on the Destiny of the Amerindian (1945) by E. Wagner Stearn, Ph.D. and Allen E. Stearn, Ph.D. to give the impression that his claim is documented by these respected scholars. In fact, this book actually chronicles in painstaking detail the attempts of the American government to innoculate Indians against smallpox. Near the end of the book, the authors even write:

"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" (139).

In a discussion about the health effects on Indians of the construction of the Pacific Railroad, the Searn and Stearn book even mentions that some trouble-makers tried to convince Indians that the whites planned to deliberately infect them with contaminated clothing:

"Mischief makers tried to provoke the Indians against the whites by telling them that they were to be exterminated by smallpox, introduced in clothing sent to them" (102).

It seems like Ward Churchill is not the first person to try to sow distrust between Americans with this lie.

I have other posts about Churchill's claims about smallpox. For example, see here, here, here, here and here [Search "smallpox" for all references].

Allegations that the American Army uses biowarfare are a staple of communist propaganda.

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