Rocky Mountain News: Shadows of doubt

The doubts are specifically about Ward Churchill, the prickly professor at Colorado University, and the many stories he has told about the Native American experience in the USA, the laws of this country that deal with Native American populations, and Churchill's own ancestry and scholarly integrity.

UnlikeThe Washington Post, the Rocky Mountain News actually investigates the stories it receives. They do not seek after a "Deep Throat" or a "Source Close to the Case," or a "Person Familiar With The Matter," any of whom is likely too cowardly to come out on record. Instead, they do real reporting, the kind of stuff that reporters used to do, before Deputy Director W. Mark Felt, FBI, changed the rules of the game.

And what they've found is dynamite.

He has asserted that the United States Army deliberately spread smallpox among the Mantan Indians in 1837. In fact, as numerous historians have claimed, the Mantans caught smallpox from a group of infected steamboat passengers. The Army had nothing to do with it. Churchill is the first person to accuse the Army in this, and at least two of the works he cites as references in fact contradict his outrageous assertions. Indeed the authors have told the Rocky Mountain News that Churchill has totally mischaracterized their writings.

He has further stated that the Dawes Indian Allotment Act of 1887 established a "blood quantum" of fifty percent Indian blood that everyone had to meet in order to be called an Indian. A careful reading of the Dawes Act reveals no basis for such a claim.

I, along with others, have commented on accusations of plagiarism against him, and lately of his playing fast and loose with the definitions of "work made for hire" to justify certain quotes he made. Now others have flatly accused him of using their works without their permission, and at least one scholarly expert has also accused him of plagiarism.

With regard to his ancestry, he has made specific claims to the university in order to get hired--claims to belong to certain Native American tribes by birthright. This, too, is now in question.

And in nearly every case, the Rocky Mountain News has asked him to substantiate his claims or to bolster his defense. He has offered them nothing but generalities that have little or no evidence--and certainly not a preponderance of evidence.

This article is only the first in a series. Others will follow, every day, beginning Monday of next week.