Reuters Is Behind The Times

At least in

THIS STORY ABOUT COLORADO BAD BOY WARD CHURCHILL

Among other things, it says:

BOULDER, Colo. (Reuters) – A University of Colorado professor under fire for comparing World Trade Center victims to a Nazi war criminal on Tuesday refused to apologize for his remarks.

"I am not backing off an inch," said Ward Churchill, drawing an ovation from a standing-room-only crowd of about 1,200 students and backers gathered in a ballroom. "I owe no one an apology."

That much is fine, but it goes on to say:

Churchill, a veteran Native American activist, first attracted widespread notice last month after Hamilton College in New York canceled a scheduled appearance, citing threats against him and others who had been slated to appear.

There might be some sense in which Churchill could be described as a Native American activist, but there are important facts that have been uncovered by the local Colorado media and the blogosphere that are relevant to this claim and that the story doesn’t mention. In fact, here are a number of interesting things you might want to know about Churchill, none of which are mentioned in the Reuters story:

1. Churchill has claimed to be 1/16th or 3/16ths Cherokee, but genealogical research by the Rocky Mountain News failed to turn up any Cherokee ancestors [SOURCE].
2. Churchill is disclaimed by the Cherokee nation as a member. He was given an honorary membership in the Keetoowah band of Cherokees. Honorary memberships of this type used to be given out to friends of the tribe irrespective of their genealogy (Pres. Clinton was another recipient), but when people started using these honorary memberships to claim they were Cherokees and enhance their careers, the Keetoowahs cancelled the program. They now accuse Churchill of being an opportunist abusing the honorary membership he was given [SOURCE].
3. Churchill claims that the U.S. army created a smallpox epidemic among the Mandan tribe in 1837, but it appears that he has committed academic fraud in this regard: "One has only to read the sources that Churchill
   cites to realize the magnitude of his fraudulent claims for them. We are not dealing with a few minor errors here. We are
   dealing with a story that Churchill has fabricated almost entirely from
   scratch" [SOURCE].
4. "Similar charges have been leveled against
   Churchill by University of New Mexico law professor John Lavelle, a
   Native American scholar who has documented what appear to be equally
   fraudulent claims on Churchill’s part regarding the General Allotment
   Act, one of the most important federal laws dealing with Indian lands.
   (Lavelle also accuses Churchill of plagiarism)" [SOURCE].
5. Churchill has no doctorate but only a masters degree from a university that did not grade its students but awarded them academic credit on a pass/fail basis [SOURCE].

So what’s up, Reuters? Get with the program!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live." View all posts by Jimmy Akin