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July 10, 2006
Give Me
the Churchill Treatment
by David A. Yeagley, Ph.D.
 The
University of Colorado has announced its decision
to fire Ward Churchill, the man who has faked
being Indian, produced erroneous scholarship, and
even been accused of plagiarizing art. If
CU-Boulder is willing to fess up to the fact that
they paid a fraud $100,000 a year to hate America
in the name of American Indians, why don't
they try hiring a real Indian who loves America? I
have academic credentials and more years experience
teaching at the college level than Churchill did
before he was hired.
Of
course, I would have to make a few demands: CU
would have to offer me the same privileges it gave
to Ward Churchill. Here are my propositions, based
on what CU's
own committee found. To get the full Churchill
treatment, I would demand:
- $200,000 a year starting salary. (Hey, at
least I'm a real Indian.)
- immediate tenure upon signing the contract.
After all, I do have a doctorate. Churchill does
not, yet was given immediate tenure.
- the right to teach courses wholly unrelated
to my degrees. Churchill taught "ethnic
studies," yet his master's degree (from the
early 70's) was in communication. Therefore, I
would expect the privilege of teaching
Vietnamese floristry, Incan herbalist lore, or
fashion photography criticism &endash;
beginning, say, with the work of Firooz
Zahedi.
- the right to plagiarize
in all my scholarly works, las the group found
Churchill had plagiarized Canadian professor Fay
G. Cohen, (Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia),
then apparently
threatened her, as he apparently
threatens anyone who opposes him; it
also states he plagiarized Canadian
environmental group Dam
the Dams Campaign and that
he plagiarized Indian author Rebecca
L. Robins the year after her essay was
published.
- the right to plagiarize
artwork. The study reported Churchill
mirrored the artwork of Thomas E. Mails, and
before that had copied a historical photograph
of Charles M. Bell, and then pawned this work
off as Churchill originals.In 1990 Churchill was
blocked from selling his "work" as Indian
art.
- the right to have my third wife hired with
me, in the department in which I teach.Natsu
Saito (Japanese), Churchill's latest wife, was
hired to teach in the Department of Ethnic
Studies along with him.
- the right to be continuously investigated
for 15 months, and then only after my viciously
anti-American remarks (like blaming the
victims of 9/11 for the attack) have received
international coverage and disgraced the
university.
- I demand all the details of my
plagiarism and false scholarship be
published in the national press for
those 15 months, without repercussions. I also
reserve the right to make "inflammatory and
irrelevant" remarks to all who oppose me, and to
freely threaten female opponents, and yet to be
respectfully treated by committee chairs like
Marianne Wesson, chair of the committee who
examined Churchill.
- the right to create false information, and
false research, the way Churchill fantasized
about non-existent "blood quantum" statements in
the 1887 Allotment Act, and in the 1990 Indian
Arts and Crafts Act, and the way he completely
fabricated "historical" information about "small
pox infested blankets," saying Capt. John Smith
committed genocide against the Wampanoag in 1614
and that the U.S. Army did the same against the
Mandan in 1837.
- the right to be recognized as the true
champion of free speech and academic freedom.
When students at the University of
Wisconsin-Whitewater, along with Rep. Steve
Nass, protested the speech of Churchill in March
2005, Chancellor
Jack Miller declared that the "academy is at
its best when it functions as a forum for the
free exchange of ideas...The university must
follow its conscience." And Churchill was
apparently that conscience.
- the right to enjoy this infamy with a stream
of steady speaking engagements at $50,000 a
pop.
All
this is only right, fair, and just. I've already
demonstrated "grace under fire" when I
was dismissed from Oklahoma State
University-OKC for promoting patriotism.
I didn't file suit, even though I had Governor
Keating's support. I wasn't investigated. I was
simply ousted without fanfare. It would be much
safer to hire me.
So,
now I demand full acknowledgement, full
recognition, and full compensation. Academically
qualified patriots have a right to honor and a life
of fame and fortune, too. And real American
Indians have the same right to professorships at
American universities that phony ones do.
If jobs were based on merit, I'd be a shoo-in.
And if academia were as beneficent to conservatives
as it is to hate-America leftists, I'd know what
treatment to expect after I was hired.
Yeagley
Archive
Dr. David A. Yeagley is a published scholar,
professionally recorded composer, and an adjunct
professor at the University of Oklahoma College of
Liberal Studies. He's on the speakers list of
Young America's
Foundation. E-mail him at badeagle2000@yahoo.com.
View his website at http://www.badeagle.com.
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