Today Denver's Rocky Mountain News examines the charge that Ward Churchill falsely claimed to be of Indian descent. Relying on both DNA evidence and genealogical research, the paper finds that Churchill's claim of Native American ancestry is baseless.

As an amateur genealogist, I'll just note that the article's detailed account of Churchill's actual family history is fascinating--Churchill may not have Indian blood, but he's got an interesting background all the same, and the paper's account of how it assembled Churchill's genealogy from old census records, deeds, wills, veteran's records, and other public documents, makes for great reading.

Agreed, that was fascinating reading. Thanks, Erin!

Very interesting reading, indeed. You know, this is the first time I've ever felt (very slightly) sorry for Churchill. He concocted quite a personal mythology on the shaky foundation of a family tale. I wonder what direction his life might have taken if he had pursued the truth instead of a romantic legend.

Churchill has an interesting family tree, but doesn't every family have a myth about their blood connection to royalty, gypies, or some famous figure in history? Too bad Ward didn't apply some scholarly skepticism to his own ancestry before milking the myth. On the other hand, maybe he wished it were true, found it professionally useful, and doubted anyone would be so non-P.C. as to challenge his claim.

I wonder if I could get the RMN to do my genealogy research?

This thing about being a Native American wanna-be
has new-age aspects. A bibliography can be found here:

Some Readings on Cultural Appropriations, Native America, and the New Age by Diane Bell
Henry R. Luce Professor
of Religion, Economic Development, and Social Justice
Holy Cross College, Worcester MA 01610
1996

http://www.hanksville.org/sand/intellect/NAbibBell.html

http://www.williams.edu/go/native/
WHO OWNS NATIVE CULTURE?
Michael F. Brown, Dept. of Anthropology & Sociology, Williams College
Harvard University Press, September 2003. ISBN 0-674-01171-6
Cloth, illustrated, $29.95, paper $16.95.

There are quite a few other sites collating or commenting on a non-Native person using native attributes for personal gain.

Not every family claims to have any connections to the notables of the past (mine seems almost proud of having been anonomous grunts since the begining of recorded history).

As someone with a great-great-grandmother on the Dawes registry, let me say to Ward: Get bent!

Some of our ancestors actually got screwed over in that deal, and I don't like it one bit to see a sanctimonious twit like him profiting AT ALL from it.