Norma Bigtee: Reinstate Ward Churchill

I am a member of the Mohawk nation who wishes to bring up some pertinent information in regards to Ward Churchill teaching once again at CU.

The message Ward Churchill relates regarding Naitive Americans, their historical and their ongoing struggle is a vital part of the education required to broaden the thinking of present and future generations.

I am concerned about the so-called “free press” because I have not seen your newspaper coverage of the trial including a single mention of the American Indian “leaders” who were there to support Ward Churchill and corroborate his information regarding oral traditions.

Among those Native American Leaders who testified were:  Professor Michael Yellow Bird, Arikara/Hidatsa of Indigenous Nations Studies at the University of Kansas, who said, “oral history supported Churchill’s accounts of the smallpox outbreak among the Mandans, and to dismiss the oral history of the Three Affiliated Tribes is to dismiss them as liars,  Dr. Barbara Alice Mann, Seneca, University of Toledo said, “there was a reasonable basis to support Churchill’s assertions that blankets from an infirmary in St. Louis caused a smallpox outbreak among the Mandans, and that Army doctors told the Indians with smallpox to scatter,  Professor George “Tink” Tinker, Osage, Iliff School of Theology, Denver said, “Churchill’s work is regarded by Indian people as being the most prolific and helpful body of scholarship by an Indian person with the exception of the late Professor (Vine) Deloria,  Russell Means, Oglala, Lakota, activist leader and a national and  international lec turer said, “it’s an insult to my people and my history – to take a small phrase and besmirch him and try to ruin his reputation”.  Means said, “Churchill’s books are ‘telling the world about who we are and what happened to us’.

I had to get this information from “Indian Country Today, April 15, 2009 to read what the natives themselves think of Churchill  and what was said at the trial  Please reinstate Ward Churchill at CU/.

Norma Bigtee
Boulder