Talk:Ward Churchill

Clarification needed!
As present the article says "It was in this book that Churchill first made the claim that the United States distributed "smallpox-infested blankets" to Indian tribes, a claim which he repeated several times over the next decade. The claim has been criticized as a falsification."

This reads like the whole concept of smallpox blankets used to destroy the indians is 1) an idea of Churchill, 2) is considered to be a falsification.

Yet in reality Churchill was found guilty of inventing an incident that allegedly happened at Fort Clark against the Mandan Indians in 1837. (Near Missouri river in todays North Dakota) and this story was found to be completely fabricated and that led to Churchill's being found guilty of academic misconduct. (http://quod.lib.umich.edu/p/plag/5240451.0001.009?rgn=main;view=fulltext).

There are other cases, proven and documented by contemporary sources, when smallpox blankets were really used to extirpate the indians and neither the use of smallpox, nor the intent to completely annihilate the indians is questioned. (http://www.umass.edu/legal/derrico/amherst/lord_jeff.html)

Please reword the cited sentence so it states clearly what was questioned and proven false otherwise it is wrong and greatly misleading. (I would do it myself if i felt capable to.) 176.63.176.112 (talk) 16:01, 12 March 2017 (UTC).


 * okay, i have reworded it, now it is "It was in this book that Churchill first made the claim of an alleged incident in which the United States distributed "smallpox-infested blankets" to Indian tribes, a claim which he repeated several times over the next decade. The claim of this incident has been criticized as a falsification." It points to the particular falsification instead of denying the smallpox blankets (which are proven) altogether. However if anyone can make the text more fluent or clearer, pls dont hesitate.176.63.176.112 (talk) 16:13, 12 March 2017 (UTC).

Underlying the particular falsification would appear to be a second one, namely that the distribution of smallpox blankets by anyone in the USA ever happened at all. The notorious Fort Pitt incident was before the USA existed. There appears to be in fact zero evidence that any US citizen or agency ever did such a thing. But it's become an American myth, yet one which Ward Churchill was happy to liken to genocide. Cassandra — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.74.45.3 (talk) 14:52, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

Babel, babel
As a long-time WP editor, I'm really put off by this article's excessive tirade about Churchill's heritage. It's not only un-encyclopedic, it's clearly an ad hominem exercise (as is most criticism of Churchill). A brief recap of the decades-long slurring would be adequate ... and leave room for a balanced critical description of the point-of-view he has consistently represented for all that time. Briefly said, it's currently the crappiest bio (of the living or the dead) I've encountered on Wikipedia in 14 years. Twang (talk) 06:31, 28 December 2017 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 17 external links on Ward Churchill. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060922112926/http://www.cu.edu/sg/messages/4218.html to https://www.cu.edu/sg/messages/4218.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060924200253/http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2005/44.html to http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2005/44.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20050206103859/http://www.sdonline.org/33/ward_churchill.htm to http://www.sdonline.org/33/ward_churchill.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20071001015344/http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/news/churchill/indexDay5.shtml to http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/news/churchill/indexDay5.shtml
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090223203415/http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2005/may/19/keetoowah-band-says-churchill-is-honorary/ to http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2005/may/19/keetoowah-band-says-churchill-is-honorary
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20071128124106/http://www.colorado.edu/news/reports/churchill/standingcommittee.html to http://www.colorado.edu/news/reports/churchill/standingcommittee.html
 * Added tag to https://portfolio.du.edu/portfolio/getportfoliofile?uid=86356
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070712044609/http://www.plagiary.org/smallpox-blankets.pdf to http://www.plagiary.org/smallpox-blankets.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120629204440/http://www.colorado.edu/news/reports/churchill/report.html to http://www.colorado.edu/news/reports/churchill/report.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070928080322/https://www.cu.edu/sg/messages/5704.html to https://www.cu.edu/sg/messages/5704.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070930210803/http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/pdf/complaint.pdf to http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/pdf/complaint.pdf
 * Added archive https://archive.is/20130915013857/http://www.9news.com/news/local/article/201015/346/Ward-Churchill-case-headed-to-Colorado-Supreme-Court to http://www.9news.com/news/local/article/201015/346/Ward-Churchill-case-headed-to-Colorado-Supreme-Court
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Smallpox isn't caused by infected blankets
The article reads: "In 2005, University of Colorado Boulder administrators ordered an investigation into seven allegations of research misconduct,[37] including three allegations of plagiarism, and four allegations of fabrication or falsification regarding the history of the Dawes Act, the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, and statements that smallpox was intentionally spread to Native Americans by John Smith in 1614 and by the United States Army at Fort Clark in 1837 (not to be confused with the well-documented use of smallpox-infected blankets at Fort Pitt in 1764)."

It is worth pointing out in the article that this is not an effective means of spreading smallpox. Smallpox is spread primarily by face to face contact, sneezing, saliva, etc.--not by sharing articles that have been used by infected people. Attempts at weaponizing the smallpox disease have failed. It is not an effective biological agent, not now, and not in the 18th century.107.77.207.110 (talk) 01:47, 1 February 2018 (UTC)


 * Anyway, it happened at least once in the 1760s -- see Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst and Henry Bouquet -- but I don't think there's any evidence it was a general or often-recurring practice. AnonMoos (talk) 02:30, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

Where is he now?
Or perhaps, what is he doing now? Has he retired? &#39;&#39;Paul, in Saudi&#39;&#39; (talk) 10:29, 21 October 2019 (UTC)


 * He hasn't held an academic post since he was fired from Boulder in 2007. The most recent Google News coverage is here in September 2018, when he spoke at an event in Pittsburgh.-- ♦Ian Ma c M♦  (talk to me) 10:36, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Good article reassessment
I have tagged this article for a good article reassessment. This article was listed as a good article back in 2009. Surprising. I just made some changes (reorganizing, adding information on personal life, and condensing the lead) that help, but it still doesn't fit the criteria for a good article. Too much unsourced material/original research. Also, there is little to nothing about Churchill's work or activities following the disposition of his lawsuit, so the article may need an update. I don't believe that it's well-written enough to be a good article, either. 74.67.6.88 (talk) 19:29, 5 November 2021 (UTC)


 * I have no opinion about good article status, but noting for the record that the initial complainant, IP address 74.67.6.88, was blocked here on 6 Feb as a sock of User:SunCrow. JoJo Anthrax (talk) 13:22, 15 March 2022 (UTC)