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<dd></font>Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 10:16:07 -0800<br>
<dd>From: Tatsuo Kage <br>
<dd>Subject: On Ward Churchill<br><br>
<dd>I was sent the url on the new slander-site on Ward Churchill. On that
site,<br>
<dd>we have Ann Coulter, the Queen of the vitriolic ad hominem and attack
dog<br>
<dd>for the ultra-right having, as usual, nothing to say about the
content or<br>
<dd>scholarship of the person being attacked--Ward Churchill. Then we
have<br>
<dd>Susan Shown Harjo purporting to pass on Ward Churchill's lineage and
how<br>
<dd>"Caucasian" he "looks" (over 95% of
"federally registered" Indians are mixed<br>
<dd>race) again with nothing to say about the content, arguments,
implications<br>
<dd>or scholarship of Ward Churchill's work--and, by the way, since we
are<br>
<dd>talking about lineage and connections, I have seen little actual
scholarship<br>
<dd>that is tangible from Harjo; this could be because some of her work
is<br>
<dd>apparently classified (one of my former students, whose father was a
Lt.<br>
<dd>Colonel in the U.S. Army's "Civil Affairs" and does
consulting work for the<br>
<dd>U.S. Department of Defense(DOD), gave me a list of D.O.D. "
authentic Native<br>
<dd>consultants" to give "workshops" on "cultural
sensitivity" when DOD is<br>
<dd>dealing with Natives--e.g. getting them to accept the Rezes being
used as<br>
<dd>toxic waste dumps--and Susan Shown Harjo's name is prominently
featured).<br>
<dd>Perhaps, just perhaps, Harjo has just acquired another
"consulting gig" from<br>
<dd>the D.O.D. an historic and predent-day instrument for extermination
of<br>
<dd>Indians.<br><br>
<dd>Chief Lame Deer of the Lakota once noted: "You can tell a real
Red Indian by<br>
<dd>how he [or she] lives and not by his [or her] blood percentage."
No one<br>
<dd>chooses their "blood quantum" (itself an illusion for
anyone trained in<br>
<dd>basic biology) we choose only what it might mean to us and what to do
with<br>
<dd>it. My mother used to say that "No one 'chooses' their blood;
this comes<br>
<dd>from the Creator. Any Indian who does not keep the sacred sacred, any
Indian<br>
<dd>who does not respect the worthy Elders, any Indian who does not
protect the<br>
<dd>children, any Indian who does any kind of corruption, whatever
their<br>
<dd>purported blood quantum, is doing "Custer Work" and they
are aiding and<br>
<dd>abetting the extermination of what they DARE to call "their
own" blood and<br>
<dd>People--their purported blood quantum is meaningless." I have
seen no<br>
<dd>evidence of Ward Churchill having betrayed the cause of survival
and<br>
<dd>prosperity of Native nations; I cannot say the same for the likes of
Harjo<br>
<dd>and others who apparently trade on purported "blood
quantums" and<br>
<dd>phenotypically "looking" like a "typical Indian"
while they attack those<br>
<dd>whose scholarship they cannot critique to work for those clearly bent
on<br>
<dd>exterminating/assimilating what is left of Native nations in the
Americas<br>
<dd>and elsewhere. I know, on my Rez and others of the Blackfoot,
supposed<br>
<dd>"full-bloods" who are corrupt sell-outs and whose supposed
blood-quantums<br>
<dd>are worthless--and I know some "breeds" who are resolute
and uncompromising<br>
<dd>Warriors for survival and prosperity of Indigenous nations and
Peoples..<br><br>
<dd>The U.S. and Canadian governments know how to play the blood-quantum
game<br>
<dd>and how to use it: "Set the blood-quantum at one-quarter, hold
to it as a<br>
<dd>rigid definition of Indians, let intermarriage proceed, and
eventually<br>
<dd>Indians will be defined out of existence; when that happens, the
Federal<br>
<dd>Government will be finally freed from its persistent Indian
problem."(BIA<br>
<dd>document quoted by Patricia Lamark in "Legacy of
Conquest.", p. 322). Those<br>
<dd>who play--and attack on the basis of--the blood-quantum
"game"are aiding and<br>
<dd>abetting those bent on the extermination and forced assimilation of
what is<br>
<dd>left of the Native nations; and they only show how empty and devoid
of<br>
<dd>substance are their attacks, critiques and themselves.<br><br>
<dd>The bottom line? Ward Churchill has touched taboo subjects, from
conceptual<br>
<dd>scopes and angles of analysis, using primary and other creative
sources that<br>
<dd>few scholars or even tenured academics will touch in the cause of
exposing<br>
<dd>the ongoing genocide against Indigenous Peoples and Nations. That is
all I<br>
<dd>need to know about Ward Churchill. The rest, including how he may
"look" or<br>
<dd>anything about any supposed "blood-quantum" I do not need
to know and I do<br>
<dd>not care about.<br><br>
<dd>My definition of "Indianness" comes from Chief Lame Deer,
my mother and from<br>
<dd>the nature and activities of other Indians who recognize a given
person as<br>
<dd>one of them. In this sense, I regard Ward Churchill as an Indian
while I do<br>
<dd>not regard the likes of Harjo as a real Indian--by virtue of what she
says,<br>
<dd>does and for whom she apparently works or has worked.<br><br>
<dd>Jim Craven<br>
<dd>Blackfoot name: Omahkohkiaayo i'poyi<br>
<dd>Blackfoot Nation<br>
<dd>Professor of Economics, Chairman of Business Divsion, Clark
College<br>
<dd><a href="http://www.aradicalblackfoot.blogspot.com/" eudora="autourl">http://www.aradicalblackfoot.blogspot.com<br><br>
</a><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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