Say Anything Blog

Earlier I posted a quote from Ward Churchill's speech down in Hawaii which seemed to indicate that Churchill was admitting that he is not an Indian. Turns out that he didn't admit any such thing but rather was, ironically, the victim of poor journalism.

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, incorrectly quoted University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill as admitting that he was not American Indian.

The story about Churchill's Tuesday night speech at the University of Hawaii-Manoa said the professor noted that his "white Republican" critics were asking, "Is he an Indian? Do we really care?"

"Let's cut to the chase, I'm not," the quote in yesterday's paper continued.

But a review of video and audio tapes of the speech shows that Churchill actually said: "Is he an Indian? We really care. We're trying to protect the rights of Indians to divine for themselves, say this circle of flies in the form of white reporters circling a manure pile like it's of all consequential importance. Cut to the chase on that."

Churchill went on to say that he is an associate member of the Keetoowah tribe and that associates are enrolled in the band after their genealogy has been vetted by the enrollment office. He said that he is less than one-quarter Indian, so he does not qualify to be a full member.

That's some pretty cruddy reporting. The real quote wasn't even close to what was in the paper.

Regardless, Churchill is still a schmuck.