Wampum

Yea, Eric Meyer's site is cool.

Posted by: Peatey at February 10, 2005 08:59 PM

Just because I can't stand anyone having a better time than I'm having at home. The Ward Churchill saga: the View from Indian Country:

The case of a professor or any other American exercising the right of
free speech is always important to us. We support that fundamental
right more than any other and believe that even the extreme views of
others (which sometimes become mainstream) must be defended against
any force that would silence our First Amendment rights as citizens
and as free human beings. The nature of Churchill's decidedly
offensive remarks, however, forces us to critique in general the
injurious approach to scholarship and basic human decency. We defend
the right to broadcast and publish, but propose it is reprehensible
to excoriate innocent human beings who have suffered great loss by
rubbing salt in deep wounds simply to prove a political point and
simply to strike (one more time) a political posture on behalf of the
far left and under the guise of American Indian sentiment...

MORE: [http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096410293]
-----------------------------------
arjo: Why Native identity matters: A cautionary tale
by: Suzan Shown Harjo / Indian Country Today / February 10, 2005

I met Ward Churchill 15 years ago, before he gained his present
infamous reputation. My friend, a college professor, said this
Cherokee-Creek guy wanted to meet me. I expected to meet an earnest
young student who would relate to me as Creek (I'm Hodulgee Muscogee
on Dad's side and enrolled Cheyenne on Mom's). Instead, there was
Churchill. Caucasian in appearance and in his mid-40s, he was wearing
dark glasses and going for the look of an Indian activist circa 1970.
I asked him who his Creek people were and other questions we ask in
order to find the proper way of relating. Churchill behaved oddly and
did not respond (it's unusual to find Indians so deficient in social
skills).

Churchill now refers to that as an ''interrogation,'' which tells me
he still does not know how to be with us. Most Native people want to
know each other's nation, clan, society, family, Native name - who
are you to me and how should I address you? It's an enormously
respectful way that we introduce ourselves and establish kinship. It
wasn't much of an encounter, but it was enough to tell me that he was
not culturally Muscogee or Cherokee and had not been around many of
our people.

The next time I heard his name was from Native artists at the Santa
Fe Indian Market. Churchill was peddling a scandal sheet,..
MORE: [http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096410335]
-----------------------------------

The Churchill episode: Two unfortunate currents
Editors Report / Indian Country Today / February 10, 2005

Controversial professor Ward Churchill, whose objectionable opinions
on the fate of some 3,000 innocent souls have cost him the chair of a
university department and who has been vilified by the range of usual
right-wing pundits, is now in danger of losing his tenured job at the
University of Colorado. The right-wing pundits are, as everyone
should know, attack dogs whose primary job is always to pile all
possible pressure on Democrats and left-of-center thinkers whenever
they exhibit foot-in-mouth expressions that can trigger emotional
responses. Expectedly, they have found in the Colorado professor's
repugnant remarks an easy straw man with which to condemn all manner
of American freedoms....

...There is, however, a second issue at play in the Churchill
controversy which for many people constitutes a grave matter; one
that, in fact, deserves the respect of those involved and must be
considered essential to the whole story. That is the issue of
Churchill's self-developed history of how and why he should be
considered an American Indian and thus be further legitimized as a
spokesman for Native peoples in the views he spouts. To seemingly
manufacture an identity, bargain for it as an individual and then
pose from such a dubious base within a university the most vocal and
radical of positions on behalf of North American Indians, gives the
appearance of impropriety and perhaps even professional deception.
This is also a matter for the university to decide...

...That bona fide Indian tribes are not given more respect by
Colorado University, and by the media in general when they state that
the professor is not in fact what he professes to be, reminds us of
the paternalistic approach so many times directed at tribal
authorities throughout history. Why is there such confusion around
the context of honesty in stating one's background and one's roots
and origins - genealogical, geographic and cultural - as defined by
birth and bloodline realities and as described by family, clan,
community and nation? These definitions, in fact, are quite
discernable in Indian country and in the Native Americas. Indian
tribal opinion in these cases deserves much more respect and
consideration, by universities and governmental institutions in
particular...
READ IT ALL AT: [http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096410338]

Hat tip to Rhino's blog.

Posted by: VJ at February 11, 2005 05:11 AM

Plesse see AIM v NAIM.

Posted by: Eric at February 11, 2005 06:19 AM

upgrade sendmail

Just remember to make a copy of your .cf file before you upgrade (it will overwrite without telling you)

Posted by: joshowitz at February 12, 2005 09:20 AM