Churchill stirs emotions, thoughts at La Verne
Campus Times
December 3, 1999
Native American Awareness Month, partially sponsored by the Associated
Students Federation (ASF) Forum, culminated Monday when Ward Churchill,
an outspoken Native American activist, discussed the atrocities the United
States continues to commit against the land's indigenous people.
Slightly more than half of the seats in Founders Auditorium were occupied
to listen to Churchill, a member of the non-profit activist organization
Speak Out! who has written more than 20 books on Native American oppression.
He is currently head of American Indian Studies at the University of Colorado
at Boulder.
Before beginning, he told the audience that Haunani-Kay Trask, who spoke
at ULV on Sept. 28, was insulted when people left during her lecture. He
then instructed those who planned to leave early to move to the back and
asked that those interested in staying come forward. One person moved.
Churchill then began his speech by explaining why Christopher Columbus
did not discover America. He likened Columbus' discovery to an intruder
walking into a house where somebody already lives and claiming the living
room because the intruder has never been there.
"So displacement (of American Indians) is not a process of discovery,"
he said.
He then focused on actions of the United States government against Native
Americans that amount to genocide.
"Genocide was perpetrated and continues to be perpetrated,"
Churchill said.
He listed the five actions that constitute genocide by international
law and said the U.S. has committed genocide against Native Americans in
every way. He pointed out that only one method involves murdering.
"How about you just sterilize them? Then you've killed no one,"
he said.
The other three methods of genocide are making people uncomfortable
so they disassociate with a group, taking a group's environment away to
force them to disperse, and raising children of a group to identify with
another group.
Churchill told the audience the U.S. government secretly sterilized
a significant number of American Indian women in the early 1970s while those
women were receiving other medical treatment.
"I doubt any of you heard this in your history classes in high
school, or even at this university," he said, pointing out that the
general public knows very little about the relationship between the federal
government and Native Americans.
Churchill also said that large numbers of Native American children have
been taken off the reservations and placed in boarding schools. These schools
are in existence to, as Churchill said, "kill the indian, spare the
human."
Churchill also spoke about the poor health on reservations.
"The male population (of Native Americans) has a life expectancy
of 44.6 years," he said. "The general population in 1890 had that
same life expectancy."
Many listeners felt his abrasive, verbose style of speaking soured his
lecture. Some also felt it was rude for Churchill to don sunglasses just
before he took the podium at the indoor venue.
"His message wasn't rude, but the way he spoke was ," said
junior Gina Cerullo. "He left a bad taste in my mouth."
Cerullo also mentioned that Churchill could have been more polite when
he asked people who would be leaving early to move to the back.
"He started out too strong, and scared me a little bit," she
said.
Others enjoyed his straightforward manner and came away from the lecture
with a newfound appreciation for the Native American plight.
Junior Aaron Nonemaker said, "I loved his delivery. It made me
want to right all the wrongs. He has a good point that citizens should have
firepower equal to the police. I also appreciate what he's doing by going
around and informing people of things we can't hear of anywhere else."
"He's an extremely powerful speaker," said junior Sean Krispinsky.
"He was witty, very well spoken, and he has the true voice of activism.
That came through well."