Indians in the news of late offer an interesting contrast. Self-nominated Indian wannabe and academic charlatan Ward Churchill won his suit against the University of Colorado. A few weeks later, on April 10, very little publicity followed the nomination of Larry EchoHawk to be Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs (before 1976 the post was Commissioner of Indian Affairs) in the Obama administration. Churchill’s trial and the outcome have received much more media attention than the appointment of Mr. Echohawk. Perhaps that is to be expected.

Ward Churchill, who holds an eared masters degree in graphic arts, was hired as a professor of ethnic studies and speedily tenured and moved up to department chairman at the University of Colorado. (Note that the University of Colorado is called “CU” by long time residents – “UC-Boulder” identifies you as either a newcomer or a flack for the pretentious types in the university administration, or some species of Californicator.) Mr. Churchill has subsequently received an honorary doctorate, which is the sort of wall ornament given to visiting dignitaries like presidents of the US. Churchill’s claims to be a member of an Indian tribe were apparently one of the reasons he was hired and tenured with unusual speed, although he had none of the credentials normally expected for a faculty post at a research university. His lectures were full of angry words, and his writings, mostly published in small independent printers, were equally intemperate. Apparently, no one at CU bothered to actually review his scholarship, because it probably would never have been adequate for tenure, let alone promotion. By 1996, John LaVelle, an enrolled tribal member, had pointed out the many failings in some of Churchill’s scholarship in an article in an academic journal.

Churchill’s work was recognized as intellectual junk long before his remarks that gained him national attention regarding the World Trade Center attacks. the problem was, the folks who knew it was trash were ordinary people outside the cloistered walls of the academy. Academics tended to either ignore Churchill, or support his work as ’scholarship.’ Ignoring Churchill became difficult after the “little Eichmanns” comment about the World Trade Center victims became common knowledge. Calls for Churchill’s removal followed, and a much belated faculty investigation showed the utter disregard for fact in Churchill’s scholarship. Slowly the academic process inched forward, and Churchill was dismissed by CU for academic misconduct. Plagiarism, mis-use of sources, invented facts, ghost-written articles, and the like were made public. Mr. Churchill was dismissed. He hired David Lane a defense attorney with skill and ability, and sued the university for wrongful dismissal, claiming he was fired for exercising his free speech. The university’s legal counsel seemed unusually inept, and failed to raise issues which would have showed Churchill’s intellectual dishonesty, possibly because those would have showed university administrators as incompetent, or sharing Churchill’s beliefs. The verdict, which should surprise no one, was in Churchill’s favor, but with a one dollar award. The next shoe falls when the Judge decides if Mr. Churchill is to get his old faculty position back. A fraud has played the system and won. The nation’s students are the worse off for it.

Contrast the case of the phony Indian with the less publicized career of the man nominated to manage the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Larry EchoHawk is an enrolled Pawnee, originally from Oklahoma, but with a long history of public service in the western US. He is a member of the LDS Church, has a BA from Brigham Young University, and a JD from the University of Utah. A moderate Democrat, EchoHawk was elected to the Idaho state House of Representatives in 1982. Idaho, which is an overwhelmingly conservative state, is sometimes called the only state in the union where a state Democratic Party convention can be held in a telephone booth. So EchoHawk’s election to the state legislature, and then as Attorney General for Idaho in 1990 is indicative of someone who works well with others. After losing his 1994 bid for Idaho’s governor’s mansion, EchoHawk moved to Utah to teach law at Brigham Young University. Last Friday, the Obama administration announced EchoHawk’s nomination to be Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs.

A pseudo Indian, with no academic study in the field he professes to be an expert in, whose scholarship has been shown to be junk social science may soon be returning to inflict his lies and bile on students at CU. Meanwhile, a very competent lawyer, someone with a record of working well with people of various backgrounds and political interests, who is a capable professor, and, incidentally, an enrolled tribal member, will, if confirmed, move from his campus to Washington DC to manage the Bureau of Indian Affairs. For once, the Indians are getting the better bargain. Larry EchoHawk is a competent, hard working and dedicated public servant. I would expect Mr. EchoHawk to do a good job at BIA, and be a true advocate for all American Indians. At the same time, he will work well with his white neighbors, as he has all along.

Meanwhile, the University of Colorado may be forced to rehire the unqualified academic fraud they hired to show their sympathy for Indians. If so, the losers will be the students, and, once again, the Indians, cheated by a white trickster playing Indian. The Obama administration has had a difficult start, but this nomination seems to be one that they can stand behind with confidence. Suggestion to CU – maybe you can ask Larry EchoHawk for some pointers on hiring good people.