From Angelique EagleWoman (posted with her permission):
Ward Churchill has hurt Native American communities, Native American academics and Native American education. He has claimed to be someone he is not and used that as a platform to fuel his career. As Native American people, we have the right to say who is a member of our Tribes, our governments, our organizations and our peoples. He is not, has not been and the most he can claim is that in an act of generosity at one point the United Kootewah Band of Cherokee gave him an award which we call “honorary membership.” An award that he has used in completely
unexpected and unprecedented ways to claim that he speaks on behalf of the Native American community as a Native American intellectual.
There is no doubt that his 9/11 article spurred on the investigation in Colorado. However, to many in the Native community this day was a long sought after day. Often when we raise concerns over those using our identity falsely (a very common phenomenon in this country by non-Indians), we are ignored. This is evidenced by all those who
contacted CU and complained that Ward Churchill should be investigated prior to the 9/11 speech.
If you choose to view this as only an “academic freedom” issue, do so knowing that you are ignoring Native Americans in the process. That you would be turning a blind eye to our on-going struggle to be represented in the academy, to our on-going struggle that state educational institutions follow tribal membership standards for counting and reporting Native Americans, to our on-going struggle to represent ourselves accurately in historical respects, political respects and as academics. His reinstatement would be a further slap in the face to the Native community showing that our concerns are still not legitimized in our own homelands.
Pidamayaye,
Angelique EagleWoman
Turtle Talk 
I wholeheartedly agree with Ms. Eagle Woman, but after a round table discuss recently with 2 Native professors, it is obvious that this trend is not going away. In fact Native scholars are still treated as children by their peers, as if their input and ideas are not valid. Here at the University of South Dakota there is a professor who has created a persona that they are an “Indian” expert though their research is questionable and their professional conduct the same. But they have those three letters behind their names and are being kept on staff.
With regard the Churchill situation, the only person that won was Prof. Churchill, and this charlatan will be the poster child for all those who would keep Native People submissive and non-Native ignorant of who we are.