Behind the move to dismiss Ward Churchill are questions about the accuracy and integrity of his scholarly works. Findings of a faculty investigative committee released last year:
- Historical facts: Churchill manufactured events in which European Americans intentionally spread smallpox to kill Indians. In one such event, the Army is said to have distributed tainted blankets to Mandan Indians. But no evidence backs the claim.
Elsewhere, Churchill claimed the United States adopted a formal racial code to identify Indians, similar to the code used by the Nazis to identify Jews. U.S. law includes no such code, legal scholars say.
- Plagiarism: Churchill published an essay on water issues in Canada that closely resembles a pamphlet by a Canadian environmental group. He also borrowed a work on fishing rights originally published by Canadian scholar Fay Cohen.
- Falsifying sources: Churchill wrote essays under the names of other people, which he then cited as independent sources in his footnotes.
The investigative panel described the charges as serious.
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