Ward Churchill's Life - A Chronology of Events
(last updated March 29, 2009)

Important note: This is a work in progress. Please check all original sources for verification of data contained herein. Information not hyperlinked should be considered suspect. Information hyperlinked to a Churchill quote should also be considered suspect. Contents are subject to change and/or revision at any time as we learn of additional and/or conflicting information. Points of interest often overlooked by reporters are his ex-wives' unanimity in wanting the courts to ensure Churchill has no contact with them post-divorce proceedings. Any notation of "(CV)" means the factoid comes from Churchill's Curriculum Vita. As noted in this article, many of Churchill's publication dates are problematic; Churchill, his various publishers, and amazon.com often differ. We'll continue checking and updating, but until we find an archive of Books In Print, we're stuck with some incorrect information.

pre-1965 - Played high school football; served on yearbook committee; acted in junior and senior class plays; participated in band and pep rallies. Claims to have campaigned for Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1964.

1965 - Graduated high school; may have worked at a Caterpillar tractor factory in Peoria.

1966 - Drafted into the Army. Training received: light vehicle and projectionist.

1967 - Depending on source and time, was trained as a paratrooper, soldiered as a LRRP (long-range reconnaissance patrol); wrote press releases as a public information specialist; drove a truck; operated a film projector.

1968 - Discharged from the Army. Returned to Peoria, Illinois.

1969 - Participated in the Chicago Weather Underground's "Days of Rage" (October 8-11) wherein "we were gonna take on the Chicago Police force toe to toe in the street[.]" Rooms with Mark Clark, a downstate defense captain for the Illinois Black Panthers, who was later among those killed in a December early-morning raid on a Chicago apartment by police; Clark apparently fired the only 'retaliatory' shot before being shot himself.

1970 - Claims to have trained Weather Underground operatives in weapons handling and bomb-building, In his words: "which end does the bullet go, what are the ingredients, how do you time the damned thing."

1971 - 

1972 - Awarded Associate degree in General Education from Illinois Central College, East Peoria, Illinois. Joined AIM.

1973 - Claims to have been arrested on March 21 and jailed for 50 hours in Chadron, Nebraska while en route to Wounded Knee. 

1974 - Awarded Bachelor degree in Communications (minor in Art) from Sangamon State University, Springfield, Illinois  

1975 - Awarded Masters degree in Cross-Cultural Communications from Sangamon State University, Springfield, Illinois. Moves to South Dakota. Claims to have been on the Pine Ridge Reservation June 27. Claims to have been at Mount Rushmore July 4. Begins employment as Instructor of studio art and art history at Black Hills State College in Spearfish, South Dakota (CV). 

1976 - Continues employment as Instructor of studio art and art history at Black Hills State College in Spearfish, S.D. Hired to teach "art history" to Rapid City police force. Moves to Gillette, Wyoming; after about two months moves to Boulder, Colorado late in year.

1977 - Works for "a couple of months" for Soldier of Fortune magazine doing layout. Hires on the Rocky Mountain Musical Express (an alternative musical paper). Joins a juvenile diversion program running one of the "attention centers" for Boulder County Youth "which gave me a roof over my head." Begins employment running American Indian Education Program for Boulder Valley School District (CV). Takes up residence with Dora Lee Larson, constituting "common law marriage" in Colorado.

1978 - Begins employment as a lecturer, American Indian studies, film studies and sociology, University of Colorado system. Continues employment running American Indian Education Program for Boulder Valley School District (CV).

1979 - Continues employment as a lecturer, American Indian studies, film studies and sociology, University of Colorado system (CV).
Publications: co-author with Norbert S. Hill, Jr. "An Historical Survey of Tendencies in American Indian Education: Higher Education" Indian Historian Vol. 12, No. 1 (CV); co-author with Mary Ann & Norbert S. Hill, Jr. "Media Stereotyping and the Native Response: An Historical Overview" Indian Historian Vol. 11, No.4 (CV)

1980 - Lists wife "Dora Lee Larson" on 1980 resume. Continues employment  as a lecturer, American Indian studies, film studies and sociology, University of Colorado system. Served as director of the American Indian Equal Opportunities Program at University of Colorado at Boulder (CV) (contradictorily, this article says "[h]e was an associate director and acting director [from 1980-1983]").
Publications: co-author with Norbert S. Hill, Jr. and Mary Jo Barlow "An Historical Survey of Twentieth Century Native American Athletes" Indian Historian Vol. 12, No.4 (CV); "A Survey of Tendencies in American Indian Higher Education Programs" in Multicultural Education and the American Indian, James R. Young, ed. (CV); co-author with Mary Ann & Norbert S. Hill, Jr. "Examination of Stereotyping: An Analytical Survey of Twentieth Century Indian Entertainers" in The Pretend Indians: Images of the Native American in Film, Gretchen Bataille and Charles S.P. Silet, eds. (CV); "US Mercenaries in Southern Africa: Facts and Context" Africa Today Vol. 27 No. 2 (CV)

1981 - Claims he participated in Indian occupation of land outside of Rapid City, SD. Continues to serve as director of American Indian Educational Opportunity Program at Boulder (CV).
Publications: "Film and the Categorical Stereotyping of Native Americans" Book Forum Vol. 3, No. 3 (CV)

1982 - Apparently still involved in the occupation of land outside Rapid City, SD: "In the bunker sittin' alongside me were people who had been outside the perimeter at Wounded Knee in 1973 firin' in to kill Indians now they're with the Indians pointin' their rifles out at the Feds." Continues employment as a lecturer, American Indian studies, film studies and sociology, University of Colorado system (CV). Continues to serve as director of American Indian Educational Opportunity Program at Boulder (CV).
Publications: essay "White Studies or Isolation: An Alternative Model for American Indian Studies Programs" in American Indian Issues in Higher Education, James R. Young, ed. (CV); "The Extralegal Implications of Yellow Thunder Tiopaye: Misadventure or Watershed Action?" Policy Perspectives Vol. 2, No. 2 (CV); "Literature in the Colonization of American Indians: An Historical Study" Journal of Ethnic Studies Vol. 10, No. 3 (CV); "Toward an Immanent Critique of Marxism: A Proposition to Marxists" Minority Notes, Vol. 2, Nos. 3-4 (CV); "Toward an Immanent Critique of Marxism: Notes on the Dichotomy of Cultural Consciousness" Minority Notes, Vol. 2, Nos. 1-2 (CV)

1983 - Continues employment as a lecturer, American Indian studies, film studies and sociology, University of Colorado system (CV). Continues to serve as director of American Indian Educational Opportunity Program at Boulder (CV). Travels to Libya to meet with Col. Moammar Gadhafi on behalf of AIM, although the US had banned travel to Libya two years earlier.
Publications: editor, Marxism and Native Americans (South End Press); "The 'Trial' of Leonard Peltier" preface to The Trial of Leonard Peltier by Jim Messerschmidt (CV); "Implications of Treaty Relationships Between the United States of America and Various American Indian Nations" Talking Leaf (CV)

1984 - Divorce from Churchill granted to Dora Lee Larson, who apparently insists that her new address be kept secret from Churchill. M. Annette Jaimes moves in with him in Boulder. Continues employment as a lecturer, American Indian studies, film studies and sociology, University of Colorado system (CV). Serves as director of EOP's Planning, Research and Development component at Boulder (CV).
Publications: "Soldier of Fortune's Robert K. Brown" article in Covert Action Information Bulletin (fall); co-author with Elizabeth Lloyd, Culture versus Economism: Essays on Marxism in the Multicultural Arena (Indigena Press); "Generations of Resistance: American Indian Poetry and the Ghost Dance Spirit" chapter in Coyote Was Here: Essays on Contemporary Native American Literary and Political Mobilization, Bo Schöler, editor (CV)

1985 - Continues employment as a lecturer, American Indian studies, film studies and sociology, University of Colorado system (CV). Continues to serve as director of EOP's Planning, Research and Development component at Boulder (CV).
Publications: "Radioactive Colonization and Native Americans" Socialist Review No. 81 (CV); "Indigenous Peoples of the U.S.: A Struggle Against Internal Colonialism" Black Scholar Vol. 16, No. 1 (CV); 

1986 - Continues employment as a lecturer, American Indian studies, film studies and sociology, University of Colorado system. Continues to serve as director of EOP's Planning, Research and Development component at Boulder. Expelled from the International Indian Treaty Council.
Publications: "Genocide: Toward a Functional Definition" Alternatives, Vol. 11, No. 3 (CV); "Pacifism As Pathology: Notes on an American Pseudo-Praxis" Issues in Radical Therapy: New Studies on the Left, Vol. 12, Nos. 1-2 (CV); "American Indian Lands: The Native Ethic and Resource Development" Environment Vol. 28, No. 6 (CV); "JUA/Big Mountain: Examination and Analysis of U.S. Policy Within the Navajo-Hopi Joint Use Area Under Provisions of International Law" Akwesasne Notes Vol. 17 Nos. 3-4 (CV)

1987 - Continues employment as a lecturer, American Indian studies, film studies and sociology, University of Colorado system (CV). Continues to serve as director of EOP's Planning, Research and Development component at Boulder (CV).

1988 - Marries M. Annette Jaimes. Continues employment as a lecturer, American Indian studies, film studies and sociology, University of Colorado system (CV). Serves as director of the University Learning Center at Boulder (CV).
Publications: coauthor with Jim Vander Wall, Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement (South End Press) (CV); co-author with Glenn T. Morris, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Left-Wing Revolution, Right-Wing Reaction and the Destruction of Indigenous Peoples" Cultural Survival Quarterly Vol. 2, No. 3 (CV); "Behind the Rhetoric: 'English Only' as Counterinsurgency Warfare" Issues in Radical Therapy: New Studies on the Left, Vol. 13, Nos. 1-2 (CV)

1989 - Continues employment as a lecturer, American Indian studies, film studies and sociology, University of Colorado system (CV). Continues as director of the University Learning Center at Boulder (CV).
Publications: editor, Critical Issues in Native North America (International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs Doc. 62);  "The New Genocide: A Hidden Holocaust" chapter in Native American Environments" for Research in Equality and Social Conflict, Michael Dobkowski and Isador Walliman, eds. (CV); "False Promises: An Indigenist Perspective on Marxist Theory and Practice" Fourth World Journal Vol. 2, No. 2; "Renegades, Terrorists and Revolutionaries: The Government's Propaganda War Against the American Indian Movement" Propaganda Review No. 4

1990 -  Continues as director of the University Learning Center at Boulder (CV). Helps start CSERA (Center for the Studies of Ethnicity and Race in America). June: Hired as associate professor by the University of Colorado at Boulder; his department is Communications; two other departments having declined to accept him. Shortly thereafter, granted tenure. Takes leave to serve as Distinguished Scholar of the Humanities in American Indian Studies at Alfred University (NY). The Indian Arts and Crafts Act is passes, limiting sale of such to Indians on federally-recognized tribal rolls; Churchill, not listed on any tribal roll, criticizes the Act.
Publications: coauthor with Jim Vander Wall, The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Domestic Dissent (South End Press); "The Black Hills Are Not For Sale: The Lakota Struggle for the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty Territory" Journal of Ethnic Studies Vol. 18, No. 1 (CV)

1991 - Estranged from M. Annette Jaimes while Jaimes is away at Cornell University. Hired as tenured associate professor at CU.
Publications: editor, Critical Issues in Native North America, Vol. 2 (International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs Doc. 68)

1992 - Receives honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from Alfred University. Is sued by the U.S. government for failing to repay an $18,000 student loan; the judgment is satisfied quickly by Churchill.
Publications: Fantasies Of The Master Race: Literature, Cinema, Art And The Colonization Of American Indians (Common Courage Press); co-editor with J.J. Vander Wall, Cages Of Steel: The Politics Of Imprisonment In The United States (Maisonnueve Press)

1993 - Interviewed by Jodi Rave. Claims two living step-sons (says a third—called a "foster son" later in the interview—was killed in a domestic dispute), and a foster daughter. Meets Leah Renae Kelly in San Francisco. Expelled from American Indian Movement.
Publications: Struggle for the Land: Indigenous Resistance to Genocide, Ecocide, and Expropriation in Contemporary North America (Common Courage Press)

1994 - Accepted by United Keetoowah Band (Cherokee) as "associate member" (described by UKB Chief John Ross as "basically an honorary membership). Altercation involving Churchill, Jaimes, and Carole Standing Elk at an Autonomous American Indian Movement (not affiliated—and in fact at war—with AIM) press conference results in abrasions and a broken wrist for Standing Elk (at least two versions of this altercation exist: here, and here (reg. req.)). United Keetoowah Band ceases awarding associate memberships. Begins affair with Leah Renae Kelly, a Canadian Ojibwe 23 years his junior.
Publications: Struggle for the Land: [revised and resubtitled] Native North American Resistance to Genocide, Ecocide & Colonization (Arbeiter Ring); Indians Are Us? Colonization and Genocide in Native North America (Common Courage Press)

1995 - Divorce from Churchill (along with a restraining order) granted to M. Annette Jaimes. Ethnic Studies becomes its own department at Boulder; Churchill is transferred from Communications to the new department and named Associate Chair; he is made a full professor.
Publications: Since Predator Came: Notes from the Struggle for American Indian Liberation (Aigis Publications)

1996 - Churchill clashes with a parking services employee and is cited for use of intimidation and violence on CU grounds. Continues to serve as Associate Chair of Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CV).
Publications: From A Native Son: Selected Essays on Indigenism 1985-1995 (South End Press)

1997 - Serves as Associate Chair of the Ethnic Studies Department at this time (CV). Promoted to full professorship at CU.
Publications: A Little Matter Of Genocide: Holocaust And Denial In The Americas, 1492 To The Present (City Lights)

1998 - Continues to serve as Associate Chair of Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CV).
Publications: Struggle for the Land: [revised and re-subtitled] Native North American Resistance to Genocide, Ecocide & Colonization (Arbeiter Ring); coauthor with Mike Ryan Pacifism As Pathology: Reflections On The Role Of Armed Struggle In North America (Arbeiter Ring); expanded and revised edition of Fantasies Of The Master Race: Literature, Cinema, Art And The Colonization Of American Indians (City Lights) 

1999 - Continues to serve as Associate Chair of Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

2000 - Continues to serve as Associate Chair of Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Wife Leah Renae Kelly killed in automobile-pedestrian accident.

2001 - Named Chair of Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Pacifist George Lackey writes a challenge to Churchill's Pacifism as Pathology entitled "Nonviolent Action as The Sword that Heals." Takes up part-time housekeeping with Natsu Taylor Saito, a Georgia State University College of Law professor.
Publications: editor, author of autobiographical preface, for Leah Renae Kelly's In My Own Voice: Explorations In The Sociopolitical Context Of Art and Cinema (Arbeiter Ring); "On the Justice of Roosting Chickens" (essay)

2002 - Continues to serve as Chair of Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Hires Natsu Taylor Saito to teach for CU's Ethnic Studies Department.
Publications: Struggle for the Land: Native North American Resistance to Genocide, Ecocide & Colonization (rev. ed., City Lights); White Studies: The Intellectual Imperialism of Higher Education (Citizens International Radical Essentials Pamphlet Series); lecturer on audio CD US Off The Planet!: An Evening In Eugene With Ward Churchill And Chellis Glendinning (Cascadia Media Collective)

2003 - Named Chair of University of Colorado at Boulder Ethnic Studies Department.
Publications: Acts Of Rebellion: The Ward Churchill Reader (Routledge); book-length expansion of On the Justice of Roosting Chickens: Reflections on the Consequences of U.S. Imperial Arrogance and Criminality (AK Press); introduction for Terrorists Or Freedom Fighters?: Reflections On The Liberation Of Animals (Lantern Books)

2004 - Continues to serve as Chair of Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Publications: Kill The Indian, Save The Man: The Genocidal Impact Of American Indian Residential Schools (City Lights); introduction for Terrorists Or Freedom Fighters? Reflections On The Liberation Of Animals (Lantern Books)

2005 - January: A reporter for the Hamilton College newspaper notices Churchill on the schedule to speak there; after researching and discovering the "Chicken" essay, the reporter writes the article that leads to a nationwide uproar. Churchill resigns as Chair of CU's Ethnic Studies Department. April: Marries fellow Ethnic Studies professor Natsu Taylor Saito. May: United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees repudiates Churchill's claim to associate membership in the Band.
Publications: Indians Are Us?: Colonization and Genocide in Native North America (rev. and expanded edition, Common Courage Press); Speaking Truth In The Teeth Of Power: Lectures On Globalization, Colonialism, And Native North America (AK Press); coedited with Natsu Taylor Saito Confronting the Crime of Silence: Proceedings of the Russell, Winter Soldier, and Dellums Tribunals on U.S. War Crimes in Vietnam (AK Press); co-edited with Sharon H. Venne Islands in Captivity: The International Tribunal on the Right of Indigenous Hawaiians (2 volumes, South End Press)

Forthcoming Publications: "To Disrupt, Discredit And Destroy": The FBI's Secret War Against The Black Panther Party (Routledge)

For a detailed chronology for 2005 events, see this Daily Camera timeline.