smaller band of Cherokees (Keetoowah); this Band has presumedly since moved from Oklahoma to Arkansas, where WC's family now resides. However, it has been cited that he is not recognized as a member of the larger Cherokee Nation tribe still located in Oklahoma. My doctoral dissertation does deconstruct why these identity issues of who is an "Indian" and who is not it so problematic for this particular population, and as a direct result of the impact of U.S. colonialism; I have termed this in my thesis work "statistical extermination" since the Allotment Years (1877), in the designation of "half blood" compared to "full blood," as a "blood quantum" criteria designation imposed on all American Indians (in this, one John Lavelle is wrong on his counterpoint interpretation in "scholarship under scrutiny," cited in Rocky Mtn. News, 2/11/05). Hence, this colonizing situation has caused a "divide and conquer" divisiveness that has pit tribe against tribe, as well as individuals from the same family and kinship group. It is also on record that I helped develop the first American Indian Studies Program with WC, in which I was a grant writer and taught as an instructor for several years. This can be substantiated by Dr. Evelyn Hu-DeHart at the Boulder University, in Ethnic Studies Department, as well as Dr. Cordelia Candelaria; the latter who is the one who initially solicited us both to do so while employed there. While I was recovering from breast cancer, I took a "visiting professorship" at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY, 1991-92), that included a Humanities fellowship on "the politics of identity." A main reason for this was to get away from our increasingly difficult relationship in a turbulent environment, and which I felt was a primary factor in contributing to my unhealthy medical condition. I was cronically ill while living with WC (which numerous doctor appointments can attest to), and I realized, when I contracted asthma as well as breast cancer, his smoking alone (about four packs a day) was injurious to my health the duration of our co-existance together. I am happy to report I am in good health today. By the time I returned from upper state New York, there were signs that he was living a separate life from the estranged marriage. I heard he told people we had an "open marriage," if he told them at all, but he forgot to tell me. It even got to the point where his protective friends and colleagues were encouraging me to leave town. Therefore, it became obvious I was the one expected to leave the Boulder community, even though my divorce lawyer at the time cautioned me to stay in residence. You could say his double life was the last straw, since the environment around him was always tense and stressful, and with an "us against them" mentality, whether it was about academic politics or his movement activism. At the same time, there were some good people around, especially Theresa Halsey of "Indian News," who is a dear friend still living in Boulder, and the only one I stay in contact with from there. During these disturbing years, WC was also co-director with Glenn Morris of the Confederated American Indian (CAIM) Chapter in Denver; of which I was a community supporter who also gave contributions to the Denver/ Boulder Chapter. This group, led by Russell Means, has been in conflict with the National American Indian Movement (NAIM) since the early 1990's, led by his brother Bill Means and others (who once

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worked with WC in the movement). This strife escalated in 1993, in which I was present at two tribunals (in Edgemont S. D., and San Raphel, CA), where CAIM, among other issues, accused some NAIM leaders of being implicated in the death of AIM member, Anna Mae Aquash (in the mid-1970s); she was a Canadian Indian woman who came to the States and joined the movement, and who was found murdered execution style in S. Dakota. At the same time, NAIM was disparaging the CAIM leadership of Morris and Churchill in the Denver/ Boulder Chapter, and under the "misguided" endorsement of Russ Means, according to NAIM. In the mid-1980s I was sent to represent the international arm of AIM with "The Working Group on Indigenous Peoples" under the auspices of the United Nations (1985) Geneva ,Switzerlandand in Strausberg ,France(1986), before the movement split. In those earlier years, I did collaborate with WC on writings and publication projects. However, I eventually came to feel my ideas and work were being appropriated for his own personal agenda, which is to sell his repetitious books, and to become another hollow media icon with hefty honorariums from his speaking engagements. He does have a master's degree in communications and a probable minor in psychology, which is indicative of his hyperbolic and incendiary style, and with apoplectic fits if he is defied; to say he is a "control freak" is putting it mildly. Our heated disagreements and arguements caused further friction in the relationship during the later turbulent years in the marriage, in which I felt increasingly sabotaged by him until I was able to de-program and break away. Thus, this is a typical cliche of a marriage gone sour, and which ended in a rancorous divorce with "settlement" issues still pending; this unfinished business, which WC will most likely deny, is mainly due to the ineptness of my unethical divorce lawyers at Frie and Arndt law firm (in Boulder), who terminated my legal contract with them for spurious reasons. I have not seen nor spoken to WC since our 1995 divorce, and since I initiated a restraining order on him in the separation proceedings. Some see me as a player while others will say I was duped, [since?] he prefered an "Indian" woman by his side in those days. I have been called a "loose canon," but I prefer to see myself as a "wild card." I have also been condemned by his enemies, which are many, and in which I have even been falsely accused of outrageous and undocumented acts as his "co-conspirator;" this is still on going today, and is slanderous in the defamation of my character and good family name due to my past "guilt by association." In point of fact, I was the one who was maligned (in the Carol Standing Elk, of NAIM, incident recently reported in a Denver Post news article, "clashes with churchill," 2/17/05, by one Arthur [Lane?], and there were about 30 witnesses, including Russ Means and his wife at the time, Gloria Grant Means, who I was with in helping to take care of their young children while at the Press conference in San Francisco; there is also a San Francisco police report to substantiate this as a total fabrication in terms of my alleged involvement! Reporters and others need to check their facts instead of fueling these lies!  I am aware that since the divorce, WC has attempted to erase any indication, as evidence we ever collaborated with each other; even going so far as to re-publish a

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collection of his essays (the original "Fantasies of the Master 
Race," in 1992 from Common Courage Press), in which I was the 
initial editor. City Lights Press (in San Francisco) has since 
published this book with my name stricken, as well as my maternal 
grandfather's dedication in the first book. I still believe in the 
American Indian cause for justice, but I came to see that the means 
did not justify the ends in being associated with him and the 
egomanic driven, chauvenistic AIM politics he is enmeshed in; in 
what I call "being Indian careerism." I therefore think one should 
ask what are his real motives, which seem disengenuous to say the 
least. And is this worth the cost of 15 minutes of fame ? I think 
not! Rather the news should be covering the case of the Berkeley 
professor, who was "...fired after publishing a scientific paper 
regarding the uncontrolled contamination of irreplaceable native 
Mexican corn varieties by genetically engineered corn. Dr. Ignacio 
Chapela, whose corn article was published in the science journal 
"Nature," was denied his tenure due to pressure from the biotech 
company Monsanto," even though a Berkeley tenure review panel voted 
unanimously in favor of his tenure. It is noted "There is definitely 
something wrong here." But I have only seen thisoninternetmemos 
( http://www.organicconsumers.org/uc.html ) I can only say to the 
public in response to the news inquiry on the feeding frenzy 
controversy regarding the focus on WC and the "freedom of speech" 
debate involving academic freedom, no one should confuse the message 
with the messenger, especially when there are more reasonable voices 
and works out there from the liberal to the left, whom I support 
(ie. writers Barbara Ehrenreich (sic ?) and Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz; TV 
satirist John Stewart; the courageous Michael Moore; media critic 
authors Fritz, Keefer, & Nyhan, to name a few). So the question is 
posed as to whether WC is some kind of folk hero or a cult guru?; my 
experience and association with him incline me to the latter, in 
which no one should follow another in blind, bad faith if they can 
help it.

Sincerely, Dr. M. Anne Jaimes, in San Francisco
[signed] M A Jaimes

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