Response to the �UKB Statement Regarding Ward Churchill�

							                    Response to the “UKB Statement Regarding Ward Churchill”
                                         Ward Churchill
                                                May 18, 2005

On May 17, 2005 I was informed that the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (UKB) has issued
a Statement disavowing its relationship with me. This Statement contains many assertions which are
categorically untrue: that I “asked” to be enrolled in the Keetoowah Band, that I was issued only an
“honorary” membership in the Keetoowah Band, that my Cherokee lineage was never confirmed by the
UKB Membership Committee, that I was never placed on the Band Roll.

Each of these statements is documentably false.

I did not “ask” to be enrolled; I was asked to apply.

In May 1994, I was enrolled as Associate Member of the UKB. In June, I was issued a Band Card listing
Roll Number as being R7627. As was stated clearly and repeatedly at a Keetoowah Band Council meeting
conducted on June 4, 1994, during which my enrollment was discussed—and of which I have a complete
record on videotape—Associate Membership in the UKB did require proof of Cherokee descent, and
mine was confirmed not once, but twice by the Membership Committee before I was issued my Band
Card and placed on the UKB Membership Roll.

It was also made clear during the course of this meeting, and repeatedly so, that Associate and honorary
memberships in the UKB were not the same thing. Then-Principal Chief John Ross was also quoted in
both Ojibwe News and Indian Country Today as emphasizing the clear distinction between Associate and
honorary memberships shortly thereafter.

My status did not change when the Band stopped enrolling Associate Members on July 9, 1994. As
recently as February 3, 2005, UKB Membership Committee member Ernestine Barry was quoted in the
Denver press as acknowledging that the Band “no longer offers associate memberships, although it didn’t
revoke any existing membership.”

When the “controversy” surrounding my comments concerning 9/11 first became a matter of national
attention earlier this year, UKB representatives repeatedly confirmed, both publicly and privately, that I
was an enrolled Associate Member. Moreover, I personally called UKB Principal Chief George Wycliffe
in February 2005 and he assured me that there had been no change in my status.

The United Keetoowah Band is a sovereign people. As such, just as it held the rightful prerogative to
enroll me as a member in 1994, it holds the right to disenroll me in 2005. By the same token, it would be
well within its rights to request that I relinquish my membership (i.e., “resign”).

What it does not have a right to do is falsify history at its own convenience.

Insofar as I’ve not been notified that I have been disenrolled, I can only assume that I remain an Associate
Member of the United Keetoowah Band. Therefore, I cannot reasonably be accused of “fraud” for having
represented myself as such.

Further, even if I were to be disenrolled at this juncture, it would in no way affect the fact of my
“Indianness,” a matter officially confirmed by the Keetoowahs themselves in 1994.