This remark was posted on one of my scholarly lists by a professor I've worked with in the past and whose opinion I respect. I've set up the links that were scattered through an email he posted.

Busby: This discussion of Ward Churchill raises series issues of academic
freedom on one side and on issues of identity, scholarship, and
plagiarism on the other. The charges of plagiarism and
misrepresentation of sources are the most serious ones. The Western
History list has had a number of messages about it. This one provides
some other important links:

From:   Larry xxxxxx
Date:   2/12/2005 9:31:58 AM
Subject:       Re: Ward Churchill redux


Of course academic freedom and tenure should protect Ward Churchill,
and of course in the present political climate they will not. But
even as a free speech absolutist, I have trouble summoning any
sympathy.
Ward Churchill has gotten tremendous mileage out of a career that
combines polemics, invective, and a Joseph Ellis level of
self-invention. He is a wonderfully entertaining writer, but his
actual scholarship has been slight. If the new accusations of
research fraud
and plagiarism prove true, and if it comes out that he has only been
pretending to be Indian for all these years, the CU regents will seize
on these items to fire him. And quite rightly so.

Ward Churchill has spent two decades sowing the wind. Now he reaps
the whirlwind. Roosting chickens indeed.

Link on research fraud:

Assessing Ward Churchill's Version of the 1837 Smallpox Epidemic
http://hal.lamar.edu/~browntf/Churchill1.htm

American Indian Movement (AIM--and I'll note that this group is really famous for it's infighting)
http://www.aimovement.org/moipr/churchill05.html

Another friend sent two sources regarding Churchill's identity:

Prof's Indian Roots Disputed
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3519179,00.html

Reporter's Notebook: Controversial CU professor stretches truth
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?display=rednews/2005/02/06/build/nation/67-reporters-notebook.inc

These links are provided by people who are more active in the field than I've been for a while, so it's looking like Churchill's chicken is cooked, but from the academic end of things and not from the tribal end of things. Plagiarism will knock an academic down faster than just about anything else in academia.

SRS