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Coffeetalking adds: the bold text is mine.
Did the U.S. Army Distribute Smallpox Blankets to Indians? Fabrication and Falsification in Ward Churchill's Genocide Rhetoric
In this analysis of the genocide rhetoric employed over the years by
Ward Churchill, an ethnic studies professor at the University of
Colorado, a "distressing" conclusion is reached: Churchill has
habitually committed multiple counts of research
misconduct—specifically, fabrication and falsification. While
acknowledging the "politicization" of the topic and evidence of other
outrages committed against Native American tribes in times past, this
study examines the different versions of the "smallpox blankets" episode
published by Churchill between 1994 and 2003.
The "preponderance of
evidence" standard of proof strongly indicates that Churchill fabricated
events that never occurred—namely the U.S. Army's alleged distribution
of smallpox infested blankets to the Mandan Indians in 1837.
The
analysis additionally reveals that Churchill falsified sources to
support his fabricated version of events, and also concealed evidence in
his cited sources that actually disconfirms, rather than substantiates,
his allegations of genocide.
All historians believe in honoring the integrity of
the historical record. They do not fabricate evidence. Forgery and
fraud violate the most basic foundations on which historians construct
their interpretations of the past. An undetected counterfeit undermines
not just the historical arguments of the forger, but all subsequent
scholarship that relies on the forger's work. Those who invent, alter,
remove, or destroy evidence make it difficult for any serious historian
ever wholly to trust their work again. American Historical Association's Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct.
___________________________________
Ward Churchill tells a shocking tale of war crimes committed by the
U.S. Army at Fort Clark against the Mandan Indians in 1837. Fort Clark
stood perched on a windswept bluff overlooking the Missouri River, in
what is today North Dakota. Churchill reports that in early 1837, the
commander of Fort Clark ordered a boatload of blankets shipped from a
military smallpox infirmary in St. Louis. When the shipment arrived at
Fort Clark on June 20, U.S. Army officers requested a parlay with Mandan
Indians who lived next to the fort. At the parlay, army officers
distributed the smallpox-infested blankets as gifts. When the Indians
began to show signs of the illness, U.S. Army doctors did not impose
quarantine, but instead told the Indians to scatter, so that the disease
would become more widespread and kill more Indians. Meanwhile, the fort
authorities hoarded smallpox vaccine in their storeroom, instead of
using it to inoculate the Indians.
Every aspect of Churchill's tale is fabricated. Between 1994 and
2003, Ward Churchill published at least six different versions of this
accusation against the U.S. Army. While the Mandans and other Indians of
the Upper Plains did suffer horribly from a smallpox epidemic in 1837,
Churchill presents no evidence whatsoever to indicate that the infection
was anything but accidental, or that the U.S. Army was in any way
involved. Fort Clark was a privately owned fur trading outpost, not a
military base, and there were no U.S. troops in the vicinity. The
closest U.S. military unit was an eight hundred mile march away at Fort
Leavenworth.
In telling his fantastic tale, Churchill has fabricated incidents
that never occurred and individuals who never existed. Churchill
falsified the sources that he cited in support of his tale, and
repeatedly concealed evidence in his possession that disconfirms his
version of events.
Ward Churchill is currently a Professor of Ethnic Studies at the
University of Colorado. The university granted Churchill tenure in 1991
in spite of the fact that he lacks a Ph.D. and had not served the normal
probationary period as an untenured assistant professor. Churchill
holds a M.A. degree in Communications from Sangamon State University.
Documents from the University of Colorado archives indicate that
Churchill obtained his tenured position there under a program designed
to "recruit and hire a more diverse faculty" (Clark, 2005). In early 2006, the University investigated Churchill on seven
allegations of research misconduct, one of which was Churchill's
smallpox blankets hoax.
The committee unanimously found Churchill guilty on all seven counts,
and the Chancellor has recommended his dismissal from the university.
Given the politicization of this topic, it seems necessary to
acknowledge at the outset that far too many instances of the U.S. Army
committing outrages against various Indian tribes can be documented. A
number of these were explicitly genocidal in intent. It is not the
intention of this author to deny that simple fact. However, as the
eminent Cherokee sociologist Russell Thornton has observed of Ward
Churchill's fabricated version of the 1837 smallpox epidemic: "The
history is bad enough—there's no need to embellish it" (Jaschik, 2005).
That the U.S. Army is undoubtedly guilty of genocidal outrages against
Indians in the past in no way justifies Ward Churchill's fabrication of
an outrage that never happened.
What Really Happened?
The High Plains smallpox epidemic of 1837 has been analyzed by
numerous historians. None of the previous histories have indicated any
U.S. Army presence in the vicinity, much less any military involvement
in genocide. None have mentioned a word about a boatload of blankets
shipped from a military smallpox infirmary in St. Louis. None have
mentioned any medical personnel as even being present in the vicinity,
much less deliberately violating quarantine by sending infected Indians
out among the healthy population.
Historians agree that smallpox was brought to the High Plains in 1837 aboard the steamboat
St. Peter's—which
was owned by a fur trading company—as it made its annual voyage up the
Missouri River from St. Louis, delivering goods to the company's trading
posts along the way. The disease followed in the steamboat's wake,
making its appearance among the southern-most tribes along the river
before it spread to the Mandans at Fort Clark and tribes north (Connell,
1984; Ferch, 1983; Dollar, 1977; Hudson, 2006; Jones, 2005; Meyer,
1977; Pearson, 2003; Stearn & Stearn, 1945; Sunder, 1968; Thornton,
1987; Trimble, 1985; Trimble, 1992; Robertson, 2001).
Many eyewitness accounts of the 1837 epidemic have survived. None
mention any U.S. Army presence in the vicinity of Fort Clark. Only two
government employees were on board the
St. Peter's
as it approached the Upper Missouri. Joshua Pilcher was the Indian
Bureau's sub-agent to the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Ponca (Sunder, 1968).
Pilcher left the boat at Fort Kiowa, where he was posted, before the
boat arrived at Fort Clark. Pilcher's letters to his superior,
Superintendent William Clark, indicate that the disease was carried by a
number of sick passengers on board the
St. Peter's.
As Pilcher began to realize the magnitude of the disease, he took steps
to quarantine as many of his Indian charges as possible. Pilcher wrote
Clark in June 1837 and again in July, warning of the smallpox outbreak.
Pilcher advocated to Clark that an extended vaccination program should
be initiated to stem the epidemic. Pilcher noted of his vaccination plan
that: "it is a verry delicate experiment among those wild Indians,
because death from any other cause, while under the influence of
Vaccination would be attributed to that +
no other cause[.]"
Still, he told Clark, "[I]f furnishd with the means, I will cheerfully risk an experiment which
may preserve the lives of fifteen or twenty thousand Indians[.]"
William Fulkerson was the other Indian Bureau sub-agent on board.
Under Fulkerson's purview were the Upper Missouri tribes, from the
Mandans at Fort Clark to points north. Fulkerson was the only federal
employee who rode the steamboat all the way up and back down the river,
and the only one to meet the Mandans at Fort Clark. There is no evidence
at all that Fulkerson distributed any blankets to Indians. Fulkerson's
letters to Superintendent William Clark both before and after the trip
complain that the government had not allocated funds for the annual
annuity gifts to Fulkerson's tribes. Clark's accounting records bear
this out.
Fulkerson corroborates Pilcher's report of sick passengers on board the
St. Peter's. Fulkerson requested of the steamboat captain that he put the first man to come down with smallpox off the boat.
Captain Pratte, who was a principal in the fur company that owned the
boat, refused to stop or turn back because of the disease, for turning
back would have interfered with his delivery of trade goods. That would
have caused havoc with his business, and put his traders in danger from
angry Indians who were counting on the trade goods. Thus the brunt of
responsibility for the epidemic lies with Pratte, for refusing to cancel
his trip upriver once the smallpox was discovered aboard. Upon William
Fulkerson's return from the steamboat trip, he warned William Clark
that: "the small pox has broke out in this country and is sweeping all
before it—unless it be checked in its mad career I would not be
surprised if it wiped the Mandan and Rickaree [Arikara]
Tribes of Indians clean from the face of the earth."
Francis Chardon was the trader who commanded Fort Clark. His journal
provides an eyewitness account of the events there as the disease took
its course (Chardon, 1970). Jacob Halsey was the trader who commanded
Fort Union, several hundred miles upriver from Fort Clark. Halsey was a
passenger on the
St. Peter's, and contracted
smallpox himself. The letter that Halsey wrote to his superiors in the
fall of 1837 gives us another eyewitness account (Chardon, 1970, pp.
394-396). Charles Larpenteur was another trader at Fort Union.
Larpenteur's journal is another invaluable eyewitness record.
Larpenteur's journal was later edited and published in book form (1989).
Two of the eyewitnesses at Fort Clark offer the same hypothesis of
how the disease was transmitted to the Mandan Indians. William
Fulkerson, the Indian agent, and Francis Chardon, the trader, both tell a
story about an Indian sneaking aboard the steamboat and stealing an
infested blanket from a sick passenger. Chardon relates that he
attempted to retrieve the infested blanket by offering to exchange it
for a new one. This stolen blanket was the theory of infection believed
by Fulkerson and Chardon who were both at Fort Clark and observed the
incidents there first-hand (Audubon, 1960, pp. 42-48; Fulkerson to
Clark, September 20, 1837).
Indian sub-agent Joshua Pilcher, on the other hand, offered a
different theory of infection. Pilcher informed his superior that three
Arikara women aboard the steamboat also came down with the disease, and
then left the boat at Fort Clark to rejoin their tribe.
[
All modern researchers agree with Pilcher that the disease was more
likely spread by human contact than by blankets. Dr. Michael Trimble's
detailed epidemiological analysis draws on the relevant primary sources
to give the fullest account of the epidemic's introduction and spread
among the High Plains Indians around Fort Clark (Trimble, 1985). There
was a party at the Mandan village the night the
St. Peter's
arrived, attended by many of the white passengers. Thus there were
plenty of opportunities for person-to-person transmission of the
infection.
In short, there is no evidence at all to support the key elements of
Ward Churchill's tale. There is no evidence that U.S. Army officers or
doctors were anywhere in the vicinity in June 1837. There is no evidence
that any blankets were shipped from a military smallpox infirmary in
St. Louis. There is no evidence that anyone passed out infested blankets
to Indians with genocidal intent. Ward Churchill has invented all of
this.
Defining "Research Misconduct"
Under federal law, "research misconduct" involves fabrication,
falsification, or plagiarism. Fabrication means making up data.
Falsification means changing or omitting data in your possession, "such
that the research is not accurately represented in the research record."
Just because Churchill's version of history is iconoclastic, that does
not necessarily mean that he committed research misconduct. Federal law
allows that: "Research misconduct
does not include honest error or differences of opinion."
Churchill's transgressions take two forms. First, Churchill commits
fabrication
by inventing events that never happened and historical characters who
never existed. Specifically, Churchill (2003b; 1997) claims that "the
commander of Fort Clark had a boatload of blankets" shipped "from a
military infirmary in St. Louis quarantined for smallpox," and that
"army officers" distributed these infested blankets among the Mandans as
part of a genocidal plot. Churchill offers no evidence that
substantiates any of this, and no such evidence exists. Churchill
indicts fictional "army doctors" and "army surgeons" with ordering the
Indians to disperse, thus deliberately violating quarantine practices in
order to spread the disease more quickly. Again, Churchill offers no
evidence that could substantiate this claim, and none exists.
Second, Churchill commits
falsification
by misrepresenting the sources he does cite, and by concealing
disconfirming evidence in his possession. None of Churchill's sources
confirm his tale. On the contrary, all of his sources disconfirm his
tale. Churchill never discloses that the authors he has cited disagree
with his version of events, and never discloses that the authors he has
cited offer evidence that disconfirms his own version. Churchill's
manipulation and concealment of this crucial data meets the definition
of falsification under federal law. While Churchill does not appear to
have received any federal funding for his research, the University of
Colorado—and most other American research universities—hold all their
faculty to the federal ethical standards.
You can read Churchill's various version that were debunked' here:
Source
After this close reading of Churchill and his sources, it is time to
step back and look at the big picture. What Churchill has done, in at
least five different essays, is to accuse the U.S. Army of committing
genocide against the Mandans by deliberately giving them
smallpox-infested blankets. Scholars can and do make honest errors. But
honest scholars do not invent historical characters who never lived and
events that never happened.
Tailoring the facts to fit one's theory constitutes
neither good science nor good journalism. Rather, it is intellectually
dishonest and, when published for consumption by a mass audience, adds
up to propaganda. Ward Churchill.
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