More controversy about whether Ward Churchill is or is not an Indian and, if so, how Indian is he—One quarter? One sixteenth? Were his ancestors the scalpers or the scalpees? (I kid you not–here and here.)
As I wrote earlier, you can’t make this stuff up; it seems really funny to me. But perhaps not to the Left. I mean, if you really believe that ethnicity is a defining characteristic, if you really believe it gives you special cachet and insight and legitimacy and authenticity—then, well, I guess this is worth arguing about. And, of course, Indian activists—and federal bureaucrats at the Department of Interior–have gotten into the habit of arguing about blood quantum and lineage.