Ward Churchill (1947–) is an American writer and activist who produced some of the most detailed documentation of FBI COINTELPRO operations against the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the Black Panther Party. His academic career at the University of Colorado ended controversially in 2007 over research misconduct allegations, and his claims to Indigenous ancestry have been disputed.
Regardless of the controversies surrounding Churchill as an individual, his documentary work — particularly the FOIA-based research in Agents of Repression (1988, with Jim Vander Wall) — remains an important primary-source compilation of state repression against Indigenous and Black liberation movements. The book documents specific operations, names agents, traces chains of command, and provides evidence that has been used in subsequent legal and scholarly work.
Notable works
- Agents of Repression: The FBI’s Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement (1988, with Jim Vander Wall)
- The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI’s Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States (1990, with Jim Vander Wall)