Michael's Mind

At the core of the questions surrounding Churchill is this: Is he who he says he is?

He has repeatedly said that his mother and grandmother passed on to him the often-told story that there was Indian blood in the family. He's believed it since he was 10, he has said.

In speeches Churchill has given this year, he has introduced himself this way: "I bring you greetings from the Elders of the Keetoowah band of Cherokee, my mother's people."

At times, he has suggested that he is 3/16ths Indian. That would be the equivalent of three of his 16 great-great grandparents having been 100 percent American Indian.

But from all indications in an extensive genealogical study by the News, there is no evidence of a single Indian ancestor in Churchill's long family history in America.