[progchat_action] D-Q University threatened, Native students arrested
 
Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2008 01:49:40 -0600 (CST)


D-Q University threatened, Native students arrested

Will this model of how indigenous societies used to work finally be forced
to close?

by Mari Villaluna,
Indigenous Peoples Media Project, Poor News Network
Wednesday, 27 February 2008

"The cops are at D-QU!" The text message showed up on my phone just before I
was about to continue on the Longest Walk 2, a walk of resistance by Native
peoples to bring attention to sacred burial sites and Native movements
across the U.S. I have been walking for the next seven generations, for my
descendants. I pray for them with every step I take.

On Friday, Feb. 22, at 12:18 p.m., Yolo County Sheriffs arrested three D-Q
University students with alleged charges of trespassing and served them with
an eviction notice. Students have occupied D-QU since January of 2005,
demanding the re-opening of the school and maintaining classes every
semester.

D-QU is the only off-reservation Native tribal college in the U.S. It has
been under threat of closure for several months. POOR's Indigenous Peoples
Media Project held a rally in support of D-QU in February.

D-QU was founded by Natives and Chicanos to provide an Indigenous education
that covers all of the Americas. In 2005, the university lost its
accreditation after the former administration mishandled school funds.

The night before the arrest, some D-QU students arrived to participate in
the Longest Walk. That same night I met a journalist from L.A. named Joaquin
Cienfuegos and we talked about D-Q University and the Longest Walk 2 and how
they are interconnected.

We talked about the importance of collaborating on media and how not that
often you see the North and South Natives coming together on a media tip.
That night I knew it was important for him to interview Caske Limon, a D-QU
student, so Joaquin could understand the spiritual importance of D-QU and
its connections to the Longest Walk 2.

"It's important because it's unique. It highly stresses culture and
traditions. It has more hands-on learning experience and environment," Limon
said, describing his school, D-QU. "It's a place for healing. It's a very
sacred place. The name of the school itself was brought to the school by
means of ceremony. They used to hold the AIM Sundance at D-Q University back
in the day," he declared.

Caske told Joaquin about how D-Q University has been used as a model for
self determination and sovereignty for Native people. "It's creating a
prototype, a microcosm, of a better society. It's giving a visual example of
not polluting healthy life and eliminating diseases by eating healthy," he
explained. "We want to revert back to the structure of how Indigenous
societies used to work."

D-QU is very sacred to the students who are currently occupying it, so much
so that three of them recently got arrested because they believe in D-Q
University. They believe in the vision of North and South Natives coming
together to learn as their ancestors once did, without borders, but having
an epistemic location in an Indigenous traditional identity.

I was lucky enough to have a conversation with an elder named Dr. Adam
Fournate Eagle, who was one of the Natives to jump over the fence to
repossess the former Army communications center and start a tribal college
called D-Q University. He talked about Alcatraz Island, D-QU, the Longest
Walk of 1978 and sacred sites, and he cracked jokes the whole time.

The words that I remember the most are "It's up to the youth to continue the
struggles that we once fought for." Those youth at D-Q University are making
sure that the next seven generations have an Indigenous university that uses
our ways of educating our people.

******

For more information on D-Q, you can call United Native Americans at (510)
672-7187. To read more about D-Q, go on-line to www.poormagazine.org and
click on Indigenous Peoples Media Project.

http://www.sfbayview.com/News/Main/D-Q_University_threatened_Native_students
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