The federal government wants to open a drug rehabilitation facility for Native American teens. The center would occupy 12 acres of American Indian land, near Deganawidah-Quetzalcoatl University, locally known as D-Q University.
The 643-acre Yolo County plot is owned by the federal government, but the deed designates the land to be zoned for educational purposes.
In early March, the federal government asked D-Q’s Board of Trustees to sign a land transfer approval letter. The Indian Health Service (IHS), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, would own the land and build the treatment center.
Gary Ball, IHS staff architect for the center, said his agency is hoping to have the letter signed in the next 90 to 120 days.
The board deciding on the transfer is composed of eight members, all from different tribes.
Dunn Eggink, one of the trustees, said the trustees have not agreed on any plans but will likely pass the land over as a good deed.
The school lost its accreditation in 2005, though they continue hosting classes and projects.
Eggink said before the school considers regaining its accreditation, the board will first work on the infrastructure of D-Q, then on offering accredited courses through other schools.
“Our focus right now is to thrive with a unique identity and purpose,” Eggink said. “We’re working on new workshops and living sustainably. This is an ongoing process.”
At the Yolo County Board of Supervisors’ March 1 meeting, former IHS
Public Affairs Adviser Steven Zerebecki said the big unknown is if federal funding will come through for the project.
Funding to purchase the land from the U.S. General Services Administration is coming from money left over from finished construction projects. The project’s development budget is $17.6 million, with $1 million for planning and $1.4 million for the design. Construction is set to cost $15.2 million. The annual operating budget would be $4.5 million, with 70 full-time employees.
The center’s workforce would include a board-certified psychiatrist, 10 registered nurses, and 10 psychologists, therapists and counselors. The project would help IHS meet a 1992 Congressional mandate to open detox centers in its 12 geographic service areas, including two in California.
The service investigated 80 properties in 17 counties, and the D-Q land proved to be the most promising. IHS hopes to buy land in Riverside County for a Southern California treatment center as well.
Margo Kerrigan, director of California IHS, said these drug treatment centers are being misinterpreted as detention centers and that the patients would not jeopardize public safety.
“These are voluntary treatment facilities where the kids decide they want to go to treatment,” Kerringan said at the meeting. “It’s not one where they’re sent to treatment. They go to treatment because they want to.”
Formed in 1984, the Affiliated Obsidian Nation opposes the construction of the treatment center.
The Nation’s spokesman and former Davis City Council applicant Steve Jerome-Wyatt said the group believes the federal government will use the center as an excuse to overtake the rest of the D-Q land.
“The IHS is a branch of the federal government, and if the youth treatment center is built at D-Q, it won’t be long before the feds will be making plans to take even more of the land at D-Q back,” Wyatt said. “The proposal is nothing but an elaborate smoke screen.”
There is no law that says the federal government has to ask the board for prior permission to build the IHS project.
“The feds are going through the motions of asking and cooperating with the board, for the sake of positive public relations,” Wyatt said. “The proposal is the first shot in the feds’ plan to take back the land at D-Q; the land that hundreds of American Indians fought, struggled and sacrificed to keep for over forty years.”
IHS intends to start construction in December and to open the center by 2014.
ANGELA SWARTZ can be reached city@theaggie.org.
Famous Native American Scholar Lehman Brightman Speaks on Re-opening D-Q University. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYDxlHAZ0ic
DQ UNIVERSITY POLICY ON
THE INDIGENOUS CONTENT OF CURRICULAR
OFFERINGS
D-Q UNIVERSITY was founded as a university of the
Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, north and south. It is also a
tribally-controlled college, directed by a board whose membership
reflects the tribal peoples of the United States and of California in
particular. Thus while DQU seeks to serve all Indigenous Peoples,
and all who wish to learn about the Original Americans, its
governance reflects an emphasis upon California and the region in
which the campus and its branches are located.
DQ University has committed itself to offering an Associate in
Arts degree and, when feasible, advanced degrees and special
programs. As a part of the Associate in Arts degree DQU seeks to
offer all students skills comparable with that which they might learn
in any general Associate in Arts program, but what is special about
DQU is its commitment since 1971 to the infusing of all courses with
an Indigenous perspective and to offering a uniquely Native
American education.
In keeping with this policy DQU has attempted to direct its
faculty to introduce Original American cultures, perspectives, and
materials in all of its courses, whenever possible. To further this
objective DQU entered into a joint project with Humboldt State
University to further infuse Indigenous perspectives and materials
into as many courses as feasible. This project has not been fully
implemented but the objectives continue to remain the official policy
of the University.
In keeping with the above objectives, DQU will now seek to
insure that all courses, whether part of the A.A. curriculum, or part of
Extension offerings, and whether offered in English, Spanish, or other
languages, contain Indigenous orientations and perspectives, and
that all texts, readings, and materials, wherever possible and
pertinent, will highlight the work of Indigenous authors and
authorities and, or, utilize relevant sources, and that the content of all
courses will be suitable and appropriate for an Indigenous
institution.
By “Indigenous†the university means to refer to the Original
Peoples of North, Central and South America primarily, but also, by
extension and where appropriate, to similar Indigenous Peoples of
other parts of the world (such as Maori, Native Hawaiians, Ainu,
Sami, et cetera).
Not every field lends itself equally to the realization of our
mission of Indigenous infusion, but even science courses can be
designed so that Maya-Mesoamerican mathematics and Native
American views of the Living Earth and Living Universe can be
incorporated, for example. Applied courses, such as those relating to
Early Childhood Education, can and should incorporate traditional
Native American views on the manner of respecting children and on
the roles of the extended family, et cetera. Much material is available
on these concepts, as well as on other aspects of the well-being of
parents, children, and communities.
It will be the task of the DQU Curriculum Committee and of
DQU administrators and faculty, together, to examine all syllabi,
outlines, and reading lists for courses and special offerings, in order
to be sure that DQU is living up to its historic mission and
commitment.
{Draft by Prof. Jack D. Forbes for use by the volunteers and
board members seeking to bring the DQU catalog up to date in the
summer of 2004. Of special importance was the effort to be sure that
the Early Childhood Education program had Indigenous content and
that science and other courses also reflected that perspective where
appropriate.].
PROPOSAL FOR A DQU INSTITUTE
0F ADVANCED STUDIES
THE DQU INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES is governed
by the same Board of Trustees as is D-Q University. The Institute’s
mission is:
(1) to sponsor conferences of a scholarly or educational nature,
either on campus or at reservation or other locations in
Indian country;
(2) to sponsor research projects of benefit to Indigenous
Peoples;
(3) to offer seminars and short-term educational programs of an
advanced nature;
(4) to utilize radio, television, and other media for the
dissemination of Native knowledge;
(5) to offer earned master’s and doctoral degrees in Native
American subject areas with emphasis upon community
development and planning; however, this mission will
await success in items 1,2, and 3.
The California area needs a Native-oriented research and
advanced studies institute which can provide r-and-d services
for tribes and communities. For example, many California and
Oregon tribes seek to recover information about their history
and cultural heritage. Often they turn to non-Indian entities
which are usually ill-equipped to perform the work and the
results are superficial or unsatisfactory. The DQU Institute
would employ and/or utilize staff with proper training in
Native Studies.
The DQU Institute can be initiated as the research and
development arm of D-Q University. Eventually, though, it
should perhaps be a separate non-profit corporation but with
the same Board of Trustees as D-Q University. This will enable
the Institute to offer advanced degrees without necessarily
altering the A.A. degree accreditation status of the university.
Jack D. Forbes
Member, National Advisory Committee since 1981
[ This plan had been proposed by Dr. Forbes in earlier
years but had never been adopted by the board. In 2004 he
revived the plan in order to meet the threat posed by the
possible loss of WASC accreditation for the A.A. degree
program.
First the Current DQU Board of Trustees has changed D-Q University into “Gardening University”. Now This? Everyone in the Community Should Strongly Oppose Giving Back Any Land Back to White People. How Come The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) has Not Lifted a Finger to Help Re-open California’s ONE & Only Intertribal College?