On this edition of Your Call, we're discussing the history of UC Hastings College of the Law. Last week, the law school announced it would drop the name of its founder Serranus Clinton Hastings, a man whose legacy includes profiting off the brutal killings and displacement of Native people in Round Valley, California.
The decision comes after four years of internal investigations. The official name change must go through the Legislature.
UC Hastings also plans to form a 501(c)(3) entity in association with, and jointly governed by, the Round Valley Indian Tribes to work on the social needs of the community; Assist tribal leaders with other community legal needs such as contributing resources to local education and curriculum, preserving the Yuki story, preservation of tribal oral traditions and stories, and advancement in teaching and preserving native languages; reach out to California Governor Newsom's Tribal Advisor to engage with, and contribute to, that office and the newly-formed Truth and Healing Council; and recommend the establishment of an Indian Law Program and related academic and educational programs at Hastings, available to all students interested in studying Indian Law.
How are institutions across the country reexamining their history? And how should we reckon with the true history of California?
Guests:
Brendan Lindsay, associate professor of history at the California State University, Sacramento, where he teaches California, Native American, and United States history, and author of the award-winning book, Murder State: California’s Native American Genocide, 1846-1873
Deb Hutt, Yuki tribeswoman who lives in Round Valley
Web Resources:
UC Hastings School of Law: UC Hastings Board Directs Chancellor & Dean to Pursue Name Change
The San Francisco Chronicle, John Briscoe: The moral case for renaming Hastings College of the Law
The Los Angeles Times, Melissa Gomez: UC Hastings College of the Law to rename school after reviewing founder’s role in mass killings of Yuki Indians
The New York Times, Thomas Fuller: He Unleashed a California Massacre. Should This School Be Named for Him?
