Urgent News Advisory: Yolo County Sheriffs Arrest Students at DQ University Today

I haven't been able to ascertain what the specific issue that is being addressed here? Would love some more info, but it is hard to know what to think with so little info? Sounds like the students are occupying a university, but why were they kicked out? Kind of confusing...

That's what indymedia is all about- going out there and finding out and using this site to spread the word.

I would assume you are referring to me? I might be interested in going to help out if I knew what was going on! That was my point, it is the original poster's responsibility to explain what is going on and not just assuming people will jump on the bandwagon. After doing a little outside peeking, I saw what some of the issues are here. But not every Indy reader is going to take the time to look into it and what is offered at the website so far is "Police have arrested trespassers at university, please help!" Sorry, that isn't going to motivate many supporters!

As one who contributes to this site, I agree that it's a sparse measure of what happened out there. Seems as if the Board for the school fell apart or had in fighting when they lost accredation (sp?) and have never regained it. A replacement board was voted down by a superior court judge. Details are sparse. Unfortunately it's a volunteer based style of providing news. Wish there was a better solution so we don't have lemmings or followers. There was a link to the Davis paper that explained things fairly well from the feature.

Look at that is what I can suggest.

Yeah, I figured it out after looking a little further. Seems like the original management totally screwed over the school and students, can see why they're angry. I'm not critiquing the cause, just the original post which was light on those kinds of details. It would also be nice to see what laws the students are relying on for their claim. Is the land that the school was built on tribal land? Being able to cite the laws that support their takeover would be helpful to people who are new to this issue.

Yolo Deputies Arrest Tribal Students At DQ University
Three Charged With Trespassing

http://fox40.trb.com/news/ktxl-022008dq,0,730525.story

February 20, 2008

YOLO COUNTY — Students say they were living in dorms on tribal land, but on Wednesday they were arrested for trespassing.

It's all part of an on-going rift at the former DQ Tribal University.

Michael Frease captured a video on the tribal land of the former DQ University, as Yolo County Sheriff's arrested several students for trespassing. "He's lived here longer than 30 days they're supposed to provide him with a notice of eviction, they didn't do that," Frease said.

Back in 2005 D-Q University lost it's accreditation after the former administration was found to be mishandling funds, now free cultural classes are still being held here, but it's a constant struggle between the faculty, board and the students to get the university up and running again.

The rift has gotten so strong that three of the board members made the decision to call law enforcement and have them make the arrests. But not all board members agreed with the decision. In fact, some weren't even notified. "As board members trying to rebuild this college we've been set with the task of meeting with different government agencies and different people to try and straighten out a lot of things that had gone wrong here and that was something I was very willing to do and something I'll continue to try to do but fighting against indian people is not what I signed on for," said Board of Trustees Chairman, Calvin Headrick.

The members who called for the arrest say the students were blocking them from doing what they needed to do to move forward. But students like Lupita Torres, say rebuilding D.Q University is a common goal, and they should be working together. "We're here for the future generations. We want our college to be here. This is the only tribal college in California so they can't scare us out of being here."

http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_8324965

Students kicked off campus again
Board members called to have Sheriff's deputies remove 'squatters.'
By JAKE DORSEY
Article Created: 02/21/2008 09:07:46 AM PST

Amber Kahn, 25, uses a cell phone to talk with others involved with DQ University out on County Road 31. Kahn said she has lived on the grounds of the university for about a month. (Deo Ferrer/Democrat)
Yolo County Sheriff's deputies arrested three men at DQ University on Wednesday morning and removed other students from the campus.

The students are there illegally and hold informal classes in American Indian culture. Since the university lost its accreditation in 2005, some board members have wanted to remove the students, some of whom have lived there for nearly a year, and disallow them from returning.

Other board members and members of the community disagree. It's the latest in a three-year history of battles between the students and board members.

University Trustees Jane Elliot, Margaret Hoaglin and Shirley Lincoln arrived sometime between 10 and 10:30 a.m. Wednesday and conducted a citizen's arrest, claiming the students were trespassing, said Calvin Hedrick, the Board of Trustees' president. The three trustees then called sheriff's deputies.

The deputies arrived at about 11 a.m. and attempted to group all of the students together. Christopher Yazzie, 26, who has lived at the site for about a year, was surrounded by deputies for refusing their request to leave.

The university was closed in 2005. All students were removed at that time, but about 15 to 30 still go there, students said.

Michael Frease, a student at the school, taped Yazzie's arrest. On the video, Yazzie is surrounded by officers before being shot with a Taser and taken away, shouting.

Manuel Santana, 24, and Daniel Cory, 21, were also arrested. They were booked on misdemeanor trespassing, said Michele Wallace, the Yolo County Sheriff's Department public information officer. The crime carries a punishment of up to one year in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both.The three students were released after being given notice to appear before a judge. They came from Arizona and are homeless, students said.

Elliot, Hoaglin and Lincoln were unavailable for comment.

Students were upset.

"(The Board) has proven again there's no respect for students here," Frease said. "Local tribes are trying to support us, but this board has no financial accountability."

Lupita Torres, 26, from San Jose, said the board has a history of harassing students, noting when the students faced down Sheriff's deputies in 2005 in the face of eviction notices. She defended what she considered the peaceful actions and said Yazzie did not try to resist arrest. She came from San Jose after receiving text messages on her cell phone from Yazzie.

"We're not quite sure what (the board's) intentions are," Torres said. 25-year-old Amber Kahn, from Minneapolis, has lived on the grounds for about a month. She said she felt betrayed, especially by Hedrick, who spoke with the students Tuesday night and arrived about two hours after the arrests.

"We trusted you," she said about two hours, turning to the other students. "He earned our trust last night."

"What happened there, that's not me," Hedrick told Kahn. He said he was unaware of the actions taken by the other three board members until that morning. He had met with students to talk about coming together on the issue of students staying on the property.

The exact reason for the students' removal isn't clear.

Reached later by phone, Hedrick said he could only speculate as to why the three board members decided to take matters into their own hands.

"I was under the imprsssion we were straightening things out," he said.

There was frustration on both sides, Hedrick said. Communication was rough between the students and the board, and it was difficult to keep track of who was actually on the campus at any given time. The students also attended a board meeting this past Saturday, bringing cameras with them to record the event. However, one of the board members became angry and grabbed one of the students. She later pushed the camera away, the video showed.

Wallace said deputies were asked to remove "squatters." However, Hedrick said one of the arrested students, Yazzie, was under a verbal agreement with the Board of Trustees to remain on the campus as an informal groundskeeper.

Hedrick said he is frustrated. The three board members acted without telling him, he said, and there is a clear division between them.

The board itself is made up of five people plus Hedrick. Frease, the student, said the five board members are all of the Roundbelly-Colvelo tribe and are family.

DQ, short for Deganawidah-Quetzalcoatl, has had a troubled history. Formed in July 1971, the college is the state's only American-Indian-controlled institution of higher learning located outside of a reservation. It came under American Indian control in 1978, and remained in trust until 2001, when a Board of Trustees was created.

The school lost its major source of funding, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in 2004, when the agency claimed its American Indian enrollment dropped below 51 percent. It then lost its accreditation with the state in January 2005. A lawsuit eventually transferred power to the current Board of Trustees. The only original student left is Yazzie.

Other students have come to the campus despite there being no official classes; some hold small courses there. Its only source of income is 450 acres of property farmed by Yolo County District 5 Supervisor Duane Chamberlain. He leases the property for $52,000 a year.

Eviction ends D-Q protest
University board members bypass chairman, ask Yolo deputies to end occupation.
By Stephen Magagnini - smagagnini [at] sacbee.com

Last Updated 6:22 am PST Thursday, February 21, 2008
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B2

Print | E-Mail | Comments (6) | Digg it | del.icio.us

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/727921.html

The occupation of D-Q University, the troubled tribal college seven miles west of Davis, ended abruptly Wednesday morning when Yolo County sheriff's deputies arrested three self-described students for trespassing.

About a dozen former students have been occupying the dorms at D-Q and holding their own classes since the two-year college lost its accreditation and federal funding in 2005 over financial and enrollment problems.

Several members of the university's board – concerned about safety and liability issues and a mounting electric bill – asked the sheriff to evict the "squatters" Wednesday without notifying board Chairman Calvin Hedrick.

"This action was taken without my knowledge or approval," a furious Hedrick said. "I'm very frustrated that this is happening because I'd just spoken with the students Wednesday and tried to find some common ground so we could definitely be working together."

Board Vice Chairwoman Jane Elliott, who authorized the evictions, said in a statement: "We have no other alternative but to ensure the safety and well being of those individuals who now reside at D-Q University. There is no heat and there is no hot water. Currently the campus cannot accommodate healthy living conditions."

Greg Iron, a Crowcreek/ Lower Brule Indian who enrolled at D-Q in August 2004, said he and more than a dozen other students have "been trying to keep the school open."

Iron, 27, said they have been holding classes on indigenous farming and alternative energy to meet the requirements of the school's federal charter, which says classes must be ongoing.

Board trustees, he said, "haven't been holding their courses there, so students have to do it to be in compliance," he said. "The students have been out there tirelessly helping the school … to make sure D-Q could exist, and it's wrong for them to treat their youth like this."

Elliott said the new board of trustees has "developed an academic plan for initiating approved classes at D-Q University," including a class on building model homes and a paralegal project. For the past three years, she said, "there have been numerous failed attempts to remove all unauthorized individuals who have identified themselves as D-Q students."

Susan Reece, a former D-Q board member who's a consultant to the current board, said the evictions were long overdue. About 20 of the D-Q squatters – some of whom arrived recently – had stormed Saturday's board meeting and "started yelling and screaming" when the board wouldn't let them film the meeting, Reece said.

"Some misrepresented themselves as students when they're not," Reece said. "They've been unauthorized for three years."

Reece said the board has been trying for months to get the squatters out. "There are huge liability issues and a whole litany of health and safety concerns – it's miraculous that we haven't had a fatality or serious injury out there," she said.

Reece said the squatters ran up a $4,000 electric bill last month.

Sheriff's public information officer Michele Wallace said a member of D-Q's governing board – who had obtained court papers showing the board had the legal right to the property – asked deputies to ask the trespassers to leave Wednesday. While most left voluntarily, three who didn't were arrested on a trespassing charge.

Manuel Santana, 24, Daniel Cory, 21, and Christopher Yazzie, 26, were booked on misdemeanor trespassing charges and released with a notice to appear before a judge, Wallace said.

"We don't know if they're students or squatters, but they had no legal standing to stay on the property," Wallace said.

http://www.news10.net/display_story.aspx?storyid=38665


D-Q University Student Arrests Caught on Tape in Fight Over School Control
Written by Karen Massie, Reporter

Home Video: DQ Arrests Caught on Tape, 2/20/08
E-mail Story Print Story

For three years, students and school trustees have fought for control of D-Q University. Wednesday, emotions boiled over when Yolo County sheriff deputies arrested some students.

"I just woke up and the board members were sitting outside," said Steven Kee, a 25-year-old student. He claimed 10 to 15 students locked themselves inside a dorm while another student tried to reason with the deputies. "They wouldn't show us any papers at all, warrants, nothing. They were saying, you guys are trespassers," according to Kee.

Within minutes, Kee said deputies slapped handcuffs on four students. Kee said, "The students weren't acting violent or anything and [the deputies] just jumped on them."

The arrests were caught on tape by Michael Frease, a West Sacramento man who said he's supporting the students fight to reopen the school. "I knew that they were going to be arrested. There's never no room for change," Frease said.

In 2005, armed guards couldn't keep students away when enrollment declined. The school lost its accreditation and the campus was closed. Students also accused trustees of misallocating federal funds.

The school reopened later that year after two separate boards battled for control of the university and a judge ruled on which group was in charge.

Since then, students have lived on campus and also tried to keep the school going. "Currently, the students are the only ones running programs at the school," student Lupita Torres said. "We have an indigenous perma-culture class. We have a bio-diesel program that's starting up."

Trustee Calvin Hedrick said the board also wants new classes and to win accreditation, but doesn't condone the students' activities.

"I got a call about students being arrested [Wednesday] morning," said Hedrick.

He admitted other board members had the students arrested because they believe they're trespassing and don't approve of the students' actions.

"It's pretty frustrating to have this happen," Hedrick said. "When I talk to different people in the community, I hear all these things that everybody's trying to do, but we're all working toward the same place. We're just not working together."

Meanwhile, students said they won't be deterred by the threat of more arrests. They vow to keep fighting. "It's not going to stop us," said Torres. "We're going to continue to be here. We have just as much right to be here as they do."

D-Q University is California's only Native American tribal community college. It was started in 1971 when protestors took control of an old Army post about six miles west of the University of California, Davis.

I'm having a difficult time finding the name of the Federal law or act which lies behind the location of DQ university. But there is some major clause of the Allotment act or one of those major Indian land laws (which in almost all cases were used to seize vast areas from tribes, which states that American military bases which are abandoned or decommissioned are legally required to be returned to tribes, because the initial seizure of the land was rationalized or justified for federal purposes. They aren't supposed to either sell it off to private interests, or give to the state for a park. Quite a bit of indian activism in the last 40 years has centered around abandoned federal property.

DQ was started in 1970 under this principle, and this was right during the initial period of successful activism by the American Indian Movement. Staggered by about 5 years after many key successes by african americans in getting the Voting Rights Act and Civil rights Act passed in 1965, AIM gained a lot of momentum as people were getting angry as soldiers returned from Vietnam, and everyone needed to address poverty and inequality domestically. So the occupation of Alcatraz island (which is another abandoned federal property!. They often barely explain why they were occupying Alcatraz) and Wounded Knee occurred in 1970. Some AIM members including Banks collaborated with teachers to insist on having the abandoned military land west of Davis, CA returned for the tribal college.
At the book fair in Golden Gate park each spring, there is a table run by an International Indian Treaty Council group which promotes the fact that the Presidio was supposed to be offered to the Ohlone under this law, but like with so many other treaties, they apparently overlooked this. (By the way, the IITC seems to have a complex history. Apparently they were a really promising organization at first with backing by good people, but then there was some infighting and dysfunctional individuals might have brought it down somewhat).
A speaker was talking about Fort Ord in Monterey as well. If you drive towards Monterey, there is an underused military reservation near Marina/Seaside. Technically they're supposed to offer that back.

I think the indian center in Discovery Park in Seattle came about right at this time as much of Fort Lawton was decommissioned, and activists up there got to work. http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/FtLawton_takeover.htm

Dunbar-Ortiz recounting a vibrant history of the university http://books.google.com/books?id=ynmUU7_Tv4YC&pg=PA23&lpg=PA23&dq=dq+university+military+abandoned&source=web&ots=2Lr_NBTeg3&sig=G91KghCRQisbm__mqG5CqR2t8Wo#PPA10,M1

While I appreciate the support from people on the website, I should point out that the proper name of the school is
Deganawidah-Quetzalcoatl. Many of us have been offended by people shortening to just "D-Q" and consider it disrespectful in the same way that many Christians are offended by "XMas".

Thank you for your understanding of this cultural matter!

Are you sure about that? I totally remember hearing precisely the opposite - that the full name actually could be considered disrespectful possibly due to religious significance of quetzalcoatl, and that DQ was considered by this contingent to be more respectful as a common reference.

reference here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Q_University

"Are you sure about that? I totally remember hearing precisely the opposite - that the full name actually could be considered disrespectful possibly due to religious significance of quetzalcoatl, and that DQ was considered by this contingent to be more respectful as a common reference."

-Yes, there was a fringe element that was opposed to using Quetzalcoatl's name for some weird reason. But to most of us, it was very important to have Quetzalcoatl as part of the name and considered it an insult to indigenous peoples of what is now known as "Mexico" that some would try and remove it from the name of the university. Besides, "DQ" makes it sounds like a Dairy Queen or "disqualified" in sports. Some have joked that we went to Dairy Queen University, which was deeply hurtful and insulting.

It's "Deganawidah-Quetzalcoatl". Got it, people?

Sorry, I didn't look at the link you sent before posting. Yes, it looks like somebody got to wikipedia trying to drag that one up again. That is problem with wikipedia, whoever gets there first and has the most administrative rank at the site gets to determine what is "history". They have completely turned reality on its head and made it look like THEY were the offended party! Disgusting.

Note that they can't even cite WHY it is that it should be called "D-Q"! "According to some tribal members". What, like two? Meanwhile, with this "D-Q" stuff they are leaving out the names of two great leaders and offending all of their admirers!

well, here's the thing. I doubt that anyone is saying that the name issue is as sensitive as saying 'yahweh' out loud. It sounds more like a set of people had a reason for saying that you shouldn't wear out Deganawedah's name by saying it too often. Primarily though, this sounds like a really insignificant point compared to the fact that the only tribal college in the state, founded by a pretty impressive set of people, has been driven into the ground by an inept board, plus legal and economic issues. In order for society to progress in the future, we need to maintain foundational infrastructure.