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| Southern California Indian Reservations
(Shipek 1987). Click to see enlarged map. |
For anyone interested in American Indian studies, we are living in very exciting times, and for students and faculty at UCR, we are in the right place to participate in them. UC Riverside sits in close proximity to dozens of tribes in California that are redefining what sovereignty means today. Very recently, tribes in this area led the political campaigns that led to popular victories on statewide propositions that greatly expanded Indian gaming and created a new basis for economic and political power among some California Indians. Clearly Indian country is in a very dynamic state today. Anyone who reads the newspaper knows this.
Indians have always been centrally important in California. As you probably know, California had the largest pre-contact population and greatest diversity of first peoples anywhere in what is now the United States. What you may not realize is that California now has the largest contemporary population of American Indians of any state (surpassing Oklahoma in the 2000 census). Excepting Alaska, California today hosts the most federally recognized tribes (around 110). It also has the most tribes attempting to gain or regain federal recognition.
Relating positively and proactively to California Indians is part of UCR's
DNA.
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The importance of California Indians, historically and in the present, has long been recognized by this University. Because of UCR's proximity to three dozen tribes, we have the opportunity to forge new kinds of collaborative research partnerships. But there's more to our story than location. Our proximity is useful, but our unique heritage matters more. Relating positively and proactively to California Indians is part of UCR's DNA.
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| Mrs. Saubel (in front of stage)
dancing with the Cahuilla Birdsingers. |
California Indians helped found UCR and established
its first endowed academic chair, the Costo Chair. This
Chair, of which Joel Martin has the honor to be the
first permanent holder, was the first academic chair
of any type in the nation endowed directly by American
Indians. It is named for Rupert Costo, a Cahuilla man.
He and his relatives, working in concert with Judge
John Gabbert, helped persuade state legislators to locate
a new branch of the University of California in Riverside
County. Rupert Costo (1906-1989) and Jeannette Henry
Costo (1909-2001) spent their adult lives advocating
in behalf of American Indians. They founded the Indian
Historical Society, started the Indian Historian Press,
and published fifty books. They also assembled one of
the largest collections of research materials relating
to Native Americans in the nation, the Rupert Costo
Library of the American Indian. Stanford wanted this
Library. It is here at UCR.
UCR, the place where California Indian elders dance.
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Thanks to this unique legacy, UCR has long enjoyed a special
relationship with Indian country. It was no accident that
the first American Indian to receive a Chancellor's Medal
was a Cahuilla elder and educator named Katherine Siva
Saubel or that the award was presented here at UCR by
Acting Chancellor David Warren. This recognition, the
highest that can be given by the UC system, incarnates
the strong and unique connection that this university
has with California Indians. The ceremony took place last
spring, involved a daylong symposium focused on California
Indian revitalization, a meal featuring traditional powwow
foods, and a play about Mrs. Saubel's incredible life.
Toward the end of the day, while Cahuilla bird singers
sang, Mrs. Saubel stood and danced, the first time she
has done so in many years. That could serve as a good
motto for our program in American Indian Studies: UCR,
the place where California Indian elders dance.
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