Big Pow wow was definitely a poor description. I got to meet the board. I got to prowl the halls of DQ and see the detritus of student's ghost past.
The meeting was very impressive and depressive, but not the way I'd expected. I was expecting to be somewhat depressed by how impressive the powerful hierarchy is. Instead I was impressed by how depressive the powers-that-be are. It was far more impressive to me to witness these old ladies putting up with cold and discomfort in the service of an important cause. I mean its one thing to go and try and confront of a bunch of fat cats repressing the student aspirations, its quite another to sit in an unheated room under the cloudy tule-fogged day, no electricity, no comforts, stiff folding chairs, and hear the whole tale of woe and mismanagement straight from the sources mouths. I got there late and then waited in a cold room for an hour and a half till the rest of the board could gather, with very little conversation and not much friendliness in evidence. I was glad a brought a good hat and two coats. When the board meeting started, not much happened for a while. I've been to these kinds of things before, even sat in as a member a couple of times and I know the drill, the dry dissertation of financial facts and accountings. Ho hum. Let me introduce you to the board of trustees of DQ University. Starting on the left, large and in charge, we have Margaret, the chair. Business-like, efficient and in control at all times, not somebody to be messed with. I'm developing a theory about the difference between the sexes in Indian affairs. Indian men project a calm confidence that comes from their thorough understanding of their world. Indian women have an even more encompassing confidence that comes from their thorough understanding of Indian men. Altogether they are a very passionate people who direct their passion at following the rules because they know how quickly things can degenerate when passions are unchecked. Next to Margaret, on her right, we have one of the two guys on the board, Ben. He looks like a white guy mostly, except for the long black braid hanging down his back. He is fairly quiet but follows all proceedings carefully and makes cogent remarks and questions. Then we have Genevieve. What a pistol! A retired public school teacher from Chico area, she grew up the object of racial hatred when her mom took her off-reservation to learn and she had to get tough and learn to fight and by god, she hasn't forgotten. Since it was Genevieve who had called the elders meeting after the board meeting, I got to know her opinion on a great many things. A short and feisty broad with her hair in a tight bun and a no-nonesense way about her earned from 35 years of teaching 7th and 8th graders. Next to Genny was Stanley. Stan is from down south, a southern tribe, a leader of an ongoing satellite of DQ that has survived, but barely. He gave the opening prayer. One thing that impresses me about these Indian gatherings is their rootedness in spirituality. They always open in prayer to the great spirit and they offer these prayers in their native tongues and there's something about the vowels and consonants of an ancient people that sends shivers through me when I hear them. And finally on the end was Susan, a representative of the Longhouse religion. She seemed nice but the most adamantly opposed to Rudy James. The fact that this was rather a poor showing was pretty self-evident. What we had was a bunch of elders who, tired of disrespect in meetings past, had banned their youth-students from attending, and thus there was no chaos, but no energy or excitement either. Five people talking to themselves about nothing happening. Ho hum indeed. The interesting facts that emerged were these: 1) There was an evil board in 2005, that was basically in cahoots with UC Davis to get DQ University to fail and thus get turned over to that big successful university. The student occupation that occured at that time threw a monkey wrench in their plans and so that never happened, but then not much else has happened since as in-fighting and squabbling has wasted energy and time. 2) A few of the board members knew Rudy Al James, and did not like him at all. Once burned, twice shy. Indians got memories like elephants for wronged past. Accountability in Indian culture and personality is a much bigger deal than forgiveness. That may be a problem. 3) The Cache creek Indians are very interested in a tribal college - they've got a casino nearby and hereditary rights on the land and a solid organization, but they want to do a college for California Indians of federal recognized status. California Indians are a mess, always have been. Josiah Royce, of all people, has a great deal to of insight on this problem and one reason he wasn't very popular back in his home state was his scathing review of John Fremont's actions when California was being born. 4) Everyone's worried about the library. DQ has an extensive library with roof leaks, vandalism and mold attacking priceless artistic and literary artifacts gathered in its heyday. 5) If education doesn't take place on the property soon, a good chunk of the land is going back to the feds soon, it's written in the deed of trust. My conclusion from what I saw is that this board is trying hard and is not corrupt, as has been charged. They're sincere and trying hard to make this school a reality. They love DQ and have devoted their lives to getting it up and running again. They're saddled with consequences of bad decisions in the past, mostly not of their making. They need help, but have a talent for driving people away with their aggressive turf wars. The distraction of defending themselves to the attorney general is not helping and its not likely to get anywhere anyway. I have a lot more thoughts to share, but for now, i'm going to work on using the communication lines opened up to me to try and get some sort of reconciliation between the board and the students they've ostracised. What we've got here are two parties, feverishly at war with one another over something they both care deeply about. This place is dedicated to the Peacemaker. Let's see if that guy's got any real gumption. John Carl, reporting from the field. Literally. On Sat, Dec 19, 2009 at 7:28 AM, John Carl <[email protected]> wrote: > There's some sort of big pow wow with the Board of D-Q University today. > Hopefully some progress can be made with no shouting or throwing things. I > asked Rudy to come, but he wimped out. > > I'll probably just go and listen and see what they have to say for > themselves. > > Wish me luck! > > Back tonight. > > John the sniffer-out > Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
