Citizens' Commission Personal Statements — Fort Bragg City Council, January 24, 2022

To the Members of the City Council,
I urge you to keep in mind two things as you go forward.

First: This problem will not go away. The first recorded request to change the name came before the Civil War even ended, when the leader of Fort Humboldt asked the Army to remove Braxton Bragg’s name from the Fort. This will be an issue as long as we choose to keep the name.

There are many helpful actions you can take, but waiting it out is not among them.

Second: We urgently need to have constructive public conversations about the name of the town and what it means to us all. You took the first step in leading that process by forming this commission, but the work has just begun. Please take seriously our recommendation that you facilitate a series of moderated gatherings where residents can listen to understand, rather than arguing to win. I believe it will make all the difference.

Thank you.

Christie Olson Day
Scott Taubold’s (committee member) statement to the city council 01/24/2022 While in the process of refinancing my home I said to a guy on the phone, “I have to go to a zoom meeting, they want to change the name of my home-town” and he said, WHAT? Both shocked and alarmed. You see…
My home town was named after a military garrison minus a Fort, named after a Union Officer, who never set foot in the County, who later came out of retirement to join the Confederacy. I wasn’t aware of all of this until a few years ago as the name of our town suddenly became, politically incorrect.

I have always told others that I was a “Fort Bragg person” or “I was from Fort Bragg” since that was my cultural identity. With that, most Californians knew that I came from a community, isolated by narrow highways, late in receiving technologies, such as Cable TV, Cell Phones, Internet, And I was also un-aware of the racism that was displayed in more urban areas of our United States.

Therefore over the last year and ½ I began to educate myself on the history of slavery, and racism which I have found is rampant throughout our History.

I have also realized the seriousness of this issue and I believe that more education regarding racism needs to take place, as we have continued to exist, as a nation in denial of it’s own racism.

Major changes need to take place through education, However, I don’t believe by erasing history and changing the names communities. History belongs to all of us.

Leave the name-change for us locals to decide, please.

Tearing down monuments in the Jim Crow South may seem appropriate, yet I question toppling the statue of George Washington, the father of our country, because he was a slave owner. He was many things. What is so unique about Fort Bragg and this whole name-change debacle is that a Northern California town (not the Jim Crow South and not worshippers of Braxton Bragg), started as a logging town with fishing, and a culture of people developed who grew up relating to this name of our home town. We married, had children and buried family members for generations and the name grew on-us, and in-us simply as its namesake. Portuguese, Latinos, Native Americans, Finnish people and many other various community groups of people learned to live together in harmony on this isolated Mendocino Coast.

We celebrate Paul Bunyan Days, and used to have many fraternal organizations with halls and structures, such as the Foot-lighters Club, The International Organization of Odd Fellows, Eagles, Lions, Kiwanis, and granges were formed up and down the coast. Generations of Fort Bragg students learned to swim at the old rec center, which is now a part of City Hall. From the Cobweb palace to the Sea Gull Inn, people celebrated life on the Mendocino Coast! Times have changed and covid19 with all its variants has shut us down. The Paul Bunyan Association has not celebrated in two years. The salmon barbeque was canceled. What little is left of Fort Bragg-CA culture, is struggling to survive? The old-timers post pictures of our glorious past on Facebook for like-types to find joy in revisiting. Many of our people moved-out of the area, when “the Mill shut down” to farther North, or Idaho.

Due to a political climate that may or may not last, we are now feeling pressure to change the name of our hometown. The issue of racism, which I rarely if ever experienced in my 67 years in Fort Bragg and on the Mendocino Coast is a separate issue, as much as the newcomers to our town don’t want to believe that. I can honestly say I was never aware of racism while growing up in Fort Bragg. I thought when I visited Tennessee, I might experience racism. I did not think when I visited Hawaii I would experience racism, but it was there that I did, and it was awful.

You see, one cannot make assumptions that because of a name of a town, city or state one will experience racism. It exists in the hearts and minds of it’s people.

We live in a democracy where voting decides, even though those who are not well-off and need to vote the most rarely do follow through with the act. I believe this is due to ignorance, as the people of Fort Bragg were ignorant of what that name might represent, they none-the-less learned to love it and cherish it and identify the name Fort Bragg as their cultural heritage. The Fort Bragg Timberwolf took on an identity that people supported with all heart and soul. We have the option of keeping our name with its historical significance, but report a true history and show the Native American standing tall, with settlers in a lower position learning to survive with the help of our native brothers.

I was born in Chico, as my father was enrolled at Chico State at the time. I was raised in Fort Bragg and both my sets of grandparents has businesses on Main Street in Fort Bragg. I worked for my father who had a general contractor’s license until I was thirty Two years old. I obtained an AA degree while attending classes in the off seasons, etc. and completed in the early 80s.

Later after family members had relocated to Hawaii. I obtained my BA the University of HawaiiWest Oahu and my Masters of Science in Counseling Psychology. After working a year for Mental-Help Hawaii I returned home to Fort Bragg and realized that my degree did not help me in becoming a licensed therapist in California. So, I enrolled in a distance learning program, Saybrook University where I obtained my Doctorate degree in 2004. I became a licensed psychologist in 2006 and maintained a private practice until September of 2021. I worked for Mendocino County Mental Health for over 20 years. I am now seeking employment as an educator, having spent roughly 9 years in higher education.

Scott Taubold, Ph.D.

HELLO MY NAME IS LUCY STANLEY

COMMUNITY IS

IMPORTANT

I AM THE DECENT OF LUCY AND JIM COOPER
Lucy Cooper lived to be 103 Jim Cooper lived to be 104
• MY NATIVE FAMILY HAS LEAVED ON THIS LAND FOR OVER 10,000 YEARS. • THE REASON WHY I AM OPPOSED TO THE NAME CHANGE IS BECAUSE OF

COMMUNITY, AS YOU KNOW THE NATIVE AMERICAN PEOPLE WERE TAKEN OVER TO COVELO AND FORCED TO BE THERE.
• My Great Great Grand parents Lucy and Jim Cooper were one of them that was taken over to Covelo, but they escaped, and they headed back here to the Town Called Fort Bragg, when they returned the COMMUNITY took them in and hide them until it was safe. Fort Bragg is a great Community growing up here The Town name of Fort Bragg to Many Community Members was never associated with Braxton Bragg we did not even know about the History of Braxton Bragg, to all locals it became a fishing and logging industry. I am not saying what Braxton Bragg did was right, but For this reason, I do not feel that we must change the name and spend all the time that we have working on this project, I think we should listen to the community and what I hear is that they do not want a name change why are we not listing to the community the it seemed that they do not want a name change.

I feel very strong to keep the name of Fort Bragg, maybe in some other way we can give history on a plaque or in a Culture Center to give history to those who do not like the name and come to an understanding for all.

Thank you for your time
Lucy Stanley Coast Pomo Indian
From: Nicole Caito
To: Lemos, June
Subject: Personal statement
Date: Sunday, January 23, 2022 10:14:14 PM
Fort Bragg City Council Members ~
Being a part of the Citizens Commission has been an interesting, emotional, and challenging experience for me, one that I can say I was not quite prepared for. I was compelled to initially join the citizens commission because I love this community and the people who live here. I also care about how we are perceived by people outside the community and I was concerned by the original city council meeting (almost two years ago) that Fort Bragg could be concisidered a confederate sympathizing community, which I don’t believe to be true. That was the driving force for me joining this commission. We had many difficult conversations and more times than not tensions were high, causing me many sleepless nights. I came to the committee with an open mind and feel I was able to look at the issues without becoming biased so that I could make a confident recommendation on the best course of action for our community. Both sides had compelling arguments for why the name should change or why it should stay the same.

However after almost a year and a half on the citizens commission I believe there is more to consider before making a sound recommendation. My primary concerns that were not adequately addressed were the cost of changing the name, how we would be able to vote on a name change to include all 95437 residents, and what the potential new name of the town would actually be. It is imperative to conduct a comprehensive cost analysis for the city, its residents, and its businesses in order to make an informed and educated decision on whether or not this is a realistic and affordable goal at this time. Can our city, its residents, and its local businesses pay for this? If a cost analysis shows that this can be done without undue financial hardship to our community and the name change is put to a vote, how do we vote? There are over 14,000 people living in the 95437 area code and only a little over 7,000 in the city limits, this means that half of the people who call Fort Bragg their home will not get a vote and their voice will go unheard. My final concern was that an alternate name was never a major topic of discussion. Having a new name to replace the old name seems critical when trying to gain the support of the people.

With such a volatile topic where most people have shown strong one sided views, my personal recommendation at this time is rededication. We formally denounce any ties to Braxton Bragg and the confederacy.

We showcase Fort Bragg for what it is in 2022. A small, beautiful, costal town in Northern California where the redwoods meet the sea. A town full of history, good and bad. I believe Fort Bragg has an identity of its own and that deserves preservation. There are many steps we can take to help heal from the past starting with an accurate historical depiction in our local museums and schools, helping to explain the dissatisfaction the name may convey to some. Without acknowledging the past residents and visitors cannot change the future and honor those who were wronged. With a rededication nobody wins but everyone gains. Braxton Bragg, and his racist ideologies will have been denounced and we can begin to embrace the name Fort Bragg for what it truly is today. While a rededication may not be the final solution to such a controversial issue it's a positive step in the right direction while providing time to develop solid answers to specific concerns that have not been fully explored.

Thank you,
Nicki Caito-Urbani
Name Change Citizen’s Commission Recommendation
Personal Statement
Emerald Greetings Mayor Bernie Norvell, Vice Mayor Jessica Morsell-Haye, and Council Members Tess Albin-Smith, Lindy Peters, and to the newest Marcia Rafanan,
of the Citizen Commission Members, I was the only that independently addressed the Council to initiate a conversation regarding a possible name change for our town previously. At that time the reasons I brought had to do with the potential for a name that reflected our gorgeous natural surroundings and the gem that Fort Bragg California is. Although I have advocated for a name change in the past, I do not recommend that the City Council take any action to advance the agenda currently.

The Commission found through discovery that to direct resources towards changing the name NOW is generally an unpopular idea for a variety of factors. If the name is to be changed in the future it should come from a true bottom up grass roots campaign that initiates the process and wins over the population by way of good old fashion advocacy and education.

Simply put, if the commission would have found that there was majority support for a name change, there would have been much stronger push for a name change; if the commission would have found there to be a unified call from the Native Tribal Indigenous peoples, we would have advocated much stronger for a name change. We did not find this. Please consider this number: out of the 1613 survey questionnaires asking if the person supported a name change, only 530 chose the strongest support, while the majority of 913 chose the strongest opposition to the name change.

The idea of a rededication was also unpopular in the survey; although this is the case, we did speculate that if we had asked the question in a different way we might have gotten more support for it. Generally people responding to the questionnaire had been extreme in responding towards their outlook.

I recommend that the City Council NOT change the name of Fort Bragg, nor shall it move to put in on a ballot for voting:

WHEREAS, the City of Fort Bragg is currently in an Emergency State due to COVID-19.

WHEREAS, the council moving to change the name now is unpopular and would be generally divisive.

WHEREAS, the Native Tribal Indigenous population in not currently unified towards changing the name.

WHEREAS, there are much more pressing issues that need attention and funding within the City of Fort Bragg and financially it would be more sagacious to spend resources on actions that would make larger improvements in peoples lives.

WHEREAS, Fort Bragg will be undergoing an extraordinary transformation in the future, such as with the old mill site, and if a different name is designated, it should fit the new destiny and enhance personality.

Please do strongly consider recommendation #6: Support an outdoor event to encourage the local arts, sciences, and culture/economy, a North Coast Community Day, to showcase our diverse community and encourage a robust economy.

An event that celebrates the many artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, traditions, ingenuity, and our local natural resources would go far in healing and keeping our community vital.

Furthermore beyond the excellent unified recommendations our committee has come up with I would like to personally champion the following recommendations:

Support the creation of a high-profile art monument to celebrate Native Coastal Tribes.

Locally we have already embraced art and artists and having a new installation honoring the Native Coastal Tribes would be an immediate change of perception for Fort Bragg.

Work with Tribal Members, local businesses, the Skunk Train, and other local partners to develop a Historic District.

The Skunk Train people have already expressed that they would like to develop a Historic District in previous meeting with the Council and it would be an excellent opportunity to work together and develop trust in good faith with the various star holders to honor local history.

Organize a conference to invite institutions and citizens to take part in creating a blueprint for the future development of the City, where the name change issue can be one element of the discussion.

For reasons of equity and success it is imperative that the City be visionary and aggressive towards developing local economy and to steer our great society towards a local Renaissance.

Regarding the name specifically, if it ever comes to picking a different one, I would advise NOT using NOYO or other Indigenous language as we have heard that this could be inappropriate for multiple reasons. The name should honor Tribal Members and also the population as a whole by it reflecting the natural beauty and local ecosystem elements. Examples of this are: Emerald Harbor, Aqua Marine, and Fort Grizzly.

In closing, what should be most important is not if the name is changed or not; it should be how we treat each other with individual consideration and respect of the multitude of perspectives regarding the related issues and to avoid destructive actions or divisiveness. When we make space for each others cosmologies it allows the multifaceted ideas to come together in an invaluable gemstone. Solutions can be found even when bringing together seemingly opposing views and to diminish or disregard those we disagree with is a lose of opportunity.

Thank you for your consideration!
Essentially,
Gabriel Quinn Maroney, MS Global Health
Dear City Council,
I hope you take our seven unanimous recommendations to heart, and create real laws and policy out of them. Returning Land Back to coastal Tribal people can be a step to undo the attempted genocide that happened here. Coastal Tribal people are still here, they tend to this land and live here but are not given the respect they are due. I am including here also the text of the Albuquerque ordinance that we recommend you institute in Fort Bragg. I was very pleased to find it as it provides a great example of a tangible way to work with local Tribes.

What follows that are the two presentations I gave to the citizens’ commission. The first one is about the creation of the military installation of Fort Bragg, and the policies of the State of California and the United States that constituted acts of genocide against the Native American people at the time the fort was established. It shows clearly how the fort was one tactic of domination, as was the bounty placed on killing indigenous people, and describes some of the lesser-known but very important policies. It describes the man who named the Fort, Horatio Gates Gibson, and shows how many places he was instrumental in colonizing. It shows the military career of Braxton Bragg’s life from attacking the Seminole Nation, to attacking the nation of Mexico, the conquest of which added Pomo land to the United States, to being Top Brass in the confederate military, a top advisor to Jefferson Davis. When his name was placed upon the fort here that oversaw the attempted genocide of indigenous people it was part of the completion of the national myth of Manifest Destiny; that the United States was meant to civilize the continent, all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Why would anyone tolerate their town name being the same as a military base that was a tactic of genocide? The second presentation focuses on Bragg and the confederacy. It sheds lights on the misinformation campaign that the confederacy continued after they lost the war, called the Lost Cause. The Lost Cause is responsible for why we have so many places named after confederates, along with other ways of honoring them like statues. In this presentation you will find quotes from the constitution of the confederate states of America and the declarations of secession of several states and an important speech by the vice president of the confederacy. These documents all make it clear that the South seceded in order to maintain slavery, and when they lost the war they started a propaganda campaign so that people all over the country would believe the South fought for some other reasons, and that the confederate war heroes should be honored. Even the US military honored the traitor Bragg with naming a base after him.

But nowadays even the Republicans in the House and Senate banded together with Democrats to override a presidential veto of the bill that would change the names of these confederate-named bases. To try and keep the name of Bragg alive in our town, Fort Bragg, on the flimsy rationale that it was named before the confederacy existed is absurd.

For one, the town was named after the Civil War, even if the military base Fort Bragg was named before the war. His name is alive and well in only a few places, this is one of them, and it should be changed.

The presentation goes on to highlight the history that led up to our present moment where town names and other ways of honoring people like statues, etc. are being taken down. It is important to see that Black people have been fighting against the lie of the Lost Cause it began, and fighting against slavery and oppression since it began. That anyone would put their own “preference” to keep the name of a colonizer and human trafficker as the namesake of their town, Braxton Bragg, before the will of this intergenerational movement is an act of racism against Black people here and all over the United States.

Here is my spoken statement from the night of our presentation where, due to the protests of other members of the commission that we would even want to speak as long as, say, public comments, we were only allowed one minute each to speak:

My name is Andy Wellspring and I’ve been a high school US History teacher in Mendocino for some years, and I assembled two history presentations for this commission that I now give to you. I would be happy to speak further with you all any time about our recommendations and my historical research, and I volunteer to be in the new local history working group that is one of our recommendations.

What I’ve found in historical research is grim. The creation of Fort Bragg by the US military was a horrifying event for indigenous people here. Amends need to be made by this town that still bears the same name. Our recommendations are a good step.

The fact that Braxton Bragg, a slaveowner, managed artillery to attack and take land from the Seminole nation, then again against Mexico, and then became Top Brass in the confederate military defending slavery… makes him literally one of the most despicable figures in all of US History.

We cannot simply ignore both these historical facts, the Fort and the Bragg, nor the negative effects they have on many Black, Indigenous and Mexican people, in fact on all people. We have an opportunity and a responsibility to change this town’s name to right both these wrongs and write the next chapter in the history of this town, a future with a name that represents what we want to be, what we believe is beautiful.

Sincerely,
Andy Wellspring
1/20/22, 11:05 PM https://export.amlegal.com/api/export-requests/b5924052-e085-469f-83d1-791c1e097a3c/download/ https://export.amlegal.com/api/export-requests/b5924052-e085-469f-83d1-791c1e097a3c/download/ 1/2 PART 6: COMMISSION ON AMERICAN INDIAN AND ALASKA NATIVE AFFAIRS § 2-6-6-1 INTENT.

The City of Albuquerque acknowledges and affirms tribal sovereignty and self- determination for tribal governments. It is the purpose of §§ 2-6-6-1 et seq., to recognize and formalize the governmentto- government relationship between the City of Albuquerque and its adjacent tribal communities and to promote the health, safety, and general welfare of its citizenry through the creation of a Commission on American Indian and Alaska Native Affairs. The Commission serves as the forum for governmentto-government relations and as an advocate for American Indian/Alaska Native affairs within the City of Albuquerque and the surrounding area, including, but not limited to, matters of employment, education, economy, health, environment, homelessness, government, and access to services in the City.
(Ord. 20-1995; Am. Ord. 2019-004)
§ 2-6-6-2 CREATION.

There is hereby created the "Commission on American Indian and Alaska Native Affairs" of the City, consisting of members as set forth below. Except as provided in §§ 2-6-6-1 et seq., the qualifications, appointment and conduct of the members of the Commission and the organizational structure of the Commission shall be governed by §§ 2-6-1-1, et seq. ROA 1994. (Ord. 20-1995; Am. Ord. 2019-004)
§ 2-6-6-3 TERMS AND APPOINTMENT.

The Mayor, with the advice and consent of the Council, shall appoint nine members of the Commission. The Mayor shall endeavor to appoint one member representing each of the following sectors of the City: education, health, workforce/employment, environment, government and culture.

The remaining three positions shall be at-large positions, if a representative from a sector cannot be identified, then a member shall be appointed from the broadest base of the community at large.

The Commission may create advisory sub-committees from the community to provide input to the Commission to ensure that their issues are being addressed.

Recognizing the sovereignty and self-determination of the adjacent tribal nations, the Commission shall also include one member from each of the following: Sandia Pueblo, Isleta Pueblo, Santa Ana Pueblo, Laguna Pueblo, the To’hajiilee chapter of the Navajo Nation, and the All Pueblo Council of Governors, each of whom shall be chosen by the Pueblo, Chapter, or Council and not subject to appointment by the Mayor or the advice and consent of Council. The Mayor may choose to have any one or more of the tribally-selected members serve in a dual role as one of the Mayor's nine appointments.

The term of office of each member of the Commission shall be three years from the date of appointment.

The Commission will interact, collaborate, and engage with the City Native American Liaison on a continuous basis to ensure American Indian/Alaska Native concerns, challenges, and resolutions are being advocated and implemented.
(Ord. 20-1995; Am. Ord. 2019-004)
§ 2-6-6-4 POWERS AND DUTIES.

The Board shall:
1/20/22, 11:05 PM https://export.amlegal.com/api/export-requests/b5924052-e085-469f-83d1-791c1e097a3c/download/ https://export.amlegal.com/api/export-requests/b5924052-e085-469f-83d1-791c1e097a3c/download/ 2/2 (A) Consult with tribal governments prior to taking actions that affect federally recognized tribal governments and shall assess the impact of City programs on tribal communities. (B) Take appropriate steps to remove impediments to working directly and effectively with tribal governments.
(C) Bring American Indian/Alaska Native concerns to the City's attention by educating the City on the challenges, concerns, and resolutions of American Indian/Alaska Native citizens of Albuquerque; and by evaluating the social, economic, environmental, health, educational, and governmental challenges affecting American Indian/Alaska Native peoples. (D) Encourage employment opportunities of Indians in the City's public and private sectors. (E) Work with the American Indian/Alaska Native community to increase awareness of and access to services and programs in the City of Albuquerque; and advise the Mayor regarding the number of American Indian/Alaska Native citizens accessing City services. (F) Support economic development for Indian entrepreneurs. (G) Make recommendations to the Mayor for placement of American Indian/Alaska Natives on City boards, committees, and commissions.
(H) Provide an opportunity for the presentation and exchange of ideas in respect to American Indian/Alaska Native affairs of the City by all interested persons. (I) Submit annually a written report of its activities and an evaluation of the effectiveness of §§ 2-6- 6-1 et seq. to the Mayor and the City Council with recommendations for changes. (Ord. 20-1995; Am. Ord. 2019-004)
How Was Fort Bragg Established?
By Andy Wellspring
[email protected]
A note on sources:

Please be in touch if you have more sources on these topics, I love to see more information. I do believe the sources in this slideshow are strong, if you have information that contradicts this slideshow I very much want to see it!
Thank you,
Andy Wellspring
[email protected]
To begin, I’d like to acknowledge that we are discussing the history and name of a place that has other names too, names for each different bluff and bay in this area. But I don’t know enough about that and am really here to share about how a fort and later a town were established on this land.

We are on Pomo land that was not ceded by the Pomo people, nor claimed by the United States because of any treaty with the Pomo peoples.

In other states, the United States respected Tribal peoples as sovereign nations and made treaties just like with all foreign nations. Unfortunately, it is one of the most tragic parts of our history that the United States was dishonorable with these treaties and went back on its word, all over the continent. But here the treaties were signed, but never even ratified, a refusal to recognize the sovereignty, the right to self-government, that all nations inherently have.

How was Fort Bragg Established? It is a brutal story but we must remember that is was only an attempted genocide and Tribal people still live among us in all parts of the continent.

Bruce S. Flushman & Joe Barbieri, Aboriginal Title: The Special Case of California, 17 Pac. L. J. 391 (1986). Available at:
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/mlr/vol17/iss2/4
1857
Military outpost
established without
treaty, named Fort
Bragg by Horatio
Gates Gibson, to keep
the Bragg name in the
military after he
retired.
1856
Braxton Bragg
retires from US
Military to focus
on owning a sugar
plantation and
exploiting at least
125 people as
slaves.
1861-1865
Civil War.

Braxton Bragg served as
a General in the
Confederacy and Chief
Military Advisor to
President of the
Confederacy, Jefferson
Davis. Gibson served for
the Union.
1889
Town of Fort Bragg
officially established
and named by C.R.

Johnson.
1866
Mendocino Indian Reservation
and Fort Bragg were closed and
not granted to Tribal peoples,
unlike most reservations.
1869
Former reservation claimed
by or sold to white settlers
for $1.25/acre, Tribal
people unable to purchase.
1862
Colonel F.J. Lippitt in
Humboldt requests his
commanding officers to
change the name of Fort
Bragg, for it had “too
long borne the name of a
traitor.” No change was
made.
1884-1885
Wharf and larger
lumber mill
established and
named Fort Bragg
Redwood Company
Fort Bragg and the Mendocino Indian Reservation
Sources for Timeline:
1856- https://lib.lsu.edu/special/research/manuscripts/guides/plantations?page=7 1857- Colonel Herbert M. Hart USMC. http://www.militarymuseum.org/FtBragg.html 1861- https://www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/braxton-bragg.html and regarding Gibson in the Union: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/1347*.html 1862- Ohio State University. “Official Records of the Civil War.” War of the Rebellion: Serial 106 Page 0184 Operations on the Pacific Coast. Chapter LXII.
https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records/106/0184 1866 and 1869- Winn, Robert. “The Mendocino Indian Reservation.” Mendocino HIstorical Review.

Fall/Winter 1986
1884 and 1889- Memories of the Mendocino Coast by David Warren Ryder, page 48. https://www.mendorailhistory.org/downloads/Memories-Mendo-Coast.pdf Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy, Hoopa Valley Tribe/Yurok/Karuk, assistant professor and department chair of Native American studies at Humboldt State University:
“Here in California, we actually do not have treaties. Well, we do have treaties, but those treaties were not ratified. There were 18 in total that were made with California Indians in the 1800s, but at the time, Congress decided not to ratify them and then put them under an injunction of secrecy.

Our people had agreed to these treaties in the hopes of finding reprieve from the genocide that was being perpetrated against us by the California government and citizens. Some of my own family members signed these treaties, and later they would tell stories about how hard-fought these negotiations were and how they struggled to reconcile what they had to compromise in order to protect future generations and to protect our lands and more-than-human relatives. When tribes would come to the table to negotiate treaties, they weren’t thinking only about the present, they were thinking about many generations into the future. Their negotiations were about relationship, responsibility, respect, and reciprocity.”
https://www.vox.com/first-person/2019/9/23/20872713/native-american-indian-treaties Lead-up to Building the Fort
By all accounts the first interactions showed Tribal
peoples here were welcoming to the settlers and
helpful (Winn and Rhoades/Calder). Harriet
Campbell Stanley Rhoades, a Pomo elder, told the
story of the first settlers getting to the Noyo River:
“There were some settlers coming and the natives
helped them pull their wagons across. (Laughs)
That kind of goes hand in hand with their nature,
their personality. Coastal Pomo were peaceful
people” (Rhoades).
“Within twenty-five years of that encounter, enough white settlers had arrived at Kah-la-deh-mun for them to raise a clamor with the federal government. The Indians, they said, were stealing their crops. In 1855, a petition signed by fifty-one settlers, including names today attached to local roads, creeks and towns: Ford, Lansing, Mitchell, Simpson, Greenwood, Casper, Sherwood demanded the government send soldiers. “We require an answer forthwith,” the petition read, “and, also, that silence, or inaction, in the premises, will be construed as a refusal, and a war of extermination [will] be entered into, by a set of men, maddened by the loss of several years labor” (Calder quoting Winn).

NYU professor Fred Moten stated: “Settlers always think they are defending themselves. That’s why they build forts on other people’s land. And then they freak out by the fact that they are surrounded. This doesn’t provide justification for the violence they commit.”
https://vimeo.com/116111740 (2015)
Attempted Genocide Across California
Also in 1855 the US Congress passed a more robust Bounty Land Act which “promised 160 acres to any regular, militiaman, or volunteer who had participated in a battle or served for at least fourteen days.”
California’s 1855 State Militia Act “provided for state militia units to be armed in parity with comparable army units, exempted volunteer militiamen from jury duty, mandated regular drill exercises, and required all white men ages 18-45 not enrolled in a militia unit to pay an annual $0.25 tax to fund the militias… California’s Adjutant and Quartermaster General Kibbe was brutally clear about the militia’s genocidal purpose: ‘There are but two alternatives before us, viz:
either to wage a war of extermination, or abandon a large and productive territory’” (Madley 237-238).

Madley, Benjamin. An American Genocide; The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe.

Yale University Press. 2016
Kibbe was only repeating the first Governor of California, Peter H. Burnett:
“In his January 6, 1851 State of the State Address, Burnett declared:
‘That a war of extermination will
continue to be waged between the two
races until the Indian race becomes
extinct.’”
https://www.kcet.org/shows/california-coastal-trail/when-native-americans-were-forcibly-re moved-from-a-mendocino-indian
Peter H. Burnett
California Was Not Really a “Free State” in the Balance of Slavery/Free States Also in 1855, General Kibbe worked with Governor Bigler and US War Secretary Jefferson Davis (future President of the Confederacy) writing a training manual for militias, to “professionalize California militiamen and, ultimately, make them a more lethal killing force.

Meanwhile, demand for unfree California
Indian labor, in combination with
acquiescent officials and permissive state
laws, drove a murderous slave-raiding
surge” (Madley 239-240).

William C. Kibbe
“An April [1855] Daily Alta California article explained that kidnappers frequently killed Indian parents who tried to protect their children. California’s anti-Indian laws and passively consenting officials supported this murderous trade. As the Daily Alta California concluded, ‘It is not only hard to get testimony necessary to convict, but some of the officials are said to exhibit a willingness to see the unholy practice continued.’
The US Army also refused to intervene, thus emboldening kidnappers and slave raiders. In 1855, War Secretary Davis pointedly refused California Superintendent of Indian
Affairs Thomas Henley’s request for US soldiers to arrest California slave raiders, responding that this was ‘the appropriate duty of the civil officers [and if] necessary, the posse comitatus’”
(Madley 240).

Jefferson Davis
On the eve of establishing Fort Bragg in 1857 we see:
-Clear statements of intended genocide against Tribal peoples -In 1850, CA law stated that Indian people were not allowed to bear witness in court1 -A coordinated effort by the Federal and State governments to remove Tribal people from their land and support vigilante militias
-160 acres granted to militiamen for participation in attempted genocide -Statewide killing, raping, and kidnapping of Tribal people -Slavery of Tribal people, including many children and young people -California was technically considered a “free” state in the tenuous balance of states -Treaties were not ratified by the Senate and were put under confidentiality.

Given this context, it is not surprising that Horatio Gates Gibson would be stationed on this land here by the US Army to establish a fort when settlers claimed that Tribal people needed to be controlled.

1. Garrett, Gary. “The destruction of the Indian in Mendocino County, 1856-1860.” Masters Thesis, 1969. Page 27.

Braxton Bragg’s military career
started on the heels of Andrew
Jackson
Braxton Bragg was born in 1817 while Andrew
Jackson was attacking the Seminole people in
what is now known as Florida. Jackson took over
Florida and it became part of the United States,
his fame as a general growing the US landbase
was one reason that led to him becoming
President in 1828. In 1830, President Jackson
signed the Indian Removal Act which began the
Trail of Tears, the most well-known death march
that the US Government inflicted on Tribal
peoples of North America.

Andrew Jackson
Regarding the Trail of Tears, the Supreme Court found in Worcester v. Georgia that the State of Georgia could not remove Tribal people, and in an April 1832 letter to Brigadier General John Coffee, President Jackson wrote that "the decision of the Supreme Court has fell still born, and they find that they cannot coerce Georgia to yield to its mandate." However it is the President’s job to enforce the rulings of the Supreme Court and this instance marked a low point in the US Constitutional system of checks and balances.

Jackson promoted continued removal of tribal peoples from the South to Oklahoma against the decision of the Supreme Court. He set a precedent for the nation’s action going forward.
https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/worcester-v-georgia-1832 Braxton Bragg graduated 5th from the prestigious West Point Military Academy in 1837 and shortly thereafter was
positioned in the Second Seminole War, attempting to
complete the removal of Seminole people who refused to
walk the Trail of Tears started by President Jackson. Some Seminoles fought for nearly 8 years, never surrendered, and retain their land in Florida until this day. “The Second Seminole War, often referred to as the Seminole War, is regarded as the longest and most costly of the Indian
conflicts of the United States."
Lancaster, Jane F. (1994) Removal Aftershock: The
Seminoles' Struggles to Survive in the West, 1836–1866.

Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Seminole_War#cite_note-12 Bragg then fought in the war to take over Mexico, and earned promotions for his successes, most notably the battle of Buena Vista.

In this battle, seen as unjust by many American soldiers who defected to the Mexican side or deserted, Bragg became famous nationwide for his accomplishments operating heavy artillery and gained the respect of Lieutenant Horatio Gates Gibson.

Thus the artillery, the cannon operations, of Bragg and Gibson helped to fully realize the vision of Manifest Destiny. This was the belief that the USA was ordained by God to spread to the Pacific Ocean. “We must march from ocean to ocean… It is the destiny of the white race.” -Representative Giles of Maryland (Zinn 153).

Not All Americans Agreed
Ulysses S. Grant wrote in 1879: "I do not think there was ever a more wicked war than that waged by the United States on Mexico." Dr. Amy Greenberg,“The U.S.-Mexican War was opposed by a large segment of the American people, including many of those who actually fought in it… The war gave rise to the first truly national anti-war movement.” Dr. Amy Greenberg, Penn State https://news.psu.edu/story/144555/2012/11/14/resear ch/us-mexican-war-legitimized-anti-war-movementhistorian-says Photo:

San Patricios, Saint Patrick’s
Battalion of Irish Catholic
soldiers who defected from
the US Army to fight on the
Mexican side, including the
Battle of Buena Vista, due to
the morality of the situation.

After fighting against the Seminoles and later the people of Mexico, Braxton Bragg retired from the military in 1856 and bought and ran a sugar plantation with his wife, they forced at least 125 enslaved people of African descent to labor for them and were noted for making large profits due to Bragg’s strict military style directing the enslaved people. https://lib.lsu.edu/special/research/manuscripts/guides/plantations?page=7 Horatio Gates Gibson Named the New Army Outpost on This Land Fort Bragg He named it after Bragg because in the war against Mexico “A lasting impression was made on him by his captain, Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Braxton Bragg, three times breveted (award for outstanding service) in 15 months. [In 1857] when First Lieutenant Gibson established an Army post on the Mendocino Indian Reservation in northern California, he had no hesitation regarding a name... By naming the new camp after this hero of Buena Vista, Gibson felt that at least the Bragg name was back in the service of the Army [as Bragg had retired in 1856].”
Colonel Herbert M. Hart USMC
http://www.militarymuseum.org/FtBragg.html
Left: Gibson
Right: Bragg
Where did Gibson serve for the military?
Military Career of Horatio Gates Gibson
■ (1847-1848) 2nd Lt. (1 Jul 1847), 3rd U.S. Artillery, War Against Mexico ■ (1848-1848) 3rd U.S. Artillery, Fort Columbus, New York ■ (1849-1850) 3rd U.S. Artillery, Duty in California
■ (1851-1852) 3rd U.S. Artillery, Fort Orford, Oregon
■ (1852-1852) 3rd U.S. Artillery, Fort Sullivan, Maine
■ (1852-1853) 3rd U.S. Artillery, Jefferson Barracks, Missouri ■ (1853-1854) 3rd U.S. Artillery, Fort Gibson, Indian Territory (Oklahoma) ■ (1854-1854) 3rd U.S. Artillery, Fort Washita, Indian Territory (Oklahoma) ■ (1855-1855) 3rd U.S. Artillery, Fort Reading, California ■ (1855-1855) 3rd U.S. Artillery, Fort Lane, Oregon (severely wounded) ■ (1855-1856) 3rd U.S. Artillery, Benicia Barracks, California ■ (1856-1857) 3rd U.S. Artillery, Presidio of San Francisco, California ■ (1857-1858) 3rd U.S. Artillery, Mendocino Reserve, California ■ (1858-1858) 3rd U.S. Artillery, Northwest Expeditions and Coeur d'Alene War at Spokane, WA, Fort Bragg, California, Fort Vancouver, Washington
■ (1858-1861) 3rd U.S. Artillery, Presidio of San Francisco and Expeditions to Carson Valley, California and combat during the Pyramid Lake Paiute War, Fort Churchill, Nevada ■ (1861-1865) Union, U.S. Civil War, highest Volunteer rank was brevet Brigadier General, highest regular rank was brevet Colonel, permanent rank was Captain *Gibson continued military service in various locations until 1891* http://www.fortwiki.com/Horatio_Gates_Gibson And
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Reg ister/1347*.html
Video clip: Progression of Native American Land Loss from the time of Bragg through Gibson.

The combined legacy of Braxton Bragg and Horatio Gates Gibson connects Tribal peoples in Northern California to the Seminoles resisting the Trail of Tears, the many peoples of Mexico, and Tribal people in present-day Oklahoma, Nevada, Oregon and Washington State who all fought back against Bragg or Gibson or both.
https://external-preview.redd.it/4acJXoWYR-UroBetVQo3m4p0o_KAnagSE1SalufHSR4.gif?format=mp4&s=caec2f1f73b1 45642576097deab03bd59f74f549
The Mendocino Indian Reservation and other Reservations in early California could have been better called something else as they defied the more common definition of Reservation. Across the United States, Reservations are landbases where Tribal people operate their own sovereign governments, having their own laws, own leadership, and ability to determine what happens on their land.

This was not the case on California Reservations, where in fact people were treated as prisoners, not sovereign citizens. People were forced to walk from as far away as Humboldt, Sonoma, Napa and Lake counties to the new “reservation” in Mendocino, clearing the land in those counties for settlers to occupy (Calder).

Round Valley
Reservation, 1858
This vast mix of Tribal peoples in
Mendocino were forced to work building
roads and buildings, farming, packing cargo
over from Ukiah, and in the lumber mill.

They were denied food that the US
Government funded for them due to
corruption of those running the reservation
and the local settlers, and blocked from
access to traditional foods by ranchers.

Starvation resulted for many. The women
were taken and raped, adding venereal
disease as another cause of death in addition
to starvation and outright murder
(Garrett 46).

Lucy Young of the Lassik and Wailaki people
recounted how about 40 men were shot to
death by vigilantes after they surrendered.

They had escaped from the Smith River
Reservation and when they were found, they
surrendered. After they were shot their bodies
were burned. Lucy stated:
“That’s funny smell I smell before I get to
house. Make hair raise on back of neck. Make
stomach sick, too. White people want our
land, want destroy us”
(Madley 307).

As the military officials at the reservation did not stop the violence by the vigilante settlers, but did attempt to keep the Tribal people on the Reservation, they were creating an easy location that vigilantes could find Tribal people to enslave, rape, or kill without fear of consequence in California courts. Rather they would be rewarded with land and payment per California law.

Corruption at Fort Bragg So Bad,
the Government Decided to Stop Spending Money On It
Pomo Elder Harriet Campbell Stanley Rhoades recalled the story: “When they did disband the reservation on the coast, they drove anybody they had corralled and this one had their own Trail of Tears. But you don’t read it in any history. My husband’s grandmother and grandfather, they were taken in that forced march, Lucy and Jim Cooper. They’re buried here at Pudding Creek and he was 123 when he died.

They drove them over there to Round Valley. A lot of these people, they shared the story that there were women nursing their babies and the soldiers were all on horseback and had their rifles and stuff, and if those women couldn’t keep up they’d just hit them in the head with the butt of their rifle and leave them there with the baby still nursing. There probably were other things but that’s the thing that stands out in my mind” (Rhoades/Calder).

Resistance and Resilience
Tribal peoples resisted and left the
Reservation, stayed on the coast,
or came back to the coast from
Covelo. Always the traditional
foods have remained a source of
nourishment and resilience,
supporting the native people from
time immemorial on up to the
present. Tribal people continue to
resist the laws that say they
cannot gather their traditional
foods on their traditional land.

The corruption and bad dealings with Native peoples continued when the Reservation/Fort Bragg land was not returned to the benefit of Tribal peoples, and was instead claimed and either taken or purchased by the very settlers who had been profiting from the Reservation already. “In 1862, for instance, a former employee simply took over the “Cully Bull” station south of the Noyo. He had the sheriff and the local court on his side, and the Indian department was powerless to oppose his claim” (Winn).

It was not until 1909 that the
Sherwood Valley Rancheria and other
small Reservations were established.

Until that time Tribal peoples were not
acknowledged by the United States or
California governments except if they
chose to live at the Round Valley
Reservation in Covelo which was
extremely crowded. To avoid militias
many families were forced to choose
to work for white settlers.

In essence, the land was taken from
the Tribal peoples twice. First to
make the fort and reservation, and
again when the Reservation was lost
to settlers. All that remains of the
fort is the name and one building,
reserved as a US Congressional
Representative Office.

Faced with the harsh reality of this
history, what do we do?
~~~
What have other places done?

1. Listen to Tribal people for what to do
Tribal people have been advocating for
their future generations and the
non-human environment for centuries.

National Sorry Day, or the National Day of Healing, is an annual event that has been held in Australia on May 26th since 1998, to remember and commemorate the mistreatment of the country's Indigenous peoples, as part of an ongoing process of reconciliation between the Indigenous peoples and the settler population.

2. Excerpt from the Apology to Australia's Indigenous Peoples - 13 February 2008 “The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.”
“The Shuumi Land Tax
is in one sense very practical: it’s a
monetary donation that can help
Native people in California regain
access to stolen land. But the tax is
also symbolic. It’s a way for Bay
Area residents to show respect for
the original stewards of the land.”
-Corrina Gould, a spokeswoman
for the Confederated Villages of
Lisjan
○ https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/himmetka/
○ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec
/31/native-american-land-taxes-reparations

3. Land Return
● The total land in the original California treaties was at least 7.5 million acres, more than 10 times the Native land in California today (Garrett). ● The Supreme Court ruled on July 9, 2020 that about half of the land in Oklahoma is within a Native American reservation as stated in treaties. https://www.npr.org/2020/07/09/889562040/supreme-court-rules-that-about-half-of-oklahoma-is-indian-land ● “The Jesuit-run St. Francis Mission announced it will return more than 500 acres to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. The land is within the boundaries of the Rosebud Indian Reservation, and has been held by the St. Francis mission since the 1880s.” https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/jesuits-return-525-acres-to-rosebud-sioux-tribe-KjrSAhb-XkSvJUmFkul7bw#:~:text=On% 20Tuesday%2C%20May%202%2C%20the,Francis%20mission%20since%20the%201880s ● “A separate agreement, struck with Congress in 1971, led to the biggest award — $962 million worth of land in Alaska, some 44 million acres.” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/us/reparations-slavery.html “The Mendocino Land Trust and the
Potter Valley Tribe, in partnership
with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and
the Pacific Forest and Watershed
Lands Stewardship Council,
announced that they have
permanently conserved 879 acres of
land in the Eel River watershed.”
https://www.lakeconews.com/index.php/news/62034-groups-announce -permanent-conservation-of-879-acres-in-eel-river-watershed “On Oct. 21, 2019, the northern California city of Eureka returned more than 200 acres of land on Duluwat Island to the Wiyot Tribe, the Indigenous inhabitants of the area. The land — which represents the physical and cultural center of the universe for Wiyot peoples — was taken during a massacre of the tribe’s women, children, and elders in 1860.”
https://talkpoverty.org/2019/10/30/california-land-back-indigenous/ “The Washington Football Team are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. Formerly known as the Washington R*dskins, the team competes in the National Football League as a member of the NFC East division.”
It sounds like Cleveland is following Washington.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Football_Team
Name Changes
Proud To Be:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR-tbOxlhvE

Additional Sources
Harriet Campbell Stanley Rhoades and Chris Calder “Living at Kah-la-deh-mun:

A Talk with Harriet Campbell Stanley Rhoades, Pomo Elder” http://www.realestatemendocino.com/pdfs_editorials/editorial_453print.pdf Colonel F.J. Lippett: COLONEL: I desire to submit through you to the department commander, and if necessary to the Secretary of War, that Fort Bragg, in my district, had long enough borne the name of a traitor, and to respectfully suggest that its name be changed to Fort McRae, in honor of the hero of Fort Craig. https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records/106/0184 MendoRail History: https://www.mendorailhistory.org/downloads/Memories-Mendo-Coast.pdf Winn, Robert. “The Mendocino Indian Reservation.” Mendocino HIstorical Review. Fall/Winter 1986 Braxton Bragg and the Confederacy
By Andy Wellspring
[email protected]
Plaque on the lawn at the Guest House Museum, Fort Bragg, CA. “GEN C.S.A.” means Confederate General.

Thank you Yarrow Rubin for your support in researching the issues in this presentation!
Please contact me if you have any additional sources that will help illuminate aspects of this history, this is a work in progress and I would like to expand it.
1857
Military outpost
established without
treaty, named Fort
Bragg by Horatio
Gates Gibson, to keep
the Bragg name in the
military after he
retired.
1856
Braxton Bragg
retires from US
Military to focus
on owning a sugar
plantation and
exploiting at least
125 people as
slaves.
1861-1865
Civil War.

Fall/Winter 1986
1884 and 1889- Memories of the Mendocino Coast by David Warren Ryder, page 48. https://www.mendorailhistory.org/downloads/Memories-Mendo-Coast.pdf “During the war, Bragg held a greater range of
responsibilities than any other Confederate general.

He commanded the Gulf coast fortifications at the
start of the war; he served as corps commander and
chief of staff at Pittsburg Landing (Shiloh); he
commanded the Army of Tennessee, a position he
held longer than anyone else, and during which he
led it to its northernmost point and won its one great
victory; he served as one of Davis’ two military
advisers; and he ended the Civil War as a
subordinate field commander once again.”
Hallock, Judith Lee. “Braxton Bragg” Essential Civil War Curriculum. https://www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/braxton-bragg.html A military memo included in Ohio State University’s “Official Records of the Civil War”:

HEADQUARTERS HUMBOLDT MILITARY DISTRICT,
Fort Humboldt, October 19, 1862.

Lieutenant Colonel R. C. DRUM,
Asst. Adjt. General, Department of the Pacific, San Francisco:

COLONEL: I desire to submit through you to the department commander, and if necessary to the Secretary of War, that Fort Bragg, in my district, had long enough borne the name of a traitor, and to respectfully suggest that its name be changed to Fort McRae, in honor of the hero of Fort Craig.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, F. J. LIPPITT,
Colonel Second Infty. California Vols., Commanding Humbldt Mil. Dist.” Ohio State University. “Official Records of the Civil War.” War of the Rebellion: Serial 106 Page 0184 Operations on the Pacific Coast. Chapter LXII. https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records/106/0184 The town was named after the Civil War, after
Braxton Bragg was one of two top military
advisors to the President of the Confederacy
and a General in the Confederate military.

I would like to find more documentation of why
the old fort name was kept for the town, one
local historian David Warren Ryder wrote: “But
the named [sic] hovered over the place and
when, in 1884, C. R. Johnson selected the old
post as a site for a sawmill and town, the old
name was chosen for both the new lumber
company and the new town.”
- Memories of the Mendocino Coast by David Warren Ryder, page 48. https://www.mendorailhistory.org/downloads/Memories-Mendo-Coast.pdf C.R. Johnson The city of Fort Bragg, CA is the furthest west monument to the Confederacy.

It is almost the first monument of them all, I found it to be the third oldest site having a root beginning before the Confederacy even existed.

The other two were named for Jefferson Davis, US Secretary of War before becoming President of the Confederacy:

1. Davis Mountains in Texas 1854

2. Jeff Davis Peak in Nevada 1855 (this is being changed or has been changed to Doso Doyabi in 2019):
https://www.indianz.com/News/2019/01/10/nevada-board-endorses-shoshone-name-doso.asp Map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=15O4IHHl41rWpIhax6z_ak238mh4eFqpQ&usp=sharing Dates:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1W4H2qa2THM1ni53QYZftGob_k_Bf9HreFAtCERfjCIU/edit?pli=1#gid=1386834576&fvid=808 911516
Why are communities in the United States discussing removal of Confederate symbols and monuments right now?
Because of Bree Newsome at the South Carolina State House, in 2015.

Because Black people have been resisting slavery on this continent since 1619 and fought against the Confederacy.

Frederick Douglass. Was an advisor to Abraham
Lincoln who referred to him as the most
meritorious man of the nineteenth century,
convinced Lincoln to enlist Black troops.
https://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/douglass/visionary.html Harriet Tubman.
“During the Civil
War Tubman served
as a spy for the
Union Army. On
June 2, 1863,
however, Tubman,
under the command
of Union Colonel
James Montgomery,
led 150 black Union
soldiers in the
Combahee River
Raid in South
Carolina. This was
the only Civil War
military engagement
where a woman was
the commander.”
https://www.blackpast.org/african-am
erican-history/tubman-harriet-ross-c-1
821-1913/
Bree Newsome: “I think the taking down of monuments and symbology, specifically, is also about challenging this idea that white property and state property is more valuable than our lives. I mean, that was really the ideology that informed colonialism, that it’s OK to exploit people and lands for profit because profit and property is worth more than lives and natural resources.” Bree Newsome
And so, this groundswell that
we’re seeing now around the
world is really about rejecting
that and about calling for a
greater sense of humanity, a
greater sense of human
citizenship, a call for dignity
and for a better future, and a
rejection of that kind of ideology
of the past.”
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/16/bree
_newsome_bass_racist_monuments_symbols
“The 2015 massacre of nine African Americans at the historic ‘Mother Emanuel’ church in Charleston, South Carolina, sparked a nationwide movement to remove Confederate monuments, flags and other symbols from the public square, and to rename schools, parks, roads and other public works that pay homage to the Confederacy.

Yet, today, the vast
majority of these
emblems remain in
place.”
Bree Newsome took
action against the
Confederate battle
flag as a response to
this tragedy.
https://www.splcenter.org/201902
01/whose-heritage-public-symbol
s-confederacy
The murderer was Dylann Roof, who frequented white supremacist websites online and wrote: “I have no choice,” it reads. “I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country [sic]. We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.” https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/us/dylann-storm-roof-photos-website-charleston-church-shooting.html 2015 also saw the California Legislative Black Caucus write to the City of Fort Bragg, CA:
“We are hopeful that you will engage your community in a serious reexamination of the historical implications of your city’s name and come to the conclusion that now is the time to end your ties to such a disgraced and treasonous figure in our nation’s history,” the letter said. https://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-black-caucus-members-seek-name-change-for-city-of-fort-bragg-20150717-story.html This is the first Black Legislative Caucus in the USA, founded during the Civil Rights Movement.

The letter continued, “Fort Bragg is known for its strong sense of community, natural beauty and forward vision. It is also a very diverse community, with residents of many ethnicities and nationalities. But the name Bragg comes from a darker history: Braxton Bragg served as a military adviser to the president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, and as a general in the Confederate Army who led many bloody battles against the Union. He personally owned 105 slaves as he fought to preserve slavery. This is not the legacy that your city or any city should be associated with,” the letter states. https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/legislative-black-caucus-members-ask-fort-bragg-to-change-name/ Dylann Roof was not shot
by police when they
apprehended him even
though he was armed and
had murdered 9 people.

George Floyd was unarmed
and had killed no one when
he was murdered by police,
sparking the largest surge of
Black Lives Matter protests
to date in May 2020 and
leading to further calls to
remove monuments to
white supremacy, especially
the Confederacy.
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article24952345.html Why do Confederate Monuments
still exist in the USA?
Why do people all over the South
fight so strongly to keep them up
as a symbol of history?
Textbooks and Monuments.
“69,706,756.

That's how many students were enrolled in the South's public elementary and secondary schools between 1889, when the government began counting students, and 1969, the height of the segregationist Jim Crow era, according to the U.S. Department of Education statistics. There they were subjected to the alternative reality of the Lost Cause, a false version of U.S. history developed in response to
Reconstruction that minimizes
slavery's central role in the Civil
War, promotes the
Confederacy's aim as a heroic
one, glorifies the Ku Klux Klan,
and portrays the white South as
the victim.”
https://www.facingsouth.org/2019/04/twisted-source
s-how-confederate-propaganda-ended-souths-schoolb
ooks
To be clear, the false historical narrative of the Lost Cause was not only taught in the South, versions of it
have been and are still taught nationwide.

The United Daughters of the
Confederacy was founded in 1894
and its members focused on
textbooks in schools and erecting
monuments. Their members joined
school boards, and a member named
Mildred Rutherford wrote “A
Measuring Rod to Test Text Books
and Reference Books in Schools,
Colleges, and Libraries” in 1919.
https://www.facingsouth.org/2019/04/twisted-sources-how-confederate-propaganda-end ed-souths-schoolbooks
From Rutherford’s “Measuring Rod”:
“Reject a text-book that does not give the principles for which the South fought in 1861, and does not clearly outline the interferences with the rights guaranteed to the South by the Constitution, and which caused secession.

Reject a book that calls the Confederate soldier a traitor or rebel, and the war a rebellion. Reject a book that says the South fought to hold her slaves.

Reject a book that speaks of
the slaveholder of the South
as cruel and unjust to his
slaves.”
Full book from University of Georgia:
https://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/georgiabooks/pdfs/gb5
126.pdf
Examples from UDC approved textbooks in 1957:
"Enslaved people were happy to be in Virginia and were better off than they would have been in Africa, Abolitionists lied about slavery in the South." These textbooks blamed the Civil War on Abraham Lincoln, and they falsely asserted that states' rights and not slavery were the cause of the Civil War.

The publisher even included illustrations showing happy captive Africans in Western dress clothes, shaking hands with their new masters on slave ships.

A fourth-grade history book had this to say: “Life among the Negroes of Virginia in slavery times was generally happy. The Negroes went about in a cheerful manner making a living for themselves and for those for whom they worked.”
The high school history book "Cavalier Commonwealth," said slaves:
… did not work so hard as the average free laborer, since he did not have to worry about losing his job. In fact, the slave enjoyed what we might call comprehensive social security.

Generally speaking, his food was plentiful, his clothing adequate, his cabin warm, his health protected and his leisure carefree.”
https://www.facingsouth.org/2019/04/twisted-sources-how-confederate-propaganda-ended-souths-schoolbooks https://www.businessinsid
er.com/confederate-statue
s-meaning-timeline-history
-2017-8
"In New Orleans, Mayor
Mitch Landrieu recently
hauled down four public
monuments to the
Confederacy and to white
supremacy. ‘These statues
were a part of that
terrorism as much as a
burning cross on
someone’s lawn; they were
erected purposefully to
send a strong message to
all who walked in their
shadows about who was
still in charge in this city.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/
archive/2017/05/we-cant-walk-away-f
rom-this-truth/527721/
https://www.businessinsider.com/confederate
-statues-meaning-timeline-history-2017-8
City of McDonough in Henry County, Georgia
“Vivian Thomas, who represents District 4,
stated that the McDonough Square, like any
other public space supported by taxpayer
dollars, should be a place for people to feel
welcomed and not intimidated.
‘It is intimidating to some people,’ Thomas
said of the statue. ‘We are not surrounded by
other (statues) from other cultures. The
Holocaust was horrible, but you don’t see
symbols of Adolf Hitler. There are places
where you can choose where you can learn
about it, but it shouldn’t be in my passing.’”
https://www.henryherald.com/news/henry-county-board
-of-commissioners-votes-to-remove-confederate-statue-fr om-mcdonough-square/article_44848a5a-c069-11ea-a51
b-e710ec5e0b3c.html
Key Tenets of the Lost Cause Lies:

1. Enslaved People Were Happy and Better Off Enslaved

2. Slavery Was Not the Cause of Confederate Secession from the USA

3. The Confederate Fight Was Heroic, For States’ Rights https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/10/25/16545362/southern-socialites-civil-war-history Truths to Counter the Lost Cause
People who were enslaved escaped constantly or fought
against slavery and did not prefer slavery. Slavery was a terrifying, brutal system in the USA that resulted in the murder and premature death of millions of Black people. “And when he joined the Union Army after his escape
from slavery, Peter exposed his scars during a medical
examination. ‘I have found a large number of the four
hundred or so contrabands [people who had escaped
slavery and were now protected by the Union Army]
examined by me to be as badly lacerated as the specimen represented in the enclosed photograph,’ J.W. Mercer, a Union Army surgeon in Louisiana, wrote on the back of
the card. He sent it to Colonel L.B. Marsh.”
https://www.history.com/news/whipped-peter-slavery-photo-scourged-back-real-story-civil-war Alexander Stephens was chosen to be the Vice President of the Confederacy because he was seen as a moderate who could convince border states to secede along with the Deep South.

Alexander Stephens:

Vice President of the Confederacy
After taking office Stephens played an influential
role in drafting the Confederate constitution.
“Constitution of the Confederate States of America
Article I, Section 9
(4) No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law
denying or impairing the right of property in
negro slaves shall be passed.”
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_csa.asp
http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/alexander-h-step hens
Stephens formally introduced the new Confederate government during a speech in Savannah on March 21, 1861, the speech became known as the “Cornerstone Speech”:
“The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution African slavery as it exists amongst us the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization [sic]. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. (Thomas) Jefferson in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the ‘rock upon which the old Union would split.’ He was right.”
Stephens goes on to say that the Founding Fathers generally agreed that slavery would fade away over time. Some (like Jefferson) claimed they saw slavery as immoral, but were slaveowners themselves and they allowed slavery in the US Constitution. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/cornerstone-speech/ Source: Henry Cleveland, Alexander H. Stephens, in Public and Private: With Letters and Speeches, Before, During, and Since Stephens continues: “Our new government is
founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its
foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests,
upon the great truth that the negro is not equal
to the white man; that slavery subordination to
the superior race is his natural and normal
condition. This, our new government, is the
first, in the history of the world, based upon
this great physical, philosophical, and moral
truth.”
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/cornerstone-speech/ Source: Henry Cleveland, Alexander H. Stephens, in Public and Private: With Letters and Speeches, Before, During, and Since the War (Philadelphia, 1886), pp. 717-729.

Towards the end Stephens clarifies that some slavery is wrong, making his beliefs in white supremacy even clearer:
“Many governments have been founded upon the principle of the subordination and serfdom of certain classes of the same race; such were and are in violation of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of nature’s laws. With us, all of the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law.

Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place. He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system.”
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/cornerstone-speech/ Source: Henry Cleveland, Alexander H. Stephens, in Public and Private: With Letters and Speeches, Before, During, and Since the War (Philadelphia, 1886), pp. 717-729.

In the style of the United States’ Declaration of
Independence, several states declared their reasons
for seceding from the United States.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/csapage.asp
“A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union.

In the momentous step which our State has taken of dissolving its connection with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we should declare the prominent reasons which have induced our course.

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin.” https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_missec.asp “That we do not overstate the dangers to our institution (slavery), a reference to a few facts will sufficiently prove. (colors to show next point, not greater importance) The hostility to this institution commenced before the adoption of the Constitution, and was manifested in the well-known Ordinance of 1787, in regard to the Northwestern Territory...

It refuses the admission of new slave States into the Union, and seeks to extinguish it by confining it within its present limits, denying the power of expansion.

It tramples the original equality of the South under foot.

It has nullified the Fugitive Slave Law in almost every free State in the Union, and has utterly broken the compact which our fathers pledged their faith to maintain.

It advocates negro equality, socially and politically, and promotes insurrection and incendiarism in our midst.

It has enlisted its press, its pulpit and its schools against us, until the whole popular mind of the North is excited and inflamed with prejudice...

Utter subjugation awaits us in the Union, if we should consent longer to remain in it. It is not a matter of choice, but of necessity. We must either submit to degradation, and to the loss of property worth four billions of money, or we must secede from the Union framed by our fathers, to secure this as well as every other species of property. For far less cause than this, our fathers separated from the Crown of England.”
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_missec.asp Many Nazi leaders were executed after they were found
guilty of war crimes in the Nuremberg trials,
Confederate leaders and soldiers were pardoned.
https://www.history.com/this-dayin-history/nazi-war-criminals-exec uted
https://sites.duke.edu/lawfire/202
0/07/11/were-confederate-soldierstried-for-treason/
Germany does not have this national problem of deciding what to do about monuments to white supremacists because they, and the Allies including the United States, did not allow anything Nazi to remain. It was clear to them that allowing public honoring of Nazis was unacceptable due to the horrible crimes they represented. “Denazification was the process of removing Nazi ideology and influence from all forms of public life in defeated Germany. The occupying allies carried this process out in a number of ways:
● The Nazi Party was banned and advocating their ideas was made punishable by death.
● The Swastika symbol and other Nazi emblems were banned in public. ● Germans were made to complete questionnaires about the extent of their involvement in Nazism.
● Ex-Nazis were taken on tours of concentration camps or made to watch video clips of Jewish prisoners.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zwrfj6f/revision/5 Instead of the USA taking action to “Deconfederate” like Germany...

Lincoln was assassinated and The Lost Cause kept truth out of textbooks and promoted acceptance of the Confederacy by white people in the South and the North. Thousands of monuments were created in public places in the form of names, statues, and flags to glorify the losers of a war of secession meant to preserve slavery.

History has come to a fork in the road, a crux.

We are being called together to reckon with the third Confederate monument, a town that was named for Confederate leader Braxton Bragg before the Confederacy even existed.

It was named to honor him for his time as a military colonizer stealing land from the people of the Seminole Nation, and Mexico.

It was this land grab war with Mexico when the USA laid claim to this land where we live in Northern California, though neither Mexico nor the United States ever secured title in a treaty with the Pomo people.

Between the Charleston massacre on June 17, 2015 and February 1, 2019, 114 Confederate monuments (including names) were changed, moved to museums, or removed.

Since the George Floyd anti-racist uprising in May 2020, over 100 more have come down, either by officials or protesters. The number removed is higher if monuments to colonizers such as Christopher Columbus are included.
https://www.splcenter.org/20190201/whose-heritage-public-symbols-confederacy https://www.huffpost.com/entry/100-confederate-symbols-removed-since-george-floyd_n_5f86255cc5b681f7da1c9d04 Evolving list on
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.or
g/wiki/List_of_monum
ents_and_memorials
_removed_during_the
_George_Floyd_prote
sts#Confederate_mo
numents
In July 2020 the Republican-led Senate voted 86
to 14 to approve the new National Defense
Authorization Act. This includes changing the
names of military bases named after
Confederates including Fort Bragg in North
Carolina. This is enough votes to override a
potential veto by the President. Also in July
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General
Mark Milley testified in Congress: “The
Confederacy, the American Civil War, was
fought, and it was an act of rebellion,” he said. “It
was an act of treason, at the time, against the
Union, against the Stars and Stripes, against the
U.S. Constitution. Those officers turned their
back on their oath.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/23/senate-defense-bill-ndaa-bases-trum p-380362
https://sites.duke.edu/lawfire/2020/07/11/were-confederate-soldiers-tried-for-trea son/
“To remove such monuments is neither to ‘change’ history nor ‘erase’ it. What changes with such removals is what American communities decide is worthy of civic honor.

Decisions to remove memorials to Confederate generals and officials who have no other major historical accomplishment does not necessarily create a slippery slope towards removing the nation’s founders, former presidents, or other historical figures ...

George Washington owned enslaved people, but the Washington Monument exists because of his contributions to the building of a nation. There is no logical equivalence between the builders and protectors of a nation—however imperfect—and the men who sought to sunder that nation in the name of slavery…
African Americans had no voice and no opportunity to raise questions about the purposes or likely impact of the honor accorded to the builders of the Confederate States of America. The American Historical Association recommends that it’s time to reconsider these decisions.”
https://www.historians.org/news-and-advocacy/aha-advocacy/aha-statement-on-confederate-mo numents
The following affiliated societies have
endorsed this statement (on last slide):

American Association for State and Local History
American Journalism Historians Association
Berkshire Conference of Women Historians
Chinese Historians in the United States
Committee on LGBT History
Coordinating Council for Women in History
Forum on European Expansion and Global
Interaction (FEEGI)
French Colonial Historical Society
Labor and Working Class History Association
National Council on Public History
New England Historical Association
North American Conference on British Studies
Organization for American Historians
Social Welfare History Group
Society for French Historical Studies
Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and
Progressive Era
Society for Italian Historical Studies
Society for the History of Children and
Youth (SHCY)
Society for the Study of Southern Literature
Southern Historical Association
Western Association of Women Historians
Western History Association
Western Society for French History
World History Association
https://www.historians.org/news-and-advocacy/aha-advocac y/aha-statement-on-confederate-monuments
“Confederate flags are coming down as well. Just last week, Mississippi Gov.

Tate Reeves signed into law a bill removing the last state flag with the Confederate battle emblem, to be replaced by one with a new design. ‘Today is not a day that erases history, but a day that faces it and writes its next chapter,’ Lucien Smith, chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party, said.” (Voters approved the final design on November 3, 2020)
https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2020/07/08/history-germany-nazis-america-confederacy/5389066002/ Old flag New flag
Stuart Stevens, a longtime Republican strategist from Jackson who served as an adviser for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential run said, “I’m a seventh-generation named for an uncle who rode with (Confederate Gen.) Jeb Stuart. But this whole glorification of the Lost Cause in the South is a travesty,” Stevens said. “I mean, I grew up studying Robert E. Lee, but never Ida Wells. There’s something really wrong now. And we have to come around to addressing reality that the Civil War was a bunch of traitors who believed in slavery… Why have a state flag that is so painful to so many? We are the most African-American state in the country. Why not do everything we can to make sure African Americans feel more like they are a part of the state? Changing the flag in the midst of the largest
civil-rights protests since the 1960s would
be meaningful, there’s also the flip side of
that,” he said.
“What does it say if you don’t change it?”
https://www.mississippifreepress.org/3710/you-white-people-dont-get-i t-mississippis-long-ugly-road-to-changing-its-state-flag/ What does it say if we don’t change it?
It means we are actively deciding to go against the will of the country, including Republican lawmakers, and professional historians.

It means we are choosing to honor a leader of the Confederacy and artilleryman in earlier wars of colonization, even knowing full well his history.

It means we are prioritizing a
racist status quo.

Let’s choose instead to take
this history of white
supremacy seriously, and take
symbolic and meaningful steps
to eradicate it from our
community and country.

Fort Bragg City CouncilJanuary 24, 2022

Fort Bragg City Council
January 24, 2022