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| September 9, 2020 |
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Ohlone History Working Group Report
Dear Santa Clara University Community, I write today to share with you an important contribution to the life of the University by the Ohlone History Working Group. After over a year of generous and thoughtful labor, the group recently submitted their report to me, which we have posted here in full. Fr. Engh’s charge to the group was to review campus markers and monuments that commemorate Santa Clara’s mission history and that of the Ohlone people, on whose ancestral land the University sits. In addition, the group was asked to suggest ways that we can most appropriately honor the Ohlone people, from their pre-Mission ancestors buried here, to those who built and resided at the Mission, to their descendants who remain active members of our regional community today. The Working Group membership is included at the bottom of this letter. Please join me in thanking them for their commitment of time, talent, and creativity in this collaborative effort. Along the way, they received ample, constructive, and very helpful input from our community, which is documented in the report. We will begin working through the group’s recommendations. Some of the recommendations can be accomplished in the near future; others will take more time and will involve bringing others into the process. Based on the group’s thoughtful counsel, I am taking immediate action on two very concrete recommendations that relate to (1) the statue of St. Junípero Serra, installed in 1997 in the Mission gardens, and (2) a plaque in the Mission Church dedicated in 1930 to Peter Burnett, first governor of the state of California and former trustee of Santa Clara College (see pp. 25-31 of the report). Junípero Serra Statue, Mission Gardens Junípero Serra, a Franciscan priest, established the first of California’s missions in the 1700s. The Mission system contributed to the removal, suffering and deaths of many Native Californians. The report details the complex history surrounding Fr. Serra and acknowledges that “even within the contemporary Ohlone community, differing perspectives on Serra exist,” (p. 26). The Working Group calls for the temporary removal and recontextualization of the statue. According to the report, After several conversations around the politics of erasure and the opportunity to transform rather than ignore or erase misdeeds of the past, the Working Group came to consensus that it is ultimately more illuminating to provide historical context and augmentation to this controversial and contested statue, than erase it from institutional and community memory. Serra’s actions and the system he symbolizes directly impacted Mission Santa Clara and thus the statue, though perhaps relocated and balanced by Ohlone representation, can provide opportunities for SCU to address the histories of the site on which the University now stands (p. 27). The Serra statue has, therefore, been removed and safely stored for the time being, until another committee can devise a more inclusive interpretation that will appropriately acknowledge Serra’s legacy to Mission Santa Clara, while honoring the Ohlone people and providing vital representation of their culture past and present (p. 27). Peter Burnett Plaque, Mission Church Governor Burnett, whose heirs attended and taught at Santa Clara, is best known today for his racist, white supremacist beliefs and actions, including being a slave owner and a proponent of Native American extermination and Chinese exclusion (p. 29). The Working Group concluded that, especially as society confronts systemic racism nationwide, the commemorative plaque for the Burnett family at the Mission Church "warrants an explication and repudiation of his repugnant views and actions as a public figure." The report continues, “The presence of the plaque in the Mission Church is offensive to many people in the Ohlone community and the breadth of Burnett’s racism is troubling to many beyond the Ohlone community” (p. 30). Thus, the Working Group recommends the permanent removal of the Burnett plaque from the Church and suggests that it be incorporated in the de Saisset Museum’s California Stories from Thámien to Santa Clara exhibit. In that way, “one is working towards contextualizing and remediating, rather than erasing this ignominious chapter of California history, which remains a value of this Working Group (to transform and contextualize, rather than erase)” (p. 31). I support this recommendation. The Working Group completed its work this summer amidst a groundswell of movements advocating for greater racial justice. On behalf of our community, I accept their summons: “In the true spirit of addressing the wrongs of the past, Santa Clara University needs to look at the historical record, and also be committed to walking together towards building a better present and future with a renewed commitment towards truth, reconciliation, and a culture of belonging” (p. 8). During this academic year, I will share more information about how we will further review and enact other recommendations in the report, which I encourage you to read as an expression of solidarity with the Ohlone people on whose ancestral land we live, work, learn and pray. Sincerely,
Kevin F. O'Brien, S.J. _________________________ Ohlone History Working Group Members Lauren Baines, then Assistant Director of the de Saisset Museum (now Interim Director)
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