GFU Built on Kalapuyan Land: Part 2

Reported by: Aurora Biggers

NEWBERG, Ore. – George Fox University (GFU), established as Friends Pacific Academy in 1885, is built on Kalapuyan land. The Crescent released the first article in this series in issue four.

The GFU History and Archives webpage chronicles GFU’s humble beginnings as “the oldest Christian university in Oregon.” The page goes on to say, “More than 125 years ago, evangelical Quaker pioneers helped settle the rich and fruitful Chehalem Valley of Oregon, which is now known for its premier vineyards.” The settlers’ first priority was to build a school, Friends Pacific Academy, which went on to become Pacific College, and finally, George Fox University.

What the webpage doesn’t tell you is that the land was first inhabited by the Kalapuya tribe.

“Much of the history as we know it, for Oregon and really anywhere, is based on non-native history, on what white people have written about native history,” David G. Lewis, PhD, ethnohistory researcher and member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, said, “and in many ways has altered the history to fit a colonial narrative.” This alteration of history happens a lot within institutions, states, colleges and universities, Lewis said.

And when it does, “By not admitting this is native land … it’s a lie of omission,” Lewis said.

Prior to 1855, it was illegal by U.S. laws for white or European settlers to claim land in Oregon, however people were doing it anyway. The Quakers who founded GFU didn’t settle in Oregon until the 1880s, so why should GFU acknowledge the Kalapuya tribe in its history?

According to Lewis, Quaker settlers may not have arrived until the 1880s, but settlers were arriving and claiming land in Oregon as early as 1832. The Oregon territory superintendent of Indian affairs at the time, Joel Palmer, was born to Quaker parents and was known to work with Quakers in Oregon, Lewis also said.

“Perhaps under U.S. law it was legal, but there’s this big problem in the history of Oregon … they had to ignore the rights of tribes,” Lewis said, “Even though those settlers came in the 1880s, like those who built George Fox, that was made possible by the settlers that came before them years before and were clearing the land and moving the tribes away from the land. That whole process made it possible for future settlers to claim land. It was all prepared for them.”

By not acknowledging that GFU is built on Kalapuyan land, the university is supporting a “colonial narrative,” Lewis said. “When you don’t admit the original people that lived in that place or how the university got the land and what processes were put in place to benefit the non-native people taking that land, then you are supporting a colonial narrative.”

The GFU narrative that the Quakers were simply “settlers that came here and had this mission to be good people,” as Lewis put it, is “kind of ignoring those people they pushed aside to take that land.”

The original Quaker settler, who was later the catalyst for Friends Pacific Academy, William Hobson, decided to build a Friends community there because the valley was “the garden of the Lord,” according to Cherice Bock’s research, adjunct professor of ecotheology at Portland Seminary.

Steph Littlebird Fogel, indigenous artist, writer, and curator of This IS Kalapuyan Land, an exhibition at Five Oaks Museum, says the Christian Church has a lot to repent for when it comes to the treatment of indigenous people. “The Church played an integral role in the assimilation of tribes,” Fogel said. For Christians and Christian institutions, a land acknowledgment is the first step in their repentance.

“Acknowledging that you’re the descendant of an oppressor is not a conversation that most people want to have,” Fogel said, “Land acknowledgment is an acknowledgment that you have harmed.”

GFU should have a land acknowledgment, according to Lewis, Fogel, and Emma Hodges, a senior at GFU and a Tututni, Chetco, and Tolowa Dee-ni’ (citizen). When asked if GFU should have a land acknowledgment, Hodges said, “I think so, and to be honest, I don’t really see a downside to doing so. I absolutely think there should be.”

As she discussed the land acknowledgment’s significance, Hodges mentioned an internal and external view of natives as the “invisible minority.”

“A land acknowledgment is a very obvious place where we see that,” Hodges said. There tends to be a belief among non-natives, Hodges noted, that what happened to indigenous people is in the past, and that their identity and cultures have been wholly erased, that they are dead, but this is errant. “These people are alive and around, and their culture is still alive too,” Hodges said.

But according to Lewis, land acknowledgment can’t be the only effort non-natives make.

“The problem is, when you base your whole problem on territorial acknowledgment and nothing else, it becomes a hollow program,” Lewis said, “it becomes a PC checkbox, and there’s no depth to it.”

And Fogel agrees too. “It [land acknowledgment] actually doesn’t mean anything at all,” Fogel said, unless non-natives follow through with real work. “Land acknowledgment is trendy. Natives are constantly turned into a trend … we are not a trend,” Fogel added.

“You really have to follow it up with correcting education, correcting stories, correcting histories, and maybe George Fox needs to take a look at its own history and correct that,” Lewis said.

Colleges and universities across the U.S. are facing this problem and many are developing programs that include a complete overhaul of their history department. Caitlin Corning, Chair of the department of history and politics at GFU, said adding courses to the department that educate about the Kalapuya people, the tribes and bands of Oregon, and the history of the land GFU is built on “had been part of the plans for this fall, but with COVID plus all the changes in History and Politics, this did not happen.” Corning does want to add this information “more intentionally” into her introduction to public history class.

Corning has also been working on updating materials that reflect this history in the GFU museum collection with Tricia Hornback, coordinator of M.S. Native American Leadership. However, this was prior to Hornback’s leave, who was let go during budget cuts at the university. The Crescent was unable to reach Hornback for a statement.

Corning also noted that she believes there is a land acknowledgment that exists for GFU, “I also know there is a land acknowledgment statement that exists. This is read before some activities on campus. You may have been at theatre productions and things where this happens.” The Crescent was unable to attain a copy of this acknowledgment, though the university has a library resource page, created in collaboration with The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.

Another form of “reparations” that universities are employing is offering scholarships to native students, particularly students from tribes indigenous to the state and land the institution is built on, expanding the diversity within faculty, and renaming buildings or halls on campus to those of BIPOC. These are possible steps GFU could take, Lewis said.

As a native student at GFU, Hodges is aware of the native community on campus, or the lack thereof. “Well, there’s no group chat,” Hodges said.

“This is a problem within education across the U.S.,” Lewis said, “Diversity makes your program stronger … if they were to diversify the perspectives in their faculty — with different cultures, ethnicities, and ideas, it makes your programs much stronger.”

Lewis, Fogel, and Hodges all agree that GFU should first try to partner with The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde community of Oregon, a federally recognized tribe that includes 25-27 tribes and bands, according to Lewis.

“These are our neighbors and have been for hundreds of years,” Hodges said. “Direct concern for neighbors and the truth is something I see preserved really beautifully within Quaker literature,” she said, noting that indigenous groups should be included in this tradition.

Plus, the tribes will know best how to address the issue, Fogel said, “Just ask us … connect with the community whose land you inhabit … we want a seat at the table when it comes to taking care of the land, and we have the most experience.”

The Crescent reached out to GFU’s president, Robin Baker, and asked him why the university doesn’t have a clear land acknowledgment and if the administration would consider creating one and partnering with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.

President Baker responded, “I very much appreciate the question you pose and recognize that it is important to acknowledge regional history and understand clearly one’s impact on societies of the past. You might begin with the question, ‘what purpose does the land acknowledgment serve or what is its aim?’ If its purpose is to acknowledge the contributions of indigenous societies in the Northwest and recognize their ongoing place in our culture, then I concur that it is a laudable goal and one we should pursue.”

Almost echoing Fogel’s earlier statement, President Baker said, “Perhaps its purpose is to recognize the harmful action of the group that conquered and displaced them? It would seem that is also something that we should recognize and admit,” suggesting GFU is open to evaluating its current historical narrative.

President Baker also added that the history department should “effectively discuss and prepare students to understand the past and how we can learn from it ... I believe that our curriculum should tell the story of our region and should recognize the contributions of the Kalapuya people,” President Baker said.

But perhaps the pièce de résistance of President Baker’s statement is his final line, “To the extent that our work could be enhanced through partnership with the Grand Ronde I think that should be encouraged,” President Baker said, “I understand that Dr. Clair is open to making that contact and beginning that process.”

Dr. Clair is the executive dean of the Cultural Enterprise at GFU.

Time will tell if GFU and President Baker follow through on their quasi-commitments.

But natives like Lewis, Fogel, and Hodges will continue to speak out and educate. “We can’t give up just because white people tell us to be quiet,” Fogel said, “[The colonist and the native] are absolutely connected in history forever … and that is our ancestral homeland.”