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SACRAMENTO BEE
SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1971

DQU A Reality
US Transfers Title To Land Near Davis
    
McClatchy Newspapers Service
Davis --- Three million dollars worth of surplus government property was given to Indians and Chicanos yesterday afternoon in ceremonies making the beginning of the nation's first educational institution to meet the needs for these two minorities.
Deganawidah-Quetzalcoatl University (DQU), officially received its new home when Sol Elson, director of the Office of Surplus Property Utilization for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare handed a land deed to Hoopa Indian Dave Eisling Jr. of Davis, chairman of the DQU Board of Directors. 
Risling waved the thick sheaf of legal-sized papers in the air as 400 Indians and Chicanos shouted "Viva" and "Bravo" and whooped with joy.

640-Acre Site

The Scene took place at the 640-acre former Strategic Army Communications Site 6 miles west of Davis, now the home of DQU. Transfer-of-deed ceremonies began in the afternoon with speeches, Indian dances and songs. A powwow and Chicano fiesta continued late into the night.
The dancers were in colorful native Indian garb, replete with beads and feathered headdress. At one point of the ceremonies, Elson lighted the peace pipe of Adam Nordwall of the United Bay Area Council of Indian Affairs.
In his afternoon presentation talk, Elson said the Nixon Administration "stands steadfastly on the position that native Americans have the right to determine for themselves the nature of their instituitions and organizations."

Quotes Nixon

He and other government officials made frequent reference to President Richard Nixon's message to Congress last July 8 when the President stated the "first Americans -- the Indians -- are the most deprived and isolated minority in the nation."
Elson noted the government has never before given land for an Indian-Chicano school.
Indians and Chicanos, he said, "have cultures and values quite different from dominant society" and ... "a wealth of knowledge which desperately needs to be preserved for future Americans of all races."
These minorities, he emphasized, have come to realize that existing colleges and universities are so thoroughly ethnocentric that they cannot be changed enough--in the forseeable future--to fully meet the needs of native Americans.

Continued Aid

HEW will continue its interest in DQU, at least for 30 years, at which time the school will receive clear title to the land if it fulfills the goals outlined in its land application, Elson promised.
In an interview late in the day Robert Coop, HEW's regional director in San Francisco, said DQU has the strong backing of HEW Secretary Elliot Richardson.
"The government will not try to run DQU," Coop promised.
A number of other officials of various governmental agencies, from Washington and from San Francisco, were present for the deed presentation program.
The Rev. Keith Kenney of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Sacramento said, in his invocation, "We pray this will be a great example to all oppressed peoples of the world."