Change Our Name Group's Monthly Teach-in Held in Fort Bragg

Speakers were Sandy Turner, an educator who has lived in Mendocino County for 36 years, and Amanda Cruise, who is an artist, writer, educator, facilitator, and earth-based healer. A local grassroots nonprofit, Change Our Name Fort Bragg states that it is "dedicated to an educational process that leads to changing the name of Fort Bragg so that it no longer honors a military fort that dispossessed indigenous people, or Braxton Bragg, an enslaver and Confederate general who waged war against our country.". The following is audio of Sandy Turner speaking during the Teach-in. "So it did get aimed at, obviously, and the fort was built in 1857. It lasted not quite 10 years, it was uh taken apart shortly after the end of the Civil War. It was built largely or at least partly to keep the settlers and the opinion of the people from from killing each other, but the before also helped facilitate genocide and ethnic cleansing, and of course involuntary slavery. Hundreds of Indians were killed here on the coast and in other parts of the county and of course thousands in
California all over, California was pretty heavy on killing Indians. The culture of the native folks was disrupted, you know, their hunting and gathering and fishing and sea harvesting areas were disrupted. Many were shot or hung or poisoned, it would be strichnine put in meat, it would kill native people by poisoning. There were lots of vigilantes that went out hunting and those who were not killed were often taken as slaves or brought to the fort here in Fort Bragg or to the Round Valley reservation. So Braxton Bragg achieved some notoriety from his success as an officer in the Mexican-American War, about a year after that war, he buried a wealthy woman in Louisiana and they had about 105 slaves, so. Obviously in 1861, Civil War started, Fort Sumner and Charleston North Carolina were attacked and within a few weeks there were many Southern states that seceded from the US and formed the CSA, the Confederate States of America. Now two of those states were Louisiana, Braxton Braggs more recent home as as an adult. And his childhood home in North Carolina. They both succeeded.
And Braxton decided to side with the CSA, and he became a general in the CSA and he commanded federal troops fighting against the Union soldiers and resulting in the death of a few hundred union soldiers, so Braxton Bragg was a war hero in the Mexican-American War. He was also a slave owner, and he was also a traitor to the union, so he was a complicated human just like all of us. He was not a monster, but in my opinion a traitor and slave owner status caused me to not want him to be honored with his name on our city. The Fort Bragg Forever had a role in the parade at Paul Bunyon days, I liked the parade a lot, I even liked the addition The Fort Bragg Forever folks had to the parade. I have a few things I'd like on this little card they gave out and some things that I either question or don't like about it on the topic of the fort and treatment of Native Americans living in this area during that time period, it states "Braxton Bragg took no part in the horrific treatment of Native Americans in our area.". I agree with that statement. Obviously he never set foot this year. I don't even think he ever came to California, but unfortunately, the fort did play a large part in that horrific treatment of people. Now if we look at the statement right below that on the card, it states that the name does not honor the man it was named for. It honors the hard-working multicultural men and women who built a community we have called our home for 166 years.
The names of Lincoln, Nebraska, Washington, DC, Washington State, Denver, Colorado, Austin, Texas, Houston, Texas. do honor the people those cities and states were named after, then does the name of our city honor Braxton Bragg, I think the answer to both of those is yes, other people may come to a different conclusion, right. To name a city after somebody it tends to be an homage on the other side of the handout, it says the name is not merely an homage to an individual who never even set foot in the town. It symbolizes the collective labor aspirations and sacrifices of generations who have called this place home for over a century and a half. Now we got the phrase merely an homage, OK, so an homage, a synonym for homage, tribute or an honor or deference and homage is a special honor or respect shown express, excuse me, showing or expressed publicly. Another definition of homage is something created or done in honor, admiration, or celebration of someone or something. So we've got this long line here I don't know, 40 words long in that sentence. It's not merely an homage to an individual who never even set foot in the town and then it goes on to other things." For more information, visit changeournamefortbragg.com.