What’s In A Name?
There have been a few times someone in the audience of our teach-ins has asked why is a name change so emotional?
So, what’s in a name?
A child is born; given a first name. The family name will be the last name. This name identifies the child. She is born in Fort Bragg. The name Fort Bragg identifies that place. The purpose of a name is to identify; it separates this one from that one. Over time identification can become identity. We could have the sense, consciously or unconsciously, we are that name.
She goes to school. The school has a name. Often many generations have played for the same school on the same field or court. Names on gravestones mark the place loved ones are buried. These many bonds become stronger over a lifetime, certainly over generations. Her school has clubs and teams. Then there are professional teams, mascots, colors, emblems, rivalries, challenges, championships, trophies and stories. So many stories with so many names. We have our country, our flag, our colors, our mascot. Our allies; our enemies. There is war. People risk their lives in the name of their country and that one name can identify to them all they hold dear in their lives. This naming and bonding process is a human one. It is the same process for the enemy also.
FORCED UN-NAMING
History shows that the victors of war write the history of events while the voices of the defeated are demeaned or worse, silenced. Control of the narrative, erasure of peoples through an incomplete, biased history is a forced and extensive form of un-naming.
Another form of forced un-naming of huge populations is mass sterilization, eugenics and genocide. We’re talking of the attempt to erase or un-name a whole population, because of race or religion or some other affiliation
In the beginning the Nazis deported Jews without passports, taking away legal identification, their place, their civil rights, and left them “stateless” and essentially unnamed. Later Nazis forced Jews into concentration camps to exterminate all Jews. For identification each prisoner had a number tattooed on their arm.
Animals, especially horses and cattle, are/were branded with a ranch logo to identify the animal as the owner’s property.
Beginning in 1619, slaves, were stolen or bought from West African tribes. Separated from their families, members of their tribe; from anyone with the same language, they were given the last name of their slave masters as a means of identifying them as a slaveholders’ property.
Upon arrival to the American prison industry, prisoners are assigned a letter and long number to identify them. To forcibly remove a person’s name is to take away their individuality, their dignity, their personhood. And a quick dive into the art of the power of subtle un-naming, prisoners used to be referred to as inmates, but now our prison system refers to them as incarcerated individuals.
In 1840’s California law stated that any Indian caught stealing anything could be punished the same as a horse thief; horse thieves were shot according to the law. Obviously, Indians were not only not protected by the law, but the law threatened their lives. The gold rush drastically changed the demographics of Northern California, consequently the rates of kidnappings, forced slave labor (6 ears of corn a day for a full day’s work), rape, murder and wholesale massacres increased. On January 6, 1851, in his State of the State address, the first Governor of California, Peter Burnett, declared “That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct, must be expected.”
So what with starvation, exposure, and disease, and aggressions from vigilantes, state militia and the U.S. military, the population shift of the first peoples of California decreased to such an extent that it can be called genocide (according the terms of the 1940 United Nations’ Convention of Genocide). Although exact figures are impossible, historian Benjamin Madley in his book Genocide, estimates between 1846 to 1870 the population of the Californian Indian had declined by 4/5ths; that is after 24 years only 1/5th remained in 1870.
Removal of Indians from their place, the places they had lived seasonally for millennia, is quite different than any of us today moving to live in another place. Their “place”, was all nature, their habitat; it was sacred; it gave them wisdoms of survival skills, customs, rituals, myths and stories because it was a spiritual/survival give and take wisdom where all relations were deeply integrated and profoundly interconnected. That these facts are not taught in American, Californian or Fort Bragg history is a clear form of forced un-naming and were it not for the oral tradition of indigenous peoples around the world entire languages, cultures and wisdoms would have been silenced forever.
In general these examples of forced un-naming are tried and true methods of colonialization, especially controlling the narrative of the story.
CHOOSING UN-NAMING
In a Patriarchy it is common for a woman to change her maiden name and assume the last name of her husband after marriage. Depending on intentions, this could symbolize her willing devotion to union with her husband’s life for the rest of their lives; or it could be seen as her being his property.
Some artists and entertainers choose to change their names for professional reasons.
Nuns and monks often change their names to willingly let go of their past identities and take a name closer associated to a saint or saintly quality with the intention to further their single-minded focus on their devotion and union with God.
When the slave economy of the South was threatened by rising sentiments of Northern Abolitionists, the southern states separated from the United States of America: calling their union, The Confederacy. (To confederate means to form a league)
In general we can see that choosing to change a name is one means of separating from a former identity and identifying with another.
METHODS OF CHANGING A NAME
Change Our Name is choosing to advocate changing the name of Fort Bragg through consensus of our community. We recognize many various opinions regarding this name change. We are advocating further educating ourselves on the history of Fort Bragg, the history of colonization, the history of slavery, history of Native Americans specifically the tribes of our region, past and present racism, the fort, and Braxton Bragg to encourage our community to rethink what it is we wish to identify with.
The names of American military forts have been changed lately through a chain-of-command and depends ultimately on one man’s decision. Some names have been changed through city councils. In one presentation Grace Maria Eberhardt showed us how the name of the Slater Museum of Natural History was changed at her University of Puget Sound: two activists; dedicated research; a name change committee; the university President and eventually the board of directors decided.
As member of the Change Our Name group I personally do not wish to keep the name decided by one white man to honor a white slaveholder and a fort created to sequester the Native Americans of this place and ultimately remove them. It is healthy for us to learn more about ourselves, and our history: local, national and global, and decide as a community.
This would not be an unasked for un-naming but a chosen un-naming to identify with the present values we hold now. We would advocate that this change bring to light the facts of our history and to acknowledge harms done in the past. And rather than silence the first peoples of this place, honor their presence with honesty and respect and listen to them.
We’d be avowing the scientifically proven fact that diversity assures resilience of any community/habitat and in spite of our past history we wish to make the name of the place where we live a truthful rendering that welcomes all.