Graduation Date
Spring 2025
Document Type
Thesis
Program
Master of Arts degree with a major in Social Science, Environment and Community
Committee Chair Name
Dr. Kaitlin Reed
Committee Chair Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Second Committee Member Name
Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy
Second Committee Member Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Third Committee Member Name
Dr. Paul Michael Atienza
Third Committee Member Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Keywords
Cal Poly Humboldt, Schatz Tree Farm, Whilkut, Land back, PolyTEK
Subject Categories
Environment and Community
Abstract
As California’s newest polytechnic university, Cal Poly Humboldt is often lauded for its Indigenous-facing programming and commitments to Indigenous peoples. In recent years, Native American Studies faculty, staff, and students, alongside Indigenous community partners, have led conversations about Cal Poly Humboldt meaningfully supporting tribal sovereignty by returning land to Native nations. As Cutcha Risling Baldy summarized in a research interview, “Thanks for the [land] acknowledgement, now what?” (2024, personal interview). However, though Cal Poly Humboldt has made various land acknowledgements and references to Indigenous peoples in its university policies, conversations about #LandBack have been met with resistance from the university. As my graduate research project, I use the Schatz Tree Farm as a case study to examine attitudes around land return at Cal Poly Humboldt. Donated to the university in 1987, the Tree Farm, which is located on unceded Mewíyìnûk (Mad River Whilkut) land, now serves as a teaching, research, and demonstration space for the university. Mewíyìnûk descendants are currently enrolled in the Hoopa Valley Tribe and Blue Lake Rancheria, making the tree farm a candidate for land return. Through document analysis and a series of IRB-approved interviews, I explore the history of the Tree Farm, the ways in which settler colonial logics are continually reproduced and maintained by Cal Poly Humboldt, and opportunities for the university to decolonize the Tree Farm by returning the land to Native nations.
Citation Style
APA
Recommended Citation
Sarkar, Sangeeta, "“Thanks for the [land] acknowledgement, now what?”: Settler histories and decolonial futures at Cal Poly Humboldt’s Schatz Tree Farm" (2025). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 2306.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/2306