News

ISSI Will NOT Close This Summer

After seven months of organizing, we have achieved a major victory! Issuing this statement, the university reversed their decision to close ISSI. Thank you to everyone who has supported the campaign to Save ISSI. There are still unanswered questions about the building, funding, and so on, and we count on your continued support going forward! Keep up with the future of our campaign, now focusing on keeping space, fundraising, and ensuring longeivity of the social justice community at UC Berkeley on the Social Justice Futures website.

In Memoriam - Joseph A. Myers

We mourn the loss of Joseph A. Myers, who passed away on December 29, 2020, due to complications related to his heart. Our center is named after Joe Myers to recognize his extensive service to Indian country. Please read more about the life and legacy of Mr. Myers here.

The University of California Land Grab Series

This two part event, featuring numerous speakers, took place on September 25 and October 23. Both parts of "The University of California Land Grab: A Legacy of Profit from Indigenous Land," are now available for viewing in this playlist. The Joseph A. Myers Center for Research on Native American Issues was one of the series sponsors. The complete lists of sponsors and speakers, along with additional resources, are available on the series website: uclandgrab.berkeley.edu.

Native Heritage Month

We're celebrating Native Heritage Month this month and honoring Native past and present every month. Check out this great web page that our friends at
Native American Student Development made, including suggestions of educational resources, Native-owned businesses to support and much more. Pictured is Katie Keliiaa, one of our former Myers Center Grad Fellows, now Asst Prof of Feminist Studies at UC Santa Cruz.

Funding the UCs Through Indigenous Land

The Daily Cal published an article about the first UC Land Grab event co-sponsored by the Joseph Myers Center for Research on Native American Issues. Panelists discussed the legacy of UC profit that came with universities being founded on dispossessed Indigenous land and elaborated on the movement to reclaim the land.

Myers Center Mini-grants - Call for Proposals

The Myers Center invites UC Berkeley undergraduates and graduate students, who are conducting individual research projects on issues affecting Native American communities in the U.S. today, to apply for mini-grants. Proposals that support undergraduate thesis or graduate dissertation research are strongly encourages. Undergraduates may apply for grants up to $500. Graduate students may apply for grants up to $1000. Read more about the Myers Center Mini-grant Program and access the online application here. Applications are due on Monday, October 19 by 4pm.

Level 8 Risk

Center for Research on Native American Issues faculty affiliate Beth Piatote published a new short story in the San Francisco Chronicle; "Level 8 Risk" centers around love and antibody farms.

Racist Monuments and Place Names

Center for Research on Native American Issues affiliated faculty member Beth Piatote was quoted in two articles on the current fight to topple racist monuments and change racist place names:

“People aren’t taking things so much as a given part of the landscape anymore, and they’re imagining what places would feel like without this assertion of power, this asserting of dominance over certain people." - in the Los Angeles Times

“This is a time when people are attuned to thinking about not just these overt acts of racism — things that we can easily name — but the way in which racial structures and racism shapes our everyday environment." - in the Sacramento Bee

Black Lives Matter

The Myers Center stands in solidarity with those protesting anti-Black violence and working to promote racial justice in policing, health care, and all spheres of society. If you want to read about the connections between anti-Blackness and settler colonialism, we recommend The Black Shoals: Offshore Formations of Black and Native Studies by Tiffany Lethabo King. Professor King will be speaking at a Myers Center event on 9/24 at noon.