DAVIS, Calif.
Thirty-five years after a group of American Indians and Mexican Americans scaled a barbed-wire fence to occupy an old Army communications site west of Davis, supporters are celebrating the anniversary of what became California’s only tribal college.
But the college known as D-Q University is as troubled this year as at any time in its turbulent history, with leadership fights and sit-ins by students trying to keep it open.
Thirty-five years ago, the site had been declared surplus property, and the government planned to give it to the nearby University of California, Davis for use in research programs on rice and primates. But the protesters climbed the fence before dawn on Nov. 3, 1970, and set up a teepee, refusing to leave until they got the land.
Last year the tribal college lost accreditation and funding, and closed during the spring semester because of a court battle over its control. The college reopened this fall with 60 students.
It’s being run now by college President Art Apodaca, who returned to guide the college he helped start.
Apodaca, now 66, recalled removing his peacoat to cover the barbed wire and boosting other protesters over the fence about 4:45 a.m. A soldier at the facility thought it was a prank.
