UC Berkeley strips building name for namesake's treatment of Native Americans

Kroeber Hall is fourth building to be ‘unnamed’

By ANGELA RUGGIERO | aruggiero@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: January 27, 2021 at 1:25 p.m. | UPDATED: January 28, 2021 at 4:01 a.m.

BERKELEY — A fourth building on the UC Berkeley campus was stripped of its name this week, this time because of the writings and treatment of Native Americans by the hall’s namesake.

Kroeber Hall lost its name Tuesday. The building was named after Alfred Louis Kroeber, known as the founder of anthropology in the west. One of the main reasons for the name removal was his views and writings that were a symbol that “evoked exclusion and erasure” of Native Americans, according to the university.

. . .

Perhaps more controversial, in 1911 Kroeber and his colleagues took a Native American man named “Ishi” into their custody; he lived at UC’s Museum of Anthropology in San Francisco. He was given a janitorial position and was used as a “living exhibit” for museum visitors, making Native crafts and stone tools.

He died of tuberculosis in 1916 and his body was autopsied, against his expressed wishes for cremation and burial without autopsy, according to the university.

More:
https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/01/27/uc-berkeley-strips-building-name-for-namesakes-treatment-of-native-americans/




“Ishi,” as he was renamed, and Alfred Louis Kroeber

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51AYege38bL._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg



Ishi (c. 1860 – March 25, 1916) was the
pseudonym of the last member of the Yahi, in
turn the last surviving group of the Yana people
of California.



Rest in Peace.