Center for Research on Native American Issues

The nationwide system of postsecondary education in the United States was launched in 1862 when the Morrill Act provided each state with “public” lands to sell in order to raise funds to establish universities. The landgrant university movement is lauded as the first major federal funding for higher education and for making liberal and practical education accessible to Americans of average means. However, hidden beneath the ofttold land-grant narrative is the land itself: the nearly 11 million acres of land sold through the Morrill Act was expropriated from tribal nations. Due to the California Land Act of 1851, which served to dissolve pre-statehood land claims, the failure of the federal government to ratify 18 treaties made with California Indians, and other systematic acts of genocidal violence and dispossession carried out in the second half of the 19th century, the Morrill Act had particularly dire consequences for California Indians. 

The intent of this report is to motivate the University of California to take action regarding accountability to California Indians stemming from the University’s founding as a land-grant institution through Morrill Act land sales and from the ongoing benefits that UC receives from both returns on the original endowment and continued occupation of California Indian territories via current UC land holdings. The report provides background on the settler-colonial context of Indigenous land expropriation via the Morrill Act, situates the University of California’s unique history, and details the proceedings of a forum on the topic that was held in 2020.