Sarah V. Hutchison Papers, 1950-1984

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Summary

Creators:
Hutchison, Sarah V.
Abstract:
Meeting minutes, research notes, interviews, journal and newspaper articles, and speeches relating to establishment, development, and eventual approval of D-Q University and the UC Davis Native American Studies program.
Extent:
12 linear feet
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Sarah V. Hutchison Papers, D-240, Archives and Special Collections, UC DavisGeneral Library, University of California, Davis.

Background

Scope and content:

Meeting minutes, research notes, interviews, journal and newspaper articles, and speeches relating to establishment, development, and eventual approval of D-Q University and the UC Davis Native American Studies program.

Biographical / historical:

Sarah V. Hutchison was a Native American (Cherokee) psychotherapist, Professor of Applied Behavioral Sciences, and Lecturer of Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis (1971-1986) who worked to further Native American education and development at UC Davis as well as D-Q University.

Hutchison was born in Claremore, Oklahoma in 1920. She completed her master's degree in education at the University of Oklahoma and went on to teach first grade through high school with a focus on students with learning disabilities. As a person with dyslexia, Hutchison had a particular interest in the condition. She also worked as a marriage and family counselor in Sacramento after moving to California with her husband. The couple raised several children with emotional disabilities.

Hutchison taught psychology at Yuba Junior College in California with a particular interest in Native American and multicultural psychology. Hutchison then went on to join the faculty in Native American Studies at UC Davis in 1970-71, a program that she co-developed and lectured in for 15 years. Hutchison’s contributions to Native American studies included a focus on gender in Native American cultures. Referred to as “the matriarch of Native American Studies” throughout her time in the program, Hutchison was recognized for the teaching and counseling skills that she offered students. Hutchison maintained her connection to her Cherokee heritage while advocating for all Native American peoples more broadly. In Davis, Hutchison also contributed to Native American community functions, such as the “Tecumseh Center” potluck dinners, then hosted on campus.

At UC Davis in 1970, Hutchison met with Native American Studies founders Jack Forbes and David Risling, who had just established the beginnings of an independent Native American university. Hutchison had been developing plans with two of her psychotherapy colleagues for a Native American medical school, and, after meeting with Forbes and Risling, agreed to incorporate this idea into their planned tribal college. Hutchison was invited onto the Board of Trustees for what became known as D-Q University, a college in Yolo County, California founded by and for Native Americans and Chicanos of various tribal backgrounds with the purpose of pan-Indigenous liberation through both professional and cultural education. Hutchison worked to build support for D-Q University throughout the early 1970s while helping to develop plans for a Native American medical school at the school’s campus, serving on the D-Q University Board of Trustees for 13 years.

In 1990, the retired Hutchison spoke out publicly against the University of California’s anthropological collections of Native American physical remains. Hutchison joined other Native American activists in supporting the repatriation and reburial of ancestral remains held in universities and museums, including UC Davis, referring to the practice of holding Native American remains for academic study as “the business of bones.” Hutchison was honored for her contributions to the Native American Studies program at UC Davis with the naming of the department library after her in 1995.

Processing information:

Liz Phillips encoded this finding aid with help from student assistant Aditi Sinha. The biography was written by Sacramento State Public History graduate student Nicole Johnston.

Physical location:
Researchers should contact Archives and Special Collections to request collections, as many are stored offsite.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

All applicable copyrights for the collection are protected under chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code. Requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of California as the owner of the physical items. It is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Sarah V. Hutchison Papers, D-240, Archives and Special Collections, UC DavisGeneral Library, University of California, Davis.

Location of this collection:
University of California, Davis, Special Collections, UC Davis Library
100 NW Quad
Davis, CA 95616-5292, US
Contact:
(530) 752-1621
speccoll@ucdavis.edu
Website