New Names Approved for 3 Sacramento Schools Named After Racist Historical Figures

Three Sacramento schools are getting new names as part of a rebrand away from the racist historical California figures they were named after, the Sacramento City Unified School District said.

SCUSD’s board voted Thursday to rename Sutter Middle School, Peter Burnett Elementary School and Kit Carson International Academy, with the three being schools viewed as having “the most egregious school names,” according to the district.

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Sutter Middle School will be renamed Miwok Middle School in honor of the Miwok people who lived in the region when Europeans came to California.

Peter Burnett will be renamed Suy:u Elementary, which is pronounced: “suu you.” Suy: u is the Miwok name for “hawk.” {snip}

Kit Carson is being renamed Umoja International Academy in a tribute to the first principal of Kwanzaa to strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.

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“The committee was specifically designed to incorporate community voices from throughout the District and to uplift the native voice since Peter Burnett, Kit Carson, and John Sutter led the systematic killing and enslavement of large numbers of California native peoples,” the district’s proposal said.

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As part of the proposal, members of the renaming committee produced short biographical profiles about Sutter, Carson and Burnett’s racist and exploitative behavior and a list of sources by historians.

“Sutter enslaved Native peoples by making war on local tribes, which provided him with a steady source of free labor for his enterprises as well as a source of income by which to reduce his debts through the sale of orphaned children,” the Sutter bio says.

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The section on Carson links the famous trapper and guide to the ambush of a village on the Sacramento River that killed several hundred people.

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Carson later commanded an expedition against the Navajo, who refused removal to reservations.

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Burnett, California’s first governor, is noted for first becoming the supreme judge of Oregon’s territorial government and advocating “for the total exclusion of all African Americans from the territory.”

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