By Sam Farfan
Less than two months after Long Beach State first opened its doors, a team of 14 students founded the university’s student newspaper on Nov. 11, 1949. Between four potential name ideas, students picked the Forty-Niner as it aligned with the college’s California Gold Rush branding and its 1949 founding.
Although the name may have seemed fitting for the time, students, faculty and Indigenous community members have voiced their concerns over the decades. Considering that the university was built on Puvungna, a sacred site of creation and gathering for Tongva, Acjachemen and other neighboring American Indian nations, the 49er term is a historically charged one.
Internal conversations surrounding a publication name change have occurred over the years, but it wasn’t until late 2023 that staff, advisers and alumni discussed the future of a new name. Now, 75 years later, students are changing the name of the Daily Forty-Niner to the Long Beach Current.
Originally known as Los Angeles-Orange County State College, the university first held classes in a converted apartment building before relocating to where the campus now stands by September 1951. With limited resources, P. Victor Peterson became the first president of the new college and helped build the university’s foundation.
Peterson’s “pioneering spirit” and his eagerness to have “struck the gold of education” influenced the school’s Gold Rush theme. His efforts toward the university’s early establishment became memorialized through the school’s former mascot, Prospector Pete.
However, the university’s Gold Rush branding became a reminder to the local American Indian communities of the land they lost to the development of the school. Professor Emeritus of American Indian Studies and former director of the annual CSULB Pow Wow Craig Stone attributes the school’s association with the 49er moniker as a lack of education on the repercussions of the Gold Rush.
“When [CSULB] created the 49er concept, that was the year that we started, but it was also this notion about the 49ers and about a narrative that reinforced the power and value of the constituent groups that were at Long Beach. They were all white,” said Stone. “So that narrative is one that was taught in a romanticized way, for a real long time.”
The romanticization of the Gold Rush was notable in the school’s 49er Days, a Western-themed event where students would dress as miners and participate in carnival games. Although students viewed the spring tradition as a unifying social event, 49er Days often included offensive reenactments of the historical American Indian genocide by students—portraying caricatures of Indigenous people.
According to Friends of Puvungna, Puvungna is the home of the creator, Wiyot, and the birthplace of Chinigchinich, known as their lawgiver and god. Preservation of the site is important to local American Indian communities as numerous burials and important archaeological sites remain on Puvungna. Much of Puvungna has since been destroyed.
Eleanor Nelson, President of the CSULB American Indian Student Council and Pascua Yaqui woman said she didn’t have the strongest cultural connection to her Indigenous heritage growing up. It wasn’t until she came to CSULB that she developed a stronger understanding of her American Indian background.
“Puvungna extends beyond the 22 acres of land. It’s the entire campus; all of us are on Puvungna when we step onto this campus,” Nelson said. “It’s truly, for me, a gathering place because I think that this is where I’ve met some of my greatest friends, my family, my mentors and just really great people.”
Puvungna and the university’s Gold Rush theme have been a topic of debate for decades. For many Long Beach State alumni, the 49er moniker carries personal meaning.
Lee Brown, 1959 Editor-in-Chief of the Forty-Niner, said that being a 49er is an important part of his identity, as an alumnus of the school and newspaper.
“It is my personal history, and if you look back, 1958 was a long time ago. I’m 90-years-old now, and I’ve been a 49er for a long, long time,” said Brown. “And I know, or at least I understand, that the original 49er miners killed [American] Indians, and that’s terrible. Changing the name, however, doesn’t restore the life of a single [American] Indian.”
Brown’s extensive career in journalism and education has taken him to different outlets and universities across the nation, but he always found his way back to Long Beach State. He served as a student, professor and department chairman of Journalism & Public Relations, forming a relationship with the 49er identity spanning over 66 years.
“At 90-years-old, I don’t have much longer. I suppose I’ll die a 49er, and that’s okay.”
Many argue renaming institutions titled after historic displacement and ethnic cleansing of marginalized communities is a step toward accountability, education and transparency.
“I think that renaming things, especially when it [mentions] genocide and mass tragedies of any peoples, I think that’s good progress because now we’re acknowledging why different things and events were wrong,” said Nelson.
Since the first 1949 print edition of the paper, the Forty-Niner has been committed to evolving as a paper. Although the Daily Forty-Niner can’t change history, staff had the opportunity to change the paper’s name after all these years—so they did.
The Long Beach Current is the same newspaper of record campus members have relied on for the past 75 years, and it will continue to be the campus’ reputable news source for the next 75.
Just under a new, more current name.
