FORT BRAGG, CA., 2/13/26 — The Noyo Bida Truth Project, a nonprofit that aims to educate Mendocino County residents about the history of the name Fort Bragg, has announced a 2026 essay competition for Fort Bragg residents. Recipients could win from $500 to $1,000 in prize money.
The Noyo Bida Truth Project, formerly called Change Our Name Fort Bragg, is an organization that educates people on the connection that the city’s name has to Confederate Army Gen. Braxton Bragg, who was a Confederate general during the Civil War and a slaveowner.
The essay competition is open to Fort Bragg residents age 18 and older by May 1.
Participants in the contest have to answer to one of these prompts in their essays:
- Yes, the name Noyo Bida (the fishing place in Northern Pomo) should be returned to the city called Fort Bragg since 1889.
- No, the name Noyo Bida (the fishing place in Northern Pomo) should not be returned to the city called Fort Bragg since 1889.
According to the Noyo Bida Truth Project, the contest will be divided into two divisions. Applicants who write essays supporting the name change will compete only against others with similar viewpoints, and the same goes for those who write essays opposing the change.
The winners of the essay contest will receive $1,000. The second-place winners will receive $500. Since there are two separate divisions, the organization will be awarding a total of $3,000.
Some of the requirements for the essay are that it ranges from 1,000 to 1,500 words, includes research from at least two books from local libraries, and cannot be generated by artificial intelligence.
Essays should be emailed to thenoyobidatruthproject@gmail.com and are due by 5 p.m. on March 31. Winners will be announced in May.
For more information or to ask questions, people can go to the organization’s website by clicking this link.
I could write it. Historical fact. (Without any leftist politics.)
U.S. Army Officer Braxton Bragg was not a Confederate officer when Fort Bragg, CA was named after him, but rather a noted hero from the Mexican-American War (1846–1848) having served with distinction in combat for the United States of America. The town was named after him in 1857 before the Civil War even began.
The town was incorporated years after it was known that Bragg was a Confederate general. A century and a half past that, what are we doing? Why would we honor this man, who on top of fighting to keep over a hundred slaves, was reviled by many in his later years? That’s not to mention the “Fort” that the town is named after, which served to maintain a concentration camp of indigenous people. The town deserves a better name.
Second point. If being a slave owner gets your panties in a bunch, you better deal with this as well:
a) Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence 41 owned slaves.
b) Of the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention 25 owned slaves.
You cannot erase US history. Even brainwashing children won’t change it.
Describing attitudes towards slavery as having your “panties in a bunch” is interesting. The vast majority of Americans believe that slavery was wrong and the majority of Americans believe that we should not honor those who fought to keep it. No one is erasing history. More people now know the history of the namesake the Fort Bragg than did in the past. Teaching is not brainwashing and we can choose what we continue to honor.
Completely agree Dave. When you start renaming places where does it end? – Just look at Trump – renaming all kinds of things after himself. Going into the Smithsonian and the African American Museum and removing DEI things he doesn’t like and white-washing/re-writing US History. The father of our country, George Washington owned slaves and there are hundreds of places in the US, including in California, named after him. The Pomo village on Noyo Beach did have a recent Pomo name I suspect, but almost everything north of that was historically Coastal Yuki country. A thousand years ago the city of Fort Bragg sat on Yuki land. Indigenous artifacts found around here prove that. Yuki and Pomo were two completely different languages and cultures. The saddest thing to me is the genocide committed against our local indigenous populations here in Mendocino County and indeed in all of California. But ours in Mendocino County was the bloodiest and that history was never taught in Fort Bragg Schools, not to us, all the little white and Euro kids, and not to the Indian kids we went to school with. We were taught about the California Spanish Mission history – or some whitewashed version of it, but nothing of our own. You cannot re-write history, as Trump is attempting to do, you can only acknowledge and teach it. Nobody cares about Braxton Bragg, a mere footnote. And indeed anyone who doesn’t want to live in a town named after a civil war general who never set foot here, can move to Ukiah, a place that has a nice anglicized Pomo name. What we care about is our history. Leave our name alone, it’s part of our history.
Gail: The Pomo Indians called the area: Kah-la-deh-mun, (which translates to “Surrounded by Trees”). I suppose we could go back to that and proudly proclaim the city sits on “stolen land!” A very righteous “feel good” exercise, and then say “take that Trump.”
After the return of the land, we notify the Mendocino County Tax Collector that we are no longer paying property taxes either. Whoa. Were do I sign up?
Gail: Seriously tho, concerning genocide: The US Army soldiers and the Fort system often protected the Native Americans but their authority was limited to federal lands. In fact, they were helpless to assist in preventing crimes and violence against the natives off the reservations. All they could do is write reports. However, that is where the genocide took place; by the armed men, the toughs, mountain men and white settlers who wanted control of the land. (See: Killing for Land, by Frank Baumgardner.)
Noyo City is a fitting name to match with Noyo Harbor.
Sorry….I live in Fort Bragg.
Upon questioning a Pomo friend about a name change she said that she “lives in Fort Bragg and that it should remain Fort Bragg.”
Panties in a bunch is an excellent term.
I also live here and believe we deserve a better name. Confederate monuments and namesakes have been taken down across the country and it is only a matter of time until we retire ours.
Private First Class Roland L. Bragg, a World War II combat paratrooper who earned a Silver Star and Purple Heart….
Why phone it in when we can think of something better? The “fort” assisted in genocide
To each their own
Who is going to foot the bill for changing all this nomenclature i.e. DMV paperwork, postal addresses, etc…? Have you even taken into consideration how much of peoples’ valuable time it likely takes to get that all squared away? Or does the Fort Bragg name OFFEND you so badly, that you just dont care? Where are you FROM..? Because it isnt HERE.
Poncho other towns have changed their name. It’s not a major hurdle. We can have a transition period where the new name is allowed until a crowdfunding goal is met for public signage and any necessary business expenses. Folks could continue to use the name Fort Bragg without any repercussion.
They didn’t change their name, it’s still changeournameFortBragg, look it up on Google, it’s still Philip zwerling running the show. Don’t say you wish that they hadn’t erased Aunt Jemima syrup, because he’ll call you a racist. I think the right side dude is Philip. Fort Bragg is the name of our town take it or leave.
Not a dude and I love our town. Are we not allowed to criticize any part of our town? I think it’s our duty to want improvement. There are many more important improvements than name change, and name change can wait, but I do believe it is an eventuality and the right side of history to reject a Confederate namesake. That being said, I don’t want the change without majority support. I think education now will lead to a future change.
Right Side:
What we all write here, whether newsworthy or not, well written or lacking in that, matters not. It changes nothing, and so it is just a pretend writing exercise.
In that vein, I assign the grade of C+ to your contribution. On the plus side, you are persistent.
However, to improve your grade, in the future, add more independent and individualized critical thinking and not simply restate the political points of your party affiliation we have all heard repeatedly. Open up your mind a tiny bit.
Good luck in your future writing endeavors.
Dave: Don’t get your nipples in a twist, bud. Embark on thought unbound. There is no party affiliation that speaks of the genocide in Fort Bragg. If you ever stop wanting to own the libs as much as Braxton owned those slaves, you might see that there can be a better future for all, one that includes a better name.
As to Fort Bragg, it stands as one of the many California Forts having contributed to the military history of the American West. It is just one of a thousand some frontier camps, posts and installations of the Army, Navy and Marines in the 19th Century. I counted 262 just in California, where one can go visit the few of the remaining ones and learn American history, (See: Tour Guide to Old Western Forts, 1980). It notes: “This post was a peace keeper before the Civil War, watching over both the Indian and the settler.” That remains Fort Bragg’s place in history.
Other forts currently in California:
Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park
Fort Point National Historic Site (San Francisco): A Civil War-era masonry fort located under the Golden Gate Bridge.
Fort Mason
Fort Hunter Liggett
Fort Baker
Fort Humboldt State Historic Park
Fort Tejon State Historic Park
Fort Barry & Fort Cronkhite
The “Fort” maintained a concentration camp of indigenous people. They were not allowed to freely travel as they once did. It is true that the settlers would attack them and even kidnap their children and so there was a degree of protection, but mostly they were kept in one spot with limited access to food to nearly the point of starvation. Then of course they were brutally force marched to the reservation inland. The Fort was nothing to be proud of and deserves no honor in this town, nor does Braxton Bragg.
I wish the name offended people as you say
. But I think you are wrong. Otherwise we wouldn’t have so many freaking people moving here. I have lived here
all my life, I am 6th generation . You come i to our town
wanting to cbange the name. How many other times have you decided the name bothered you and fought to change it?
I think it would be ashame to let some outsider come on to change the name of my hometown . That I love. History is history. We had nothing to do with it , and today this will never happen again.
Hear hear!
Civilization was a boom to all races and without it the Indigenous people probably would have died out. While it’s true that most of the new diseases were brought by settlers, many diseases were in fact indigenous and there is ample evidence of whole villagers and tribes being wiped out by disease and famine. Slave ownership throughout the ages was the norm for many indigenous people, all around the world both in the Americas, Africa and elsewhere. Many races were enslaved including so called white people. Eventually civilization has all but eliminated slavery. Perhaps we should start a moment to eliminate all indigenous sounding names because of all the ills associated with these historical facts, or we can just leave names as they are, and merely make sure we are educated to the reality.
Maybe all the homeowners in fort Bragg should be forced to do a land acknowledgment, not to give their land back to the Pomo but just say “our bad” this is “stolen land” then we can go play pickleball and listen to jazz later that day and maybe even change the name of Fort Bragg.
Yep. Give the land back to the Pomo in an official decree from the mayor. Then everyone stops paying property taxes, but continue to live on the land anyway.
It’s the California Way.