News & Updates

California has the fifth-highest number of missing and murdered Indigenous people cases in the country. How did we get here?

After passing Public Law 280 in 1953, Congress essentially washed its hands of funding law enforcement and criminal justice on tribal lands in six states: Alaska, California, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon and Wisconsin. That meant much fewer resources for public safety and significant obstacles to preventing or resolving cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people in these states.

My legislation, Assembly Bill 2138, will help remedy this injustice by giving tribal police greater law enforcement powers.

Public Law 280 eliminated federal support for law enforcement and courts, except for limited and specified expenditures. This has resulted in widespread confusion among tribal, local and state law enforcement agencies. Individual agreements between some tribes and local police can help, but they aren’t perfect, and miscommunication is an unfortunate and common consequence. Such agreements can also be terminated or altered when elections produce leadership changes.

Other negative impacts of Public Law 280 include the absence of peace officer status for tribal police; the inability to arrest non-native persons committing crimes on tribal lands; less support for funding and infrastructure for personnel, equipment and training; a greater mistrust of outside policing; and a general uncertainty about who to turn to when criminal activity is underway or threatened on reservations.

This undermining of public safety also affects neighboring communities around reservations because cities and counties have fewer partners to rely upon when mutual assistance is needed.

Unsurprisingly, California — like other states affected by Public Law 280 — has among the highest number of reported missing Indigenous people cases. Of the 10 states with 100 or more reported missing and murdered Indigenous people cases, five are subject to Public Law 280.

Now, California must consider revamping the way we administer this pernicious and racist law that originated when Congress was trying to deny tribal nations’ sovereignty, force greater assimilation and “protect” non-Native persons who committed crimes against those residing on reservations. We can ensure greater Indian County safety by enacting AB 2138, which would let the state grant peace officer status to tribal police.

Last year, a Native woman went missing in San Francisco. Despite mistrust of the police, the family filed a missing persons’ report that was treated dismissively by officers who said, “Adult women don’t go missing. It’s a choice.”

Tribal police requested — and were subsequently denied — a Feather Alert, a year-old state public notification system I authored similar to AMBER or Silver alerts that are used to notify the public when Native Americans are missing or endangered. Family, community and tribal police continued searching. Fortunately, the woman was found. But her story is not unique.

Victims and their families try to cope with life-changing grief and loss. Too often, children are left without parents or loving homes and become yet another Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons statistic. California ranks fifth nationally in the number of these cases, mostly in Northern California. In December 2021, the Yurok Tribe issued an emergency declaration in response to a spike in such cases and attempted human trafficking on the reservation.

California has appropriated new resources for the Department of Justice to combat violence and assist victims and tribes. Additional state funding of $12 million was approved in the 2022-23 budget to boost policing and victim support over three years.

New funding and greater attention to this tragic epidemic will help. In May, tribes and the nation will commemorate victims and their families, bringing attention to this crisis. Let us do more than remember the victims. We can help stop the violence by passing AB 2138.

SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today issued a proclamation declaring November 2023, as Native American Heritage Month.

The text of the proclamation and a copy can be found below:

PROCLAMATION

During Native American Heritage Month, California recognizes and honors the first people to call this state and nation home, while also committing to the personal, collective and institutional work we must continue to embrace as we create a California that respects, values and uplifts Native peoples.

Over the course of the last year, we celebrated the unveiling of a new monument to California Native peoples on the grounds of the State Capitol, witnessed the validation of the Indian Child Welfare Act from the nation’s highest court and felt every emotion with the conclusion of Reservation Dogs. We also saw California tribal nations leading the state in historic efforts to address climate change, launch state-of-the art cultural centers and compel institutions to once and for all return Native ancestors to their lands and communities. These milestones are all testaments to the power of shifting the narrative, making space for Native people to determine their own place in our collective culture and elevating the Native experience in the story of California.

While we celebrate these achievements with Indian Country, we remind ourselves that they are but small signs of goodwill and progress in the journey toward truth and healing. Native people in California have been advocating for greater space, voice and understanding for hundreds of years—during which time their communities and cultures have been actively erased, displaced and painted over. Peoples that long predate even the concept of “California” have fought to keep languages and families intact in the face of ongoing waves of settlement of this place. This month, it is our task to reflect on our knowledge gaps and fully educate ourselves on the histories, cultures and governments of the first peoples of this place in order to codesign a future that elevates Native voices and experiences where many of our predecessors sought their eradication.

If the only time we reflect on the Native Peoples of the United States is during the month of November, we are selling ourselves—and Native peoples—far too short. It is incumbent on all Californians to remind ourselves of the price Native peoples had to—and continue to—pay as a result of centuries of oppression and the settlement of California beaches, grasslands and mountains. We owe it to them to better understand, acknowledge and elevate their place as the first peoples of these lands.

This Native American Heritage Month, I challenge all Californians to commit to the lifelong process of learning more about the diverse Native peoples in California as we work toward truth, justice and accountability for all.

NOW THEREFORE I, GAVIN NEWSOM, Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim November 2023, as “Native American Heritage Month.”

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 18th day of November 2023.

GAVIN NEWSOM
Governor of California

ATTEST:
SHIRLEY N. WEBER, Ph.D.
Secretary of State

Legislative and Tribal leaders will unveil a California Native American Monument in Sacramento’s Capitol Park at a dedication ceremony in November. 

The monument will honor Northern California Tribes and will be placed at the site where a statue used to stand that represented a Spanish priest who was involved in the colonization of what later became California.

The unveiling and dedication ceremony will be on Nov. 7 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Capitol Park, near L and 12th streets, according to Assemblymember James Ramos.

The new monument will have the likeness of William Franklin Sr., a member of the Miwok who spent decades preserving Native American culture in the state. 

His statue will replace that of Spanish priest Junipero Serra, whose involvement in the construction of the California missions starting in 1769 led to the forced assimilation and death of thousands of Indigenous inhabitants of the state. 

In the summer of 2020, during the nationwide protests against racism in the United States after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after being detained and pinned down by Minneapolis police officers, protesters in Sacramento toppled the statue of Serra, which had been placed in 1967. 

After that statue was removed from the site and placed into storage, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill from Assemblymember Ramos, the first Native American legislator in the state’s history, to erect the new monument in its place. 

The statue will honor the following Tribes from the Sacramento area: 
• Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians
•Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians
•Ione Band of Miwok Indians
•Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians
•Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians
•Wilton Rancheria

Since 2020, there has been a national reckoning over the commemoration of certain individuals and the use of their images and names that are considered racist or discriminatory. 

In California’s state Capitol, a statue depicting Christopher Columbus was removed from the rotunda, where it had stood since 1883.