With One of Their Own in the Statehouse, Native Americans in California Win New rights
Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law three new laws authored by James Ramos, the first member of a Native American tribe to serve in the California state legislature. The three laws promote the rights of Native Americans in the state and will go into effect on January 1, 2021.
James Ramos, a member of the Serrano/Cahuilla tribe, was elected in 2018 to the state legislature and lives on the San Manuel Reservation in San Bernardino County. The three laws focus on reclaiming sacred artifacts stored away in museums; requiring the secretary of state to create a working group to promote voter participation among indigenous people; and authorizing the California Department of Justice to assist local law enforcement investigations.
Assembly Bill 275 amends sections of the current law to assist indigenous claims for reinstating artifacts and remains of ancestors that have been held by institutions. The bill amends current law to state “a direct lineal descendent of a California Indian tribe can request the return of human remains or cultural items.” Additionally, the bill specifies that “tribal traditional knowledge alone may be sufficient” to establish a “preponderance of evidence” to reclaim cultural items or ancestral remains. Before this law, any knowledge or decision would take the side of the museum or institution director.
While the current law mandates inventories by museums and publicly funded institutions, this bill revises that process and will “require consultations with California Indian tribes during the creation of the preliminary inventories and summaries after submission to the commission.”
Finally, this bill will require any agency that has “significant interaction” with a Native American tribe within California to “designate one or more liaisons” to ensure and facilitate education “on topics relevant to the state’s relationship with those tribes.”
The second of the three bills, AB-2134 Native American Voting Accessibility Advisory Committee, requires the California secretary of state to assemble a task force on increasing voter participation among indigenous groups in the state. Voter turnout from Native American tribes across the country is one of the lowest, and voting rights for tribal members weren’t recognized nationwide until 1962.
The bill will create the Native American Voting Accessibility Advisory Committee, which will include the Secretary of State, designees of the Secretary, and any additional members appointed by the Secretary. Those involved must be ones who have “demonstrated experience with voting rights or are county elections officials.” The bill also puts pressure on the Secretary to find ways to recruit Native American poll workers and increase access to voter information, registration, and other materials.
In 2019, the National Council of American Indians published statistics that revealed that California is one of the top 15 states with the highest population of voting-age natives. Additionally, they reported that the “turnout rate among American Indian and Alaska Native registered voters is 1 to 10 percentage points lower than the rate of other racial and ethnic groups.” Not only is there a low turnout rate, but over 1.2 million of the American Indian and Alaska Native population nationwide is not registered to vote.
Lastly, Ramos authored AB-3099 Department of Justice: Law Enforcement Assistance with Tribal Issues. In an attempt to reduce the rate of missing and murdered women of indigenous descent, the bill authorizes the California Department of Justice to assist local law enforcement officers in criminal investigations.
This last bill will appropriate funds to “provide technical assistance to local law enforcement agencies” to provide “guidance for law enforcement education and training on policing and criminal investigations on Indian lands.” It will improve the reporting of criminal activity between state law enforcement and tribal law enforcement and also share tools to combat criminal activity.
One of the most pressing issues this bill will address is the number of missing and murdered Native American women. The bill creates a study that will make “a determination of the scope of the issue of missing and murdered Native Americans in California.” It will also identify any “barriers in reporting or investigating” the cases while also creating “partnerships to increase cross-reporting and investigation of missing Native Americans in California.”
Even though the Native Indian and Native Alaskan population makes up only 3% of California’s population, the most recent census data states that “California is home to more people of Native American and Alaska Native heritage than any other state in the country.” 107 federally recognized tribes and over 70 non-federally recognized tribes call California home in over 100 separate reservations across the state.
James Ramos, a Democrat, is chair of the Select Committee on Native Americans and faces a reelection campaign in December 2022 after defeating Jennifer Tullius in the November 2020 election. Before being elected as the first Native American to the California state legislature, he was the first Native American appointed to the State Board of Education and the first Indian to serve on the San Bernardino Community College Board of Trustees. Aside from promoting Native American rights, Ramos also works to promote mental health issues, anti-bullying, and suicide prevention in schools.
