Native Californians

April 22, 2021
|In Uncategorized
|By adriel

As a proud member of the of the Chickasaw Nation, I am all to familiar with the oppression of settler-colonies and settler-colonists; the never ending fights for rightful recognition,  tribal sovereignty, food sovereignty & land which belongs us; the sociopolitical injustices of poverty, health disparities, gender-based violence & death at higher rates than any other population in this country consistently imposed upon us from systems beyond our control.  And yet greater than all this – we are still here. We are proud. We are resilient.  And running as the 2022 Governor of California, I know the time has come for us all to receive what is long overdue, what is owed… the truth and absolute redress.

We are on stolen land.  

From the Spanish arrival in 1492 to the US occupation of California in 1846, and every moment since –  California Indians have brutally endured settler colonialism. California Indians’ reality has largely been based on foreign invasion, historical domination by Christian churches—particularly the Catholic missions, forced cultural assimilation, dispossession of Indigenous lands, and genocide.  All of these acts were justified in the Doctrine of Discovery, which was the sole foundation of the Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny.  These doctrines remain entrenched in our government, our legislation, our society – these doctrines still paternalistically dictate every aspect of California Indian life land and genocide.

The Gold Rush of 1849 drastically changed the physical, social & cultural landscapes of this State forever.  Almost immediately, the settler colony and US Government promptly began forcing California Indians off their land in order to make room for the incoming swarm of white settlers and their slaves.  As California entered the Union in 1850, Senate Bill 54, misnomered An Act for the Government Protection of Indians facilitated removing California Indians from their rightful lands, separating at least a generation of children and adults from their families, languages and cultures, while also indenturing California Indians to Settler Colonists for life.  By 1851-52, only a year after the state of California entered the Union, the federal government of the settler-colonists negotiated 18 treaties with California tribes guaranteeing lands of 7.5 million acres, tribal sovereignty & rights.  By March 1852, both our California Assembly (35-6) & Senate (19:4) voted to oppose these treaties and submitted their oppositional resolutions to California’s US Senate refusing to ratify the treaties.  The US Senate overwhelmingly rejected the treaties and terminated federal recognition and the internationally protected rights of 41 California tribes – leaving them without any land or legal protections.  First Nations who were “granted” these protections were again forcibly moved and ended up on small settlements called rancherias – only a fraction of these US-determined settlements maintained federal recognition – most rights were rescinded and didn’t last.  

Simultaneously as the Federal Government refused to honor the treaties, Governor Burnett proudly proclaimed in 1851  “That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races, until the Indian race becomes extinct.” Using Article VII of the California Constitution, Governor Burnett called upon the Los Angeles, San Diego, Modoc, Siskyou, Tulare, Klamath, Shasta & El Dorado County Sherriffs to lead multiple militias on “Expeditions against the Indians” from 1850-1861 in which mass-murder, Indian Prisoners of War, child kidnappings & “Apprenticeships” flourished.

We are on stolen land.

Our Federal, State & local governments have intentionally reduced tribal sovereignty – continually invalidating, overriding or simply ignoring international treaties and dispossessing land and water whenever it has suited our illegally occupying powers without California Indian consent, appropriate compensation or redress.  And it has always suited our illegally occupying powers when land, minerals, capital or resources are involved.  

Shortly after California became an illegal State of an illegally occupying force, gold was found. From 1849 to 1869, 80% of California’s Indians were exterminated. And though some died because of the illegal seizures of their land or diseases spread from new settler-colonists, 100,000 were murdered in cold blood with more than 27,000 taken as slaves, including 7,000 children.  These slaves were legally classified as forced & indebted laborers by white settlers who paid bonds for their crimes – often existing on their rightful tribal and sacred land – classified under State law as vagrancy, or merely as apprenticeships. In 20 years, 130,000 California Indians fell victims of multifaceted policies of genocide sponsored by the state of California and gleefully assisted by its newest citizens.  The State of California spent an obscene $1.7million during the Gold Rush, personally commissioning the murders of 16,000 California Indians.  For context, when that $1.7million is adjusted for present day inflation it totals $52,917,390 – or 97.4% of the State of California’s revised 2020-21 Budget and Summary of Solutions – all used to mass murder California Indians because settler-colonists felt it was their religious right to do so.

The State of California and our governments have intentionally withheld land rights, denied food sovereignty & connections to the land since this State was formed.  California Legislature enacted Senate Bill 80, of 1852, which prohibited the erection of weirs, dams, fences, set or stop nets, or any other obstruction to the run of Salmon in any river or stream in the State and the only exception to this law was California Indians.  Yet time and time again, our State has specifically denied water access for both cultural and spiritual practices.  By creating disconnects to land, water, cultural and spiritual practices our State continues to deny treaty rights, force assimilation and actively participates in genocide.

A new study from Píkyav Field Institute and U.C. Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, is exploring the profound lack of food access among tribal members in the northwestern corner of California.  The study found that 92% tribal members face at least some level of food insecurity—compared with 11.8% of all U.S. households.  Study after study has shown that access to healthy food is critically low in Native communities across the California, and our country – all of which are linked directly to the denial of land and water rights, along State and Federal legislation that dictates what and how California Indians are allowed to exist.  As similar data can be found throughout the Indian Country in our State – this is clearly a reflection of our settler state actions and the outcome of genocidal policy. 

Indigenous food security is dependent on tribal sovereignty and we cannot continue to fail ourFirst Nations.  When First Nations have tribal sovereignty, they can finally attain and achieve food sovereignty, health, security & strengthen connections to their sacred land.

Pipeline after pipeline, violent mineral resource extraction after extraction – our State has permitted Corporations and the wealthy who own them to perpetuate settler oppression, significant reduction of tribal sovereignty and unspeakable environmental injustices that California Indian & Indigenous Peoples have long bore the weight of in frontline communities.  We have continuously allowed the desecration of sacred land – and our State has maintained overwhelming profits at the expense of California Indian exploitation.

We are on stolen land. 

The epidemic of Murdered, Missing Indigenous Women & Girls (#MMIWG) is not a recent phenomena.  Aside from California State Legislation that legalized and/or provided no justice or recourse for extensively documented child kidnappings, there has long been a criminal underworld involving the trafficking, torture & murder of Imdigenous Women and Girls in our State.  Local journalists published extensively on the topic, while Locality and State supreme courts upheld legal validity of stolen girls dating back to 1850 – including murdering their parents to obtain legal consent for their labor and sex trafficking. Every faction of our government has since continued to fail in defending and protecting the sacred and the innocent.  From California laws formally binding California Indian children as Apprentices, Clerks & Servants for life,  to SCOTUS precedent of 1978 Oliphant v. Suquamish, which has since cleared the path for justice denied as no Citizen of the United States can be held criminally responsible for any crime committed in Indian Country, including #MMIWG.  Native & Indigenous Women are 10x more likely to experience gender-based violence including trafficking, rape & murder than all national averages for women in the United States.  The vast majority (96%) of American Indian/American Native female and two-spirit victims of sexual violence experience violence at the hands of a non-Native perpetrator.

According to most recent census data, California is home to more people of Native American/Alaska Native heritage than any other state in the Country.  That being said, California Indians are approximately now 1.8%  of California’s population – and continue to face the largest legal, political, socioeconomic & environmental injustices in our State.  It isn’t by chance.  Today 55 tribes in California lack federal recognition, more than 20 percent of non-recognized tribes nationwide, according to the Government Accountability Office.  To this point, every Governor of California and Government within our State and Country have failed California Indians, First Nations & Indigenous Peoples horrifically.   There has been no real effort to overturn laws knowingly built upon the Doctrine of Discovery & Manifest Destiny in the same manner no Governor or State government has ever intended to #HonorTheTreaties.  The electeds of our State have all in fact furthered significant harm to California Indians, First Nations & Indigenous Peoples by continuing the outright denial of Tribal Sovereignty by continuing to place interests of settler-colonists, corporations & capital first on stolen land.

We are on stolen land and it is well past time we acknowledge that Californians have privileges that arise from the historic and ongoing settler oppression of Indigenous peoples. This settler privilege means our economic security, our citizenship, sense of relationship and entitlement to the land, our physical and mental health, our cultural integrity, our family values, spiritual lives, professional goals are not physically impossible to achieve without the territorial theft of California Indians.

No more.

As your Gubernatorial Candidate for 2022 I intend to place Californian Indians, First Nations & Indigenous Peoples first.  I, and my government, will work tirelessly to strengthen tribal sovereignty, returning what has always been and will always rightfully belong to California Indians. 

I am proud to support the City and People of Eureka in their efforts to return ancestral and spiritual lands back to the Wiyot Tribe, as they are the first local government to return tribal land in the United States, but understand this isn’t a practice that should be left to the wait, whims and resistance of localities or our current settler-colonial legislation – the State of California and the United States government are responsible for these abject policy failures and the permission of continued genocide on California Indian and Indigenous Peoples across this country.

As such, I intend to decolonize, implement #LandBack and begin to create the relationships and outcomes which have long been denied to California Indians at the hands of our illegally occupying government and People.  I will confront ongoing territorial dispossession and address the direct links and risks dispossession of the land from government, corporate and private parties has had on the lives, health, economic vitality, psychological well-being, and cultural integrity that California Indians experience, placing their Existence and rights at the forefront of all I and my government do..

174 years of ethnic cleansing campaigns, many of which are still active today. This is Californian history and these are our Californian truths.  Long and complex truths of the last two centuries that involve a documented Public-Private partnership of systems intentionally designed with surgical precision to deny California Indians’ right to exist.  Theological settler-colonial doctrine binds all past and present laws and actions from both the US & State of California government. Doctrine weighted in Supremacy and subhumanity – doctrine that refuses to respect or value all things Indigenous.  So time and time again, California Indians, all First Nations and Indigenous Peoples in this country, are routinely denied equity, opportunity within our settler-colonial systems.  Our truths must be told, they must be fully taught & they must be changed.

Present day circumstances for most California Indians are not a question of individual choice, but outcomes of deliberate and systemic action and inaction which successfully continues to deny California Indians equality and equity under state, federal and international law.

I also understand that our State government and the actions permitted from within as settler-colonists have extended well beyond our settler-made borders significantly impacting Native populations nationally and internationally.  I will also work tirelessly to ensure the rights of all Indigenous Peoples are further protected in and past our borders.   Our government’s modus operandi requires a systemic overhaul.

There are moral, social & economic debts that must be paid by both the State of California and the United States of America. These debts are owed to California Indians and Indigenous Peoples. The State of California and my government have an obligation to right these wrongs, beginning to make California Indians and Indigenous Peoples whole.  This begins with our truths, apologies & most importantly – redress. 

As your gubernatorial candidate for 2022, I proudly call for our government, and our communities to prioritize honoring the commitments, treaties, land and rights of California Indians and Indigenous Peoples. abolish the prison industrial complex – and that begins with policing.  I intend to End Poverty in California, and this is how I believe putting California Indians & First Nations first will help us achieve this:

  • Strengthening Tribal Sovereignty & decolonization
    • Create State legislation that returns supreme legal authority, political and economic power to California Indian Tribes, Indigenous Peoples and First Nations on stolen land.
      • This legislation will specifically challenging the SCOTUS precedent of Johnson v. McIntosh 1823, in which the Supreme Court adopted for the United States the “right of occupancy” version of colonial sovereignty, a premise that relies upon the Doctrine of Discovery, and the theological Divine Right of Settler-Colonialism to justify settler-colonialism despite the fact Divine Rights are not accepted or permitted elsewhere in United States law;
      • Work with First Nations to identify and repeal in their entirety any remaining State or locality legislation that is built upon the foundation of Doctrine of Discovery & Manifest Destiny;
      • Create State legislation which forbids the reduction of any current or future rights for California Tribes and Imdigenous Peoples within the State of California;
    • Ensuring all that #LandBack entails.  As settler colonialism continues to uphold policies which are crimes against humanity with past and present day California Indians, and has resulted in the utter destruction of this land as a result of our illegal occupation, greed and neglect, my government will return the land back to original caretakers & stewards of our lands since time immemorial;
      • California #LandBack will not hold any settler-colonist stipulations, like that of the United States Federal Government dictating what crops, infrastructure, policing mechanisms and every other limitation placed on California Indians for the sole purpose of our settler-colony limiting tribal sovereignty;
    • California must #HonorTheTreaties of both our 109 Federally recognized and 55 non-Federally (formerly) recognized California Indian tribes:
      • Requiring a new State vote to challenge the initial 1851 California Assembly & California Senate rejection of California Indian Treaty Ratification – specifically for the redistribution of 7.5million acres of land returned by the State of California to California Indians;
      • Creating legislation that honors the 18 unratified 1851-52 Treaties for California as a bare minimum – of the reparations and redress owed and work with leaders from all 164 California Indian Tribes and First Nations to expand California State protections under new and honored Treaties of 2020;
      • Creating State legislation that rectifies intentional harm with the 1891 Federal “Act for the Relief of the Mission Indians in the State of California” which still reduced tribal sovereignty by giving railroad & oil corporations a primary interest in all reservation land grants awarded by the State;
  • As Governor, I would meet with ALL of California’s 109 Federally & 55 Non-federally recognized tribes and Peoples on their land to fully understand their needs, rightful concerns in order to begin the process of rebuilding trust in our Government and Elected Officials;
    • In speaking to and working with all 164 California Tribes, I would like for the State of California to host a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the historic and present injustices perpetrated against California Indians. This testimony must be elevated within our State’s history, education & commitments to our First Nations.  The ultimate goal of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission would be to create calls to action which the are California Indian-led & -created for my government to begin to fully implement;
  • Authorize Reparations & Redress for Settler Colonization. This redress and program initiatives listed below are in no way complete, but I believe will begin to bring parity to all 164 California Indian First Nations now and State commitments for future Indigenous  generations by addressing:
    • Stolen Land; 
    • Continued failure to #HonorTheTreaties; 
    • State legislation which was created with the sole intention of weakening Tribal Sovereignty;
    • Federal acts which stripped unalienable rights, Sovereignty, federal recognition and as a result federal treaty obligations from land to support services;
    • State legislation that intentionally imposed cultural and physical genocide; 
    • The State’s support of Federal legislation that intentionally imposed cultural and physical genocide; 
    • Indian Residential Schools and the physical, sexual & psychological violence and trauma caused; 
    • State-sanctioned Indian Removal; 
    • Enslavement & Forced Child Separation; 
    • Intentional underdevelopment of Tribal land, Federal and State programs & financial obligations – all meant to further reduce Tribal Sovereignty and force assimilation which is both cultural and physical genocide;
    • Centuries of Violent & Incessant Resource Extraction and Exploitation;
    • State-sanctioned Environmental Injustices and further reduction of Tribal Sovereignty which is both cultural and physical genocide; 
    • Chemical Warfare; 
    • Intentionally violent acts to reduce food Sovereignty; 
    • Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women & Children;
  • Create State legislation affirming that California States reparations for California Indians and Indigenous Peoples do not deduct from or reduce Federal Indian & Native reparations, nor do they detract from Federal obligations.  A Federal debt is still owed;
  • The State must promote Self-Determination by honoring and funding each of California’s 164 Nation’s individualized economic development plans and needs;
  • Recognizing and strengthening Tribal Sovereignty means creating a Tribal Embassy in the State of California. This Tribal Embassy will further formalize State-to-State responsibilities and government relations:
    • My government will encourage all California Indian First Nations to construct the mission, objectives and preferred outcomes of this Embassy – including involving other tribes and First Nations across our country’s stolen land;
    • With consent,  the State of California and would like to use the Embassy as the vessel to apply SCOTUS precedent of McGirt v Oklahoma, we intend to#HonorTheTreaties with #LandBack, return all incarcerated First Nation members to Tribal Courts to ensure justice, financially support any California Indian program/department expansions, & also examine broader implications for taxing, zoning and other government functions across the State of California;
  • Recognizing and strengthening Tribal Sovereignty means creating Tribal Consulates in the State of California.  These consulates will also allow Tribal Nations & Governments to advocate for & support their citizens living within the California State border and across this country’s stolen land;
    • My government will encourage all California Indian First Nations to construct the mission, objectives, programs, services and preferred outcomes of these consulates – including involving other tribes and First Nations across our country’s stolen land;
    • With consent, the State of California would like to use the Tribal Consulates as a home to the Indigenous Data Sovereignty Database. Inspired by the National Congress of American Indians 2018 – the IDSD would be home to all accurate interagency data (Tribal, State, Local & Federal) which will drastically reduce non-notifications due to misclassifications, a lack state-to-state communication, and poor access to data regarding tribal citizens who Tribal nations must have the ability to advocate for their citizens living in urban areas, esp. if/when they commit a crime, are harmed, missing, killed or murdered;
  • The State of California will promote self-determination in  California Indian-led research, continue comprehensive data analytics, community work and Indian research on #MMIWG;
  • The State of California will fully fund a Tribunal for Murdered, Missing Indigenous Women & Girls to hear and record testimony of the violent epidemic faced by Indigenous Women, Girls, their Families, their Communities & First Nations 
    • The State of California will implement California Indian-created policy to address the violence of #MMIWG.  We must #ProtectTheSacred & #DefendTheSacred;
  • Create California State Legislation that authorizes additional Tribal power, funding, and resources to investigate, prosecute and convict non-Indians who commit crimes on California Indian Land, specifically challenging Supreme Court ruling and genocidal precedent Oliphant v Suquamish as all of California is stolen California Indian land:
    • Create specific legislation that addresses #MMIWG and authorizes Tribal Courts to prosecute non-Indians who commit gender-based violence or are believed to be involved in trafficking of tribal members on tribal lands by tribal courts.
  • In acknowledging the previous failures of federal and California state governments, laws, and policies to recognize tribal sovereignty our previous systems intentionally limited funding opportunities for economic growth, underdevelopment of physical infrastructures, and access to capital in Indian Country.  My government will right these wrongs through direct California Indian Funding Initiatives and Expanding Financial Access for 164 First Nations of California that promote Self-Determination:
    • Create new State-to-State legislation that allows tribal governments to use future tax and program revenues to borrow money from the Public Bank to make investments (same as the State of California does);
    • Equity licensing;
    • Creating accessible and well-funded State alternatives to the Native American Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Assistance Program, intended to leverage and attract capital for investments (which is often unavailable to First Nations or underfunded);
    • Mandate further financial training for ALL financial institutions operating in the State of California about tribal sovereignty, the absence of a politically independent judiciary, and tribal commercial laws. Hold financial institutions accountable for their conduct w/ future prosecution by the State’s Attorney General should they violate State and Federally protected rights;
    • Our California State Public Bank will ensure access to California Indian capital for California’s 164 Indian Nations:
      • Can admit trust land as collateral
      • Public Bank funding will promote Self-Determination
    • Will provide steady, equitable, and non-discretionary funding directly to California’s 164 tribal nations to support the public safety, health care, education, housing, and economic development of Native tribes and Peoples to alleviate dependency of Federal funding which has never fulfilled/kept its promises.  This funding will promote self-determination.  And my Government will #HonorTheTreaties;
  • As the State of California implements #MediCALForAllCalifornians, the State will also bring parity with other State-to-State health programs and facilities, such as Veterans Health Administration, and Urban Indian Health Centers. The State will also include additional self-determined funding for job training of any medical needs each individual California Nation may need to address previous shortages, including but not limited to mental health, Native medicine, etc.;
  • As the State of California implements #UniversalHousingForAll, the State will also bring parity with other State-to-State housing programs and facilities for California’s 169 Nations.
  • The State of California will appropriate sufficient funding for BIE schools to allow the BIE to bring all BIE schools up to their standards of habitability for their students and to attract, recruit, and retain teaching staff in BIE schools. In addition, the State of California will condition ongoing funding on BIE development of policies and programs accountable for provision of equitable and culturally responsive educational opportunities, and to achieve student performance results;
  • Challenge the federal government to provide more consistent, transparent, and deferential consultation with tribal governments and strive to reach mutually agreed solutions when working with tribes on infrastructure planning and the use and development of natural resources that occur in California as it is ALL Indian land, and will always affect Indian communities. The State of California will withdraw support, funding and involvement to #HonorTheTreaties;
  • The State of California will obtain respective California Indian Consent for all new land altering projects completed on stolen land;
  • Create a new Indigenous Environmental Stewardship & Reclamation Department to work with ALL of California’s 164 First Nations to determine what they’d like to see this department become, do, protect, and what State Power and authority we can authorize California’s Indians in leading it.  Potential projects that would be nice to see come from this:  
    • Collaborate with California Indian Tribes to create legislation which ensures parity for ownership, access, tribal & food sovereignty from the government of State of California for all California Indians;
    • Immediately end all State actions and defund all projects which violate the Senate Bill 80, of 1852 – specifically “precluding any California Indian tribes from fishing in accordance with custom heretofore practiced by them.”
      • I stand in Solidarity with the Winnemem Wintu First Nation and oppose the expansion of the Shasta Dam Raise.  It is in direct opposition to the initial bill & believe since its erection violates State law, it must be challenged.  I also oppose the Shasta Dam raise as it will further deny the Winnemem Wintu First Nation their ability to practice cultural and spiritual traditions;
      • I stand in Solidarity with all First Nations in the State currently fighting State Legislation and geo-engineering which has/will directly impact their connections to the land, their ancestors, cultural & spiritual traditions;
    • State & Locality Seed Bank & Library with Local and native species for preservation identified by all 164 Tribes and California Indians in every County/Region of California to strengthen permaculture, biodiversity & ensure California’s Climate Resilience;
    • Collaborate with the State Attorney General to hold Energy & Resource Extraction Large Corporations accountable for Corporate Crimes, Environmental Crimes, Suppressing Tribal Sovereignty, and Environmental Injustices;
      • #LandBack ex. – California Edison spaces (and any other Energy/Utility/Resource extraction  Corp that owns forest in State Parks) – returning those IMMEDIATELY to California Indians to become protected tribal land and ensure environmental stewardship;
      • #LandBack ex. All Private Water Bottling Company Locations (Arrowhead, Nestle, Pure , Dasani, etc.; – returning those IMMEDIATELY to California Indians to become protected tribal land and ensure environmental stewardship because #WaterIsLife;
      • See #SoakTheRich & Corporate Accountability for further details
    • Fires are a way of life for California – however the severity and duration of the natural disasters we’ve seen in recent years have as much to do with rises in temperature, droughts, as they do with both Federal and State mismanagement and legislation.  More importantly, California Indians and First Nations have long been stewards of our environment and have been spiritual practicing rights with cultural burns, and the weakening of Tribal Sovereignty.  No more.  The State of California will meet California Indians and First Nations Land and Forest Rehabilitation needs (specifically through funding, legislation) where previously both our State and Federal Government have not. State Legislation must reflect and elevate California Indian needs, cultural & spiritual practices, and environmental stewardship;
    • The State of California must meet Sovereign States’ Fish, Wildlife and Recreation needs (specifically funding which promotes Self-Determination) that the Federal Government does not. State Legislation must reflect and elevate California Indian needs, cultural & spiritual practices, and environmental stewardship;
    • As the FY2019 Federal Budget proposed to eliminate the BIA Tribal Resilience Program, which helps increase tribal capacity to address the effects of climate change, the State of California must fully cover (and expand) all services this program provided under California’s new Indigenous Environmental Stewardship & Reclamation Department. State Legislation and action must reflect and elevate California Indian needs, cultural & spiritual practices, and environmental stewardship;
  • #KeepItInTheGround: we will end all State-sanctioned/funded resource extractions and exploitations (mining, fracking, water redirection, etc) & ensure all Native lands & Peoples are the first to receive Green New Deal infrastructure, and complete financial support that strengthens Tribal Sovereignty:
    • Study the impact of the State’s sustainable transition and frequency of Gender-based violence often brought by oil field man camps as the State ends resource extraction;
  • As recently as two centuries ago the State of California had more language diversity than all of Europe with well over 200 Indian languages spoken.  Our State and Country have spent more money erasing California Indian languages than it has saving them.  From white-settler colonization, to various State and Federal programs which violently forced assimilation for both cultural and physical genocide.  The State of California will fully fund a California Indian & Native Language Protection & Preservation Program for all 164 recognized First Nations. This program can include:
    • Child and adult immersion programs;
    • Translation apps & video games; 
    • Online classes;
    • Radio & talk show;
    •  and any other platform or technique chosen by California Indian tribes;
  • I recognize the division and alienation of Indian land and assets both by the government, private citizens & corporations had and continues to have devastating consequences for California Indians:
    • Indian land belongs in Indian hands – and I fully support #LandBack and our government must #HonorTheTreaties;
    • Ensure land tenure protections to all California Indians and First Nations are strengthen and the heir property loopholes and vulnerabilities which developers consistently use to legally acquire Indian land are closed;
    • Formally investigate and prosecute predatory developers who have acquired land through Heirs’ property loopholes.  Accountability involves redress and #LandBack.
    • Californian Indian Wills Initiative will ensure that all California Indians will receive financial and legal support to complete a living will, with the goal of obtaining 100% completion from all participants to ensure total protection. 
      • California Indian wills can be updated through this initiative as often as needed;
      • This Initiative will also provide land-grant extension agents to all California Indians enrolled in the program for additional assistance, support & land protection:
        • Land-grant extension Agents will be assigned 1:4;
  • The State of California must promote and fund self-determined Food Sovereignty and the development/expansion of California Indian Food Systems. California State Legislation and action must reflect California Indian needs, support First Nations financially to achieve this, and respect Tribal Sovereignty;
  • The State must fund a Green/Sustainable Energy & Utility Plan for all 164 California tribes in California that each of these First Nations develop:  Including, but not limited to telecommunications (including high speed internet and wireless) infrastructure, electricity, & any other infrastructure California’s First Nations determine to be necessary;
  • UC’s must pay reparations to First Nations for damage caused by their active arms of settler-colonial policies, expansion and explicit harm;
  • Create an interagency initiative which offers State Advocates that provide culturally competent assistance for California Indian veterans and families  – regardless of their proximity to VA facilities – to obtain their rightfully earned VA benefits.
    • Should these benefits continue to be denied by the Federal Government, create State legislation which extends and adjusts current GI Bill & all other VA benefits to all descendants of California Indian American Veterans who served in WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam or any wars thereafter who were denied meaningful access to their rightfully earned benefits.  Such legislation would compensate California Indian Veterans and their families for the withheld benefits to which they and their relatives were legally entitled and were unjustly denied while also formally addressing the racial wealth gap. 
  • Call for Federal legislation which extends and adjusts current GI Bill & all other VA benefits to all Veterans, families & descendants of California Indian American Veterans who served in WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam or any wars thereafter that were denied their rightfully earned benefits.  Such legislation would compensate California Indian Veterans and their families for the withheld benefits to which they and their relatives were legally entitled and were unjustly denied while also formally addressing the racial wealth gap.
  • I am eager to work with all 164 California Indian First Nations, Sister Song, American Indian Movement – Southern California, Sogorea Te Land Trust, Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples, Cultural Conservancy, Women’s Earth Alliance,  Yurok Agricultural Corporation, Pikayiv Field Institute, Tribal Youth Ambassadors of the CIMCC, the Wishtoyo Foundation, Indigenous Circle of Wellness, Black Earth Farms, National Urban Indian Family Coalition, California Indian Environmental Alliance, Friendship House, Indian People Organizing for Change, California Rural Indian Health Board, International Indian Treaty Council, Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project, Native Dads Network, Sovereign Bodies Institute, Bay Area Native American Health Center, Save the Klamath Trinity Salmon, United American Indian Involvement, inc., Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival, California Indian Museum and Cultural Center, Hoʻopae Pono Peace Project, Resources Legacy Fund, & other grassroots and impactful organizations, advocates, activists and pillars in Indigenous rights, decolonization, tribal sovereignty, food sovereignty, health, cultural preservation, labor, human rights, gender-based violence, and research communities to ensure the needs of ALL California Indians, Indigenous Peoples and First Nations in #OurCalifornia are inclusive and sustainably met;
  • State Deputization of chosen grassroots nonprofits who are successfully providing dynamic and critical social services to #OurCalifornia to act as an extension of our government in expanding their work and services with the funding, staffing and State recognition they deserve;
    • Will participate within the State Jobs Guarantee Program;
  • In the true spirit of Upton Sinclair’s End Poverty in California campaign, I will call on fellow Citizens, Socialists, Governors, and fellow Socialist Gubernatorial campaigns across this country to adopt and implement the same.