SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order Tuesday apologizing on behalf of the citizens of California for a history of "violence, maltreatment and neglect" against Native Americans in a rare move that some tribal leaders said could begin a healing process for their communities.
"California must reckon with our dark history," Newsom said. "We can never undo the wrongs inflicted on the peoples who have lived on this land that we now call California since time immemorial, but we can work together to build bridges, tell the truth about our past and begin to heal deep wounds."
Newsom is expected to offer an in-person apology during remarks at a blessing ceremony at the site of the future California Indian Heritage Center in West Sacramento. More than 100 tribal leaders from all over the state gathered in Sacramento on Tuesday for an annual meeting.
The governor's order references an 1851 address from the state's first chief executive, former Gov. Peter Burnett, in which he tells lawmakers to expect "a war of extermination" to continue "until the Indian race becomes extinct."
A year earlier in the Legislature's first session, lawmakers approved an "Act for the Government and Protection of the Indians" that allowed Native Americans to be sold into indentured servitude for minor offenses and separated children from their families. The state spent the equivalent of more than $1 million in currency at the time to subsidize militia campaigns against the native people, according to the governor's office.
California's American Indian population declined from about 150,000 to 30,000 between 1846 and 1879, wrote Benjamin Madley, a University of California, Los Angeles assistant professor of history, in a 2016 op-ed calling for the state to acknowledge the genocide. Madley is the author of the 2009 book "An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873."
Daniel Salgado, chairman of the Cahuilla Band of Indians, said Newsom's formal apology is a recognition of a long history of what happened to native people in California.
"People can say it should have come a long time ago but I appreciate that this governor is stepping up and taking that first step in what we believe is a healing process," Salgado said. "In any kind of relationship, there's recognition of a wrongdoing, an apology and a healing starts to take place."
Newsom's office said the state had never formally apologized for actions against Native Americans until Tuesday. The governor is also calling for a Truth and Healing Council to hear testimony and clarify the historical record on the relationship between the state and California Native Americans.
Abby Abinanti, chief judge of the Yurok Tribal Court, said she hopes the council will serve as a model for other states.
"It'll be a long process, an education process," Abinanti said. "Truth is a good thing. Healing is a good thing. We're at a time and place in the world where it's essential for us to try to do those things."
