Indian lawmaker withdraws repatriation bill after being linked to 'genocide'

Wednesday, August 7, 2019  

A bill aimed at improving repatriation policies in California has been shelved amid outcry from Native activists and some tribes.

Assemblymember James Ramos (D), who is the first California Native to serve in the Legislature, told Indian Country Today that he is withdrawing AB 275. His had originally said he was going to amend the bill as it moved forward but he changed his mind, Debra Krol reported for the outlet.

“AB 275, while well-intentioned, has inadvertently brought to the surface important issues facing Indian Country. It is clear these issues warrant time and discussion," Ramos, a former chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, told ICT. "Therefore I will not be pursuing the bill. While acknowledging the horrid past of the state of California toward its California Tribes, the need for education and discussion on the past atrocities and genocide is needed in order to move forward.”

As introduced, critics said the bill would have excluded non-federally recognized tribes in a state that recently acknowledged how its policies contributed to the mistreatment of Native peoples. The marginalization of legitimate Indian nations is just one outcome of "state sponsored genocide,", according to the California Indigenous Nations Alliance, an opponent of the measure.

“When they came for our ancestors, they did not ask if they were federally recognized or not, they did not ask if you came from a reservation. They killed us, hunted us down, took our children and raped our women because they were natives," Norman "Wounded Knee" DeOcampo, a Miwok elder, said at a meeting of the California Native American Heritage Commission on July 19. "No distinction was made. Every California tribe should be allowed to re-bury their ancestors in their own way, with their own tradition."

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A post shared by Assemblymember James C. Ramos (@asmjamesramos) on May 6, 2019 at 5:12pm PDT

Prior to the the controversy Ramos secured other legislative achievements since taking office last December. Assembly Concurrent Resolution 83 designated May as as the month for awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

"This is a nationwide issue that especially affects California, as we are home to more people of Native American/Alaskan Native heritage than any other state in the country," Ramos said during a floor speech on May 6. "California is number six on the top ten states with the highest number of such cases."

Another Ramos bill to expand the University of California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Implementation and Oversight Committee to include more tribal representation became law last month. The committee, which was established by the California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 2001, will now have four voting tribal representatives. At least one is to come from a non-federally recognized tribe.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed Assembly Bill 1662 into law on July 12. A month prior, he issued an a formal apology to Native peoples, calling their treatment by the state a "genocide."

California is home to more than 100 tribes, the largest number in the lower 48. While most are recognized by the federal government, many are not due to a history of negative state and federal policies, which included the forced relocation of tribal communities to religious missions, a number of massacres of tribal peoples, the failure of the U.S. Senate to ratify tribal treaties negotiated in the late 1800s and the termination of the status of dozens of tribes in the 1950s and 1960s.

Despite the genocidal record, California is home to the largest number of American Indians and Alaska Natives, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Newsom's apology establishes a Truth and Healing Council that will collect the histories of Native people.

After California tribes cry foul, Assembly Member James Ramos kills a repatriation bill (Indian Country Today August 7, 2019)

Indian lawmaker plans to change repatriation bill to include all tribes (August 5, 2019)
California governor apologizes for 'genocide' of Native peoples (June 19, 2019)