California Schools Must Teach About Native American Mistreatment

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — For Johnny Hernandez Jr., vice chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in Southern California, it was tough as a child rising up round San Bernardino to listen to two totally different accounts of the histories of Indigenous peoples within the state.

One account got here from his elders and was primarily based on their lived experiences, and one other got here from his academics at college and glossed over a long time of mistreatment Native American individuals confronted.

“You have your family, but then you have the people you’re supposed to respect — teachers and the administration,” he stated. “As a kid — I’ll speak for myself — it is confusing to … know who’s telling the truth.”

Now a invoice signed into regulation by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday requires public colleges instructing elementary, center or highschool college students about Spanish colonization and the California gold rush to incorporate instruction on the mistreatment and contributions of Native Americans throughout throughout these intervals. The state Department of Education should seek the advice of with tribes when it updates its historical past and social research curriculum framework after Jan. 1, 2025, underneath the regulation.

“This is a critical step to right some of the educational wrongs,” Hernandez stated earlier than the invoice was signed.

Newsom signed the measure Friday on California Native American Day, a vacation first designated within the Nineties to honor the tradition and historical past of Indigenous peoples within the state. California is house to 109 federally acknowledged Indigenous tribes, the second-most within the nation behind Alaska.

“I’m proud of the progress California has made to reckon with the dark chapters of our past, and we’re committed to continuing this important work to promote equity, inclusion and accountability for Native peoples,” Newsom stated in assertion. “As we celebrate the many tribal communities in California today, we recommit to working with tribal partners to better address their unique needs and strengthen California for all.”

Newsom, who issued a state apology in 2019 for the historic violence towards and mistreatment of Native Americans, additionally signed one other 10 measures Friday to additional help tribal wants.

Democratic Assemblymember James C. Ramos, the primary Native American state lawmaker in California who authored the curriculum invoice, stated it will construct on laws the state handed in 2022 encouraging college districts to work with tribes to include their historical past into curricula.

“For far too long California’s First People and their history have been ignored or misrepresented,” he stated in an announcement final month. “Classroom instruction about the Mission and Gold Rush periods fails to include the loss of life, enslavement, starvation, illness and violence inflicted upon California Native American people during those times. These historical omissions from the curriculum are misleading.”

Sophie Austin is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points. Follow Austin on X: @sophieadanna