The California Assembly marked a first on Monday, when it opened a session with a prayer and land acknowledgment delivered by the first and only California Native American elected to the state Legislature.
On Monday, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Salinas) called upon Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-San Bernardino) to deliver the first land acknowledgment recognizing area tribes on whose lands the state Capitol stands prior to the opening of an Assembly floor session.
The land acknowledgment begins at 51:13 at https://www.assembly.ca.gov/media/assembly-floor-session-20240506.
“I was moved by the speaker’s request to perform a land acknowledgment. Tribes have always populated this state. We had no boundaries, and we resided on our long-held homelands until Europeans and settlers immigrated to what is now known as California. To acknowledge the first stewards of the land is an important step toward healing between the state and tribes,” Ramos said.
He added, “Peter Burnett, California’s first governor, called for extermination of the Indian race. In 2019, Gov. Newsom apologized for the genocide and other atrocities committed against California Indians. Now, in 2024, our 71st speaker, Robert Rivas, stepped along the healing path with a call for the first legislative session land acknowledgment. I thank him.”
“As I reflect on California’s history, which is checkered with great wrongs to Native Americans, I cannot help but recognize the resilience of the state’s first stewards,” Rivas said. “We must never forget that past, and we begin by acknowledging those to whom the land was entrusted from Time Immemorial.”
Rivas said that In 2018, it was his honor to be sworn in with the first Ramos. “And today, as Speaker of the Assembly, I was proud to initiate the Legislature’s first land acknowledgment of the Capitol region’s First People, the Nisenan and Miwok tribes.”