SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today issued a proclamation declaring October 14, 2024, as “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”
The text of the proclamation and a copy can be found below:
PROCLAMATION
For the sixth year in a row, California proclaims today as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In doing so, we reflect on the vibrant cultural diversity, and tenacity, of the Indigenous peoples who now call California home – including those who originate from and maintain deep relationships with these lands and waters, those who were relocated here from their sacred homelands by federal policies and those who have crossed oceans and borders with hope in the ability to find economic stability, community and safety in these lands of opportunity.
In recent years, we have experienced a global effort to disentangle the harmful legacies of historical violence and extraction and restore the beneficial legacies of Indigenous balance, sustainability and reciprocity. This includes a growing understanding of how the doctrine of discovery was called on historically to justify the expropriation of Indigenous lands and subjugation of Indigenous peoples, a legacy that has also been linked to the worsening of climate change and other environmental harms.
Increasingly, we are turning to Indigenous peoples in the existential imperative to restore balance, weather climate impacts and preserve biodiversity. This year alone, California followed the charge of the Klamath Basin tribes to complete the largest dam removal project in American history; welcomed native beaver, wolf and condor populations home; and enacted historic land access, return and stewardship mechanisms for Indigenous peoples. Later this month, California, along with leaders from across the globe, will meet to discuss the need to respect, preserve and maintain the knowledge, innovations and practices of Indigenous peoples in the race to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
As we look toward a future in which we continue to support these practices while also bolstering Indigenous language learning and revitalization, uplifting Indigenous sports in mainstream spaces, spotlighting Indigenous arts and infusing governance with Indigenous values, we are excited for the chance to demonstrate this work on the world stage at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Los Angeles boasts not only a rich community of the first people of those lands and waters, but also one of the largest populations of Native American people and diverse Indigenous immigrants alike. Further, for the first time in over 100 years, the games will include the Indigenous sport of lacrosse, offering an opportunity to showcase the Haudenosaunee athletes whose ancestors invented the game.
Today, as we are reminded of the forces of violence, displacement and oppression that tried and failed to eradicate Indigenous communities, I call on all Californians to find meaningful opportunities to uplift, validate and engage with Indigenous peoples and cultures on a global scale.
NOW THEREFORE I, GAVIN NEWSOMGovernor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim October 14, 2024, as “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”
IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 14th day of October 2024.
GAVIN NEWSOM
Governor of California
ATTEST:
SHIRLEY N. WEBER, Ph.D.
Secretary of State
