California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 55

Introduced by Assembly Members Stone and Alejo

April 30, 2013

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 55—Relative to the Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Highway.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

ACR 55, as introduced, Stone. Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Highway.

This measure would designate a specified portion of State Highway Route 68, in the County of Monterey, as the Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Highway. The measure would request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost for appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.

Fiscal committee: yes.

WHEREAS, The Esselen people have been indigenous to the
Greater Monterey County area for more than 10,000 years and
from their known ancestral tribal villages from the coast and inland,
the Esselen people hunted, traded, and lived peacefully together,
and are known today as the Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation;
and

WHEREAS, The Esselen people lived from Big Sur on the
Pacific Coast to the Pajaro River to Fremont Peak to Salinas and
the Pinnacles caves, across the fertile valley to Arroyo Seco, up
to Monterey, Carmel, and back to Big Sur, where they built a
vibrant, healthy, and culturally rich society; and

WHEREAS, For generations, their ancestors maintained strong
family and kinship ties through tribal and family gatherings,
weddings, baptisms, funerals, and other family events. Their
cultural ties have bound their tribe and families for generation after
generation; and

WHEREAS, Since the arrival of Europeans, California Indians
have endured a long and well-documented history of change forced
by assimilation and discrimination; and

WHEREAS, The Esselen people were forced from their ancestral
lands and into starvation and illness; to survive they hid in local
mountains and canyons known today as Palo Colorado, Ventana
Wilderness, Arroyo Seco, Tassajara, Pinnacles, Chualar Canyon,
Prunedale Canyon, Corral de Tierra, Fort Ord, Santa Lucia, and
El Portero; and

WHEREAS, In 1883, the Esselen people were formally
recognized by Special Agents Helen Hunt Jackson and Abbott
Kinney of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and in 1906 were placed
under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington,
D.C., and became known as the Monterey Band of Monterey
County specifically identifying Tom Santos Miranda and his
family; and

WHEREAS, Frequent communication was vital to tribal society.
Esselen ancestors developed roads by following deer trails and
creek beds from coastal villages to inland villages and families
and their most used route is known today as State Highway Route
68; and

WHEREAS; State Highway Route 68 was later used by
Spaniards, Padre Junipero Serra, the Juan DeAnza Expedition, Los
Californios, and most recently by tourists traveling from mission
to mission, or to the Pebble Beach Golf Course, the racetrack
located at Laguna Seca, and Fort Ord; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby designates that
portion of State Highway Route 68 between Blanco Road in the
City of Salinas and Anza Drive in the County of Monterey as the
Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Highway; and be it further

Resolved, That the Department of Transportation is requested
to determine the cost of erecting the appropriate signs, consistent
with the signing requirements for the state highway system,
showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations
from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs; and
be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the Director of Transportation and to the author
for appropriate distribution.