California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 202

Introduced by Assembly Member Alejo

August 17, 2016

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 202—Relative to Native American atrocities.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

ACR 202, as introduced, Alejo. Native American atrocities.

This measure would acknowledge that the State of California engaged in atrocities against Native Americans within the state and would profusely apologize to Native Americans in California for these inexcusable actions.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, In 1850, one of the first acts performed by the
Legislature was to prevent Native Americans from accessing and
participating in the legal and political system by prohibiting them
from voting, serving as jurors, or serving as attorneys; and

WHEREAS, In 1850, the Legislature also essentially allowed
the enslavement of Native Americans by legalizing custody of
Native American minors, and in 1860, the Legislature went further
by legalizing the indentured servitude of any Native American;
and

WHEREAS, The State of California collaborated with vigilantes
and the federal government in forcibly transferring Native
American children from one tribe to another, which fractured native
families; and

WHEREAS, In 1851, California Governor Peter Burnett declared
that “a war of extermination will continue to be waged ... until the
Indian race becomes extinct”; and

WHEREAS, Multiple governors of California authorized at
least 24 state militia expeditions between 1850 and 1861, which
killed an estimated 1,340 Native Americans, demolished Native
American villages and agricultural centers, and displaced many
tribes from the California locales they had inhabited for thousands
of years; and

WHEREAS, The state-sponsored killing of Native Americans
also enabled and encouraged vigilantes to kill at least 6,460 Native
Americans in California between 1846 and 1873; and

WHEREAS, California’s native population fell dramatically,
from nearly 150,000 in 1846 to 30,000 in 1870; now, therefore,
be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature acknowledges that the
State of California engaged in atrocities against Native Americans
within the state, and profusely apologizes to the Native Americans
in California for these inexcusable actions; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the various Native American tribes that reside
within the State of California, the Governor of the State of
California, and to the author for appropriate distribution.