SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today issued a proclamation declaring October 14, 2024, “Indigenous Peoples Day.”

The text of the proclamation and a copy can be found below:

PROCLAMATION

For the sixth year in a row, California declares today 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 come from and maintain deep relationships with these lands and waters, those who have moved here from their sacred homelands through federal policy and those who have crossed oceans and borders with hope in the ability to find economic stability, community and security in these lands of opportunity.

In recent years, we have witnessed a global effort to untangle 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 historically the doctrine of discovery has been invoked to justify the dispossession of indigenous lands and the subjugation of indigenous peoples, a legacy that has also been linked to the worsening of climate change and other environmental damage.

We are increasingly turning to indigenous peoples in the existential need to restore balance, weather climate impacts and preserve biodiversity. This year alone, California followed the orders of the Klamath Basin Tribes to complete the largest dam removal project in U.S. history; welcomed native beaver, wolf, and condor populations home; and established historic land access, return, and stewardship mechanisms for Indigenous peoples. Later this month, California, along with leaders from around the world, will meet to discuss the need to respect, preserve and preserve the knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous peoples in the race to halt biodiversity loss and turn back.

As we look to a future where we continue to support these practices while strengthening Indigenous language learning and revitalization, elevating Indigenous sports in mainstream spaces, highlighting Indigenous arts, and infusing governance with Indigenous values, we are excited about the opportunity to to demonstrate this work. on the world stage at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Los Angeles boasts not only a rich community of the First Peoples of those lands and waters, but also one of the largest populations of Native American people and diverse indigenous immigrants. Furthermore, for the first time in more than 100 years, the games will include the native sport of lacrosse, providing an opportunity to spotlight the Haudenosaunee athletes whose ancestors invented the game.

Today, as we are reminded of the forces of violence, displacement and oppression that Indigenous communities tried and failed to eradicate, I call on all Californians to find meaningful opportunities to uplift, validate Indigenous peoples and cultures on a global scale and get in touch with it.

NOW THEREFORE ME, GAVIN NEWSOMGovernor of the State of California, hereby proclaim October 14, 2024, “Indigenous Peoples Day.”

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have reached out and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed on this 14th^e day of October 2024.

GAVIN NIEUWSOM
Governor of California

TO GIVE EVIDENCE:

SHIRLEY N. WEBER, Ph.D.
State Secretary