Newsom’s Grant Program: Indigenous Reparations
As the California coast struggles with extreme levels of pollution and associated rising sea levels, citizens are in search of and advocating for viable solutions. These solutions are in hope to decelerate the anticipated damage in years to come. It is expected that “with limited human intervention, 24 to 75 percent of Southern California beaches could completely erode back to coastal infrastructure or sea cliffs by the year 2100.”
The course of this projected environmental damage could be reduced by recent efforts such as the Energy Innovation and Carbon Divided Act and Indigenous-led climate initiatives. One ever-present threat on California’s marine environment is offshore oil-drilling, which the Chumash people have been addressing through a proposed co-managed and federally protected sanctuary between the Chumash, other local tribes, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The sanctuary would protect land that is valuable to California’s coastal tribes, such as the Chumash People, and would prevent oceanic industrial development such as oil drilling in an area that spans 156 miles of coastline and 7,670 square miles of ocean.
Governor Newsom has had a similar approach to the climate crisis as seen in his establishment of the California Truth and Healing Council, Executive Order N-15–19, and N-82–20, all of which are coming to fruition by offering California tribes $100 million in part to buy back their land.
In 2022, Newsom announced the 100 million budget proposal to the California Truth and Healing Council for a “tribal nature-based solutions program,” this funding to establish the program was ultimately approved in the states 2022–23’ and 2023–24 budget.
This grant will help tribes “reacquire those lands to ensure that tribes are back in the stewardship role,” as stated by Geneva Thompson, Deputy Secretary of Tribal Affairs for the agency. This demonstrates the Newsom administration’s plans to address climate change through “nature-based” solutions as Thomson states, “we know that the lands benefit and are healthier by being stewarded by tribes and by being lived with in relation to tribal traditional ecological knowledge [and] cultural practices.”
This would look like utilizing program funds for forestry management and restoration through cultural burning alongside the returning of ancestral land, as was expressed as a top priority by tribes present in the discussion regarding the program.
The Truth and Healing Council is part of an executive order that was issued by Governor Gavin Newsom on June 18, 2019, in which he “apologizes on behalf of the State for the historical ‘violence, exploitation, dispossession and the attempted destruction of communities’ which dislocated the California Native Americans from their ancestral land and sacred practices.”
Coinciding with the order’s intention of supporting “tribal self-determination and self-government,” the California Truth and Healing Council was established in order to observe and alter the historical relationship between the State of California and Indigenous peoples of California.
The council’s leadership is headed by Governor Newsom’s Tribal Advisor and is governed by a Governing Council of California indigenous leaders.
Upon its creation, Frankie Myers, a member of the Yurok Tribe and Governing Council as the Vice President Chairman of the Northern Region, shared the following sentiments, “this council’s findings must find their way into museums, schoolbooks, legislative earnings and dinner table conversations. Californians should know whose stolen land they live on; wonder whose stolen water they are drinking and appreciate the rich cultures which could never be fully stolen from us.”
While housing for tribal members was an additional concern brought forth by the 45 tribes who were consulted regarding the grant, lands purchased through the program would not be able to be lived on.
This alludes to criticisms and concerns that have been brought forward as stated by Muwekma Ohlone Chairwoman Charlene Nijmeh, whose tribe was not included in the related Truth and Healing Council Initiative, states “too much focus is on plants and animals and not the Native people. It’s a perpetuation of colonialism and performative allyship.”
The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe is not federally recognized following their loss of that status in 1927 when the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) determined that they were not in need of land.
A federally acknowledged tribe is one that “is recognized as having a government-to-government relationship with the United States, with the responsibilities, owers, limitations, and obligations attached to that designation, and is eligible for funding and services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.”
Being federally recognized “means that the US government accepts the limited independence and sovereignty of tribe and deals and interacts with it on a government-to-government basis and allows for tribes to access federal funds and grants.”
Today, there are over 400 Native American tribes that are not federally recognized as obtaining federal acknowledgement, which is a lengthy, and often expensive, process that requires “a nation’s history which has shown continuous existence, political authority, and community since contact.”
Despite the countless barriers to receiving federal recognition, the Muwekma Tribe is looking forward to receiving federal recognition following their original submission in 1995 and a lawsuit against the BIA for an unlawfully lengthy reaffirmation process.
While federal status may prevent tribes from accessing certain federal funds and programs, California tribes are eligible to apply for Newsom’s grant, regardless of federal recognition status.
This applies to the current 110 federally recognized tribes and 81 tribes seeking recognition in California for whom applications for the program were due on Sept. 29, 2023, if they chose to apply.
Chairman Brian Wallace of the Round Valley tribes states, “The reacquisition of ancestral lands is essential to our ability to maintain our cultural practices and pass them on to future generations.”
He also states that, “this program will help us to reclaim our heritage and build a brighter future for our people.” California tribes who have applied to access grant funds for potential projects and land purchases through the standard grant process can look forward to the award posting date in early to mid-May 2024.
Photo Courtesy of Grist
