California Government Code

§ 54260

GOV § 54260 Effective Jan 1, 2022Div. 2 · Title 5 · Part 1 · Ch. 5 · Art. 11

Statute text

The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a)In the early decades of California’s statehood, the relationship between the state and California Native Americans was fraught with violence, exploitation, dispossession, and the attempted destruction of tribal communities. In 1850, California passed a law called the “Act for the Government and Protection of Indians,” which facilitated removing California Native Americans from their traditional lands, separating children and adults from their families, languages, and culture, and creating a system of indentured servitude as punishment for minor crimes such as loitering.

(b)Between the years 1850 and 1859, California Governors called for private and militia campaigns against Native American peoples in the state. In his 1851 State of the State Address, California’s first Governor declared “[t]hat a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the two races until the Indian race becomes extinct must be expected.” Subsequently, the state authorized $1,290,000 in 1850’s dollars to subsidize these militia campaigns.

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Legislative history

Added by Stats. 2021, Ch. 291, Sec. 1. (SB 712) Effective January 1, 2022.