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Approved by Governor Newsom and filed with the Secretary of State on September 23, 2022. CA Assembly Bill1703 , reflects the following; This bill would establish the California Indian Education Act and encourage school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to form California Indian Education Task Forces with California tribes local to their regions or tribes historically located in the region. To the extent that this bill imposes new duties on the county office of...

(Photo: David Monniaux, CC-BYSA 3.0 <creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en> via Wikimedia Commons) News Release California State University, San Bernardino California Assemblymember James Ramos honored tribal elders for working to preserve Native American culture such as language, and songs by teaching them to younger generations of Native Americans. Robert Levi Jr., Elder/Culture Bearer In-Residence saw his father, Robert Levi Sr., a Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian,...

Funding Agreement serves as an example of successful State & Tribal Government collaboration. September 7, 2022 The Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the San Luis Rey Indian Water Authority celebrate the signing of a funding agreement that provides $ 15 Million in direct financial assistance to Tribal communities. As California experiences a third consecutive year of drought - and plans for the possibility of a fourth dry year to come - many communities face challenges in accessing...

The Healing Award: Reservation Dogs (FX/Hulu) Season one of the runaway hit Reservation Dogs was about a group of Muscogee Nation teens unpacking the suicide of one of their mates, Daniel, who killed himself before he and the crew could escape their Oklahoma surroundings and run away to California. Season two, currently unfolding, is a lesson in the power that grief plays in our ability to heal from trauma. Whereas the first season exudes an air of mystery over what happened to Daniel, in...

Child Trends’ Dr. Heather Sauyaq Jean Gordon recently spoke on the Talking about Kids podcast to share anti-racist approaches to supporting Native and Indigenous children. When explaining how to engage in anti-racist and decolonizing research with Native and Indigenous communities, Dr. Gordon underscored the importance of relationship-building, gaining community and individual consent, having an asset-based approach, and valuing Indigenous Knowledge. She added that educators and others...

A community is only as strong as its mothers and fathers. The heritage of Native Americans is rich in community and family bonds. In the Lakota culture, the word thióšpaye encompasses the conviction that family is made up of immediate blood relatives and extends to all those within their tribal clan. The abundance of a family is the measure of your wealth and creates the very foundation of one's life. This weekend, we're sharing some thoughts about Native men who are strong fathers and...

IN SUMMARY A racial equity organization launched a new $500,000 fund to help Indigenous Californians record the state’s history of colonial violence. Leaders are partnering with the state’s Truth & Healing Council, which will produce a report. A racial equity organization is announcing a new fund that will help Native American communities preserve tribal history and further California’s effort to atone for its history of violence and wrongdoing against Native Americans. The Decolonizing...

In response to a Request for Information from the Federal Administration for Children and Families on the technical assistance (TA) needs of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities providing early childhood programs and services, Child Trends experts offered several strategies for TA providers to meet these needs: Invest in TA efforts that support the implementation and coordination of early childhood programs in Indigenous communities. Increase TA provider capacity around...

By Nicole Chavez, Photo: Darlene Gomez, CNN US, May 5, 2022 Shawna Toya was eager to carry on her ancestor's legacy of pottery making in New Mexico when her mother's cellphone rang about 3:45 a.m. and the "worst call" came in last year. "Oh no, it can't be... I just talked to her. You have the wrong person," Geraldine Toya recalls telling a police officer. Her 40-year-old daughter Shawna was found dead on July 31, 2021 inside her SUV at a park in Albuquerque. A few hours earlier, the family...

Thunderbird Woman was the image that caught my eye at the Standing Rock water protector camps. As an Ojibwe woman, I immediately realized that the depiction was an example of my ancestors’ ancient spirit writings, or symbols, recorded on birch bark scrolls and on rock faces along the Great Lakes long before Europeans landed in America. Thunderbird Woman, with her winged arms outstretched, seemed to float on the canvases at Standing Rock, portraying a cosmology in which dynamic spiritual...

By Elisabetta Povoledo and Ian Austen, Photo: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters, The New York Times, March 28, 2022 Pope Francis on Monday held his first Vatican meeting with Indigenous groups from Canada who were seeking his apology over the Roman Catholic Church’s involvement in a system of boarding schools that abused Indigenous children for over 100 years. The meeting, with two of Canada’s three largest Indigenous groups, suggests that the pope, who had declined to apologize over the matter,...

U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), vice chairman of the Committee, released the following statements on inclusion of the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022 (VAWA) in a bipartisan appropriations deal. The bill now heads to the President’s desk to be signed into law. “Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022’s tribal provisions will restore justice for Native...