On June 18, 2019, some 150 years after the state-sponsored genocide of several thousands of Native Americans in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom extended an historic and profound formal apology to all California Native Americans for this atrocity. Gov. Newsome issued this landmark apology in a solemn yet hopeful address to tribal leaders from throughout California, which is memorialized in Executive Order N-15-19.

On January 6, 1851, California’s first governor Peter Burnett said in an address to the legislature, “That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct must be expected.”

This haunting statement from California’s first elected governor was an affirmation of state-sponsored orders at the time that supported a genocide of Native Americans throughout the state. Between 1846 and 1879 alone, California’s American Indian population declined from about 150,000 to 30,000, as cited by author Benjamin Madley in his book “An American Genocide”.

During this time, my ancestors suffered unimaginable acts of cruelty, culminating in 1866 when militia forces from San Bernardino conducted a 32-day extermination campaign to rid indigenous Serrano men, women, and children from the San Bernardino Mountains. My great-great-grandfather Santos Manuel, who was our leader at the time, safely led 30 remaining tribal members from their ancient mountain homelands to the San Bernardino valley to escape the militias. In 1891, the San Manuel Indian Reservation was established by presidential executive order with 640 acres along the steep hillsides where we live today.

Speaking on behalf of our tribe, we are grateful for the governor’s apology as it is the beginning of a healing process for Native people, and a recognition that we are all critical to California’s progress and future. On behalf of the citizens of the state, Gov. Newsom apologized for the historical wrongs encouraged, subsidized and committed by state actors and for the overall mistreatment of the state’s Indigenous peoples.

“It’s called genocide,” said Gov. Newsom at the meeting in Sacramento. “That’s what it was, a genocide. No other way to describe it. And that’s the way it needs to be described in the history books.”

While these atrocities committed against California’s Native Americans can never be undone and will never be forgotten, Executive Order N-15-19 is a beacon of light from a dark time in this State’s history that has impacted generation upon generation of Indigenous people.

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Vote no on ballot-box-budgeting Measure J in L.A. County It is a beacon of light for the more than 700,000 Native Americans in California because there is now a state-supported path for the truth to be recognized. A key provision in the Executive Order establishes the Truth and Healing Council that, according to Gov. Newsom, will include representatives of California Indian Tribes working with state officials to clarify the record of the historical wrongs and develop approaches to strengthen the state’s relationship with Tribal nations.

If given the opportunity, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians will be a proud member of this Truth and Healing Council, and continue to answer to the call of Yawa’, a Serrano term meaning “to act on one’s beliefs.” Yawa’ made possible our survival from attempts to exterminate us.

Today, Yawa’ is the driving force behind our Tribe’s dedication to connect all who share this land with Native American traditions and history, and we all share in that responsibility.

Lynn Valbuena is chairwoman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in San Bernardino and a descendant of the 30 Serrano people saved from genocide in 1866 by Santos Manuel.