To Heal, We Must Tell the Truth About the Treatment of California’s Indigenous Peoples
By Morning Star Gali
As victims of centuries of brutal religious intolerance and cultural genocide, California Indigenous Peoples are insisting on the removal of images and monuments glorifying Junipero Serra throughout California. In response, the California State Legislature passed a bill—AB 338—calling for a statue of Serra at the state Capitol, which was taken down by protestors in 2020, be replaced with a monument to Sacramento-area Native American Tribes. Serra’s defenders continue to honor him as a “founding father” who was not responsible for the enslavement, murder and rape of California Native peoples in the Spanish mission system he built. The Catholic church has gone so far as to claim victimhood, charging prejudice against “Hispanic” culture.
For healing to take place, we need to tell the truth. Historical revisionism and whitewashing of past atrocities should be recognized as such.
The Mission system, which was established with military force over native villages, forcibly relocated, enslaved and murdered hundreds of thousands of California Indians. The Church’s official position is to deny this history, documented in innumerable accounts and oral histories of California Tribal Peoples that survived the genocide and the first documented pandemic in our state’s history.
Monuments to Spanish colonialism remain symbols of violence against Indigenous peoples across California and the Southwest and their presence will continue to incite divisiveness. In October 2020, five indigenous women and two-spirit persons, now referred to as the ‘Indigenous Peoples Day 5’, toppled a statue of Serra in a nonviolent action for which Marin County DA Lorie Frugoli has charged the group with felony vandalism. While over 80,000 people have signed a petition demanding the charges be dropped, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has urged the protesters be sentenced for hate crimes and has even performed exorcisms at the site of anti-Serra demonstrations. This literal demonization of Indigenous Peoples by the Church lamentably continues to the present day.
The truth can no longer be covered up. The catastrophic fires raging across lands inhabited and tended by California Tribal Peoples for millennia are an undeniable consequence of an ecological crisis that started with the forced removal of Tribes from their homelands, the outlawing of Native cultural practices and the destructive environmental practices of the Gold Rush. As Californians of all backgrounds look for solutions amid unfolding environmental and public health crises, it is imperative that California Native Peoples’ voices and memories be respected and recognized to ensure a better future for all of our children.
The removal of symbols of violence and oppression are necessary steps toward restorative justice, including the Columbus and Queen Isabella statue from the California State Capitol rotunda, the Serra statue from the State Capitol Park, and the Sutter statue from outside Sutter hospital, adjacent to Sutter’s Fort. Replacing the Serra statue with a California Native image is necessary for healing to take place.
The truth about Serra’s role in the treatment of California’s Indigenous Peoples must be told and understood without defensiveness or false justifications. We call upon all elements of the settler society, including government and churches, to commit to not repeat history and to actively engage, in close collaboration with affected Peoples, to repair and rectify the damage. Let’s launch a new stage in our shared history to include removal of monuments honoring those whose actions did so much harm to the original Peoples of this land we now call California.
Gali is a member of the Ajumawi Band of Pit River tribe, California Tribal & Community Liaison of the International Indian Treaty Council and a board member of the American Indian Cultural District of San Francisco.
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Op-Ed: To Heal, We Must Tell the Truth About the Treatment of California’s Indigenous Peoples
To Heal, We Must Tell the Truth About the Treatment of California’s Indigenous Peoples
By Morning Star Gali
As victims of centuries of brutal religious intolerance and cultural genocide, California Indigenous Peoples are insisting on the removal of images and monuments glorifying Junipero Serra throughout California. In response, the California State Legislature passed a bill—AB 338—calling for a statue of Serra at the state Capitol, which was taken down by protestors in 2020, be replaced with a monument to Sacramento-area Native American Tribes. Serra’s defenders continue to honor him as a “founding father” who was not responsible for the enslavement, murder and rape of California Native peoples in the Spanish mission system he built. The Catholic church has gone so far as to claim victimhood, charging prejudice against “Hispanic” culture.
For healing to take place, we need to tell the truth. Historical revisionism and whitewashing of past atrocities should be recognized as such.
The Mission system, which was established with military force over native villages, forcibly relocated, enslaved and murdered hundreds of thousands of California Indians. The Church’s official position is to deny this history, documented in innumerable accounts and oral histories of California Tribal Peoples that survived the genocide and the first documented pandemic in our state’s history.
Monuments to Spanish colonialism remain symbols of violence against Indigenous peoples across California and the Southwest and their presence will continue to incite divisiveness. In October 2020, five indigenous women and two-spirit persons, now referred to as the ‘Indigenous Peoples Day 5’, toppled a statue of Serra in a nonviolent action for which Marin County DA Lorie Frugoli has charged the group with felony vandalism. While over 80,000 people have signed a petition demanding the charges be dropped, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has urged the protesters be sentenced for hate crimes and has even performed exorcisms at the site of anti-Serra demonstrations. This literal demonization of Indigenous Peoples by the Church lamentably continues to the present day.
The truth can no longer be covered up. The catastrophic fires raging across lands inhabited and tended by California Tribal Peoples for millennia are an undeniable consequence of an ecological crisis that started with the forced removal of Tribes from their homelands, the outlawing of Native cultural practices and the destructive environmental practices of the Gold Rush. As Californians of all backgrounds look for solutions amid unfolding environmental and public health crises, it is imperative that California Native Peoples’ voices and memories be respected and recognized to ensure a better future for all of our children.
The removal of symbols of violence and oppression are necessary steps toward restorative justice, including the Columbus and Queen Isabella statue from the California State Capitol rotunda, the Serra statue from the State Capitol Park, and the Sutter statue from outside Sutter hospital, adjacent to Sutter’s Fort. Replacing the Serra statue with a California Native image is necessary for healing to take place.
The truth about Serra’s role in the treatment of California’s Indigenous Peoples must be told and understood without defensiveness or false justifications. We call upon all elements of the settler society, including government and churches, to commit to not repeat history and to actively engage, in close collaboration with affected Peoples, to repair and rectify the damage. Let’s launch a new stage in our shared history to include removal of monuments honoring those whose actions did so much harm to the original Peoples of this land we now call California.
Gali is a member of the Ajumawi Band of Pit River tribe, California Tribal & Community Liaison of the International Indian Treaty Council and a board member of the American Indian Cultural District of San Francisco.