Motion Demands A Formal Apology From LA To Indigenous People

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A new motion from Councilor Mitch O’Farrell calls for LA to make an official apology to the indigenous groups of people in the US city. The Councilor Marqueece Harris-Dawson-supported motion instructs the Department of Civil and Human Rights to report about how LA should issue the apology.

As the Oklahoma-based Wyandotte Nation’s member, O’Farrell said that it is a good motion, and that there is a good reason for it. O’Farrell also said that LA has never made a formal apology for how it treated the Indigenous Americans who originally lived in this city.

The councilor’s motion also instructs LA to report about the progress it made on the Civic Memory Working Group. For your information, the Office of LA Mayor Eric Garcetti impaneled the group to aid in developing more accurate ways of reflecting the city’s past, plus implementing parts of AB 52 that concern the city. AB 52, which California’s Legislature approved seven years ago, requires agencies to consult with American Indian tribes when taking on projects that impact the cultural resources of those people.

The motion stipulates that the Department of Civil and Human Rights also has to suggest policies to serve American Indians in a better way.

O’Farrell said that LA could and must perform better in not only acknowledging its history but also creating a better tomorrow for the groups in the city. In 2017, as the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission member, O’Farrell worked to swap the city’s Columbus Day for Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Tribal President at Fernandeno Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, namely Rudy Ortega, hailed O’Farrell’s leadership and thanked the councilor. Ortega stated that LA should be the first city to correct the misdeeds of America’s first governments. Ortega is also expecting to see LA’s recommendations about how to represent its African-American groups in a better way.

The official apology of LA would be like the one that California Governor Gavin Newsom issued for his state two years ago. Newsom expressed regret for the past genocide of First Americans when talking at a 2019 blessing ceremony in what would be the California Indian Heritage Center’s location. Back then, Newsom described past violence against African-Americans as a genocide, and said that it was indescribable in any other way.

California’s officials looked to kill all American Indians in the 19th century. In the first session of the state Legislature back in 1850, legislators approved a bill that would allow selling Native Americans as indentured servants for minor criminal offenses as well as separating kids from their family members. As per the state governor’s office, back then, California spent money worth over $1 million as currency to support militia efforts against those groups of people.

The number of African-Americans in California came down from 150,000 or so to 30,000 from 1846 to 1879, as per historian Benjamin Madley. As a history professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, Madley wrote it in an op-ed that demanded California to acknowledge its past genocide.