California could see another paid holiday as new bill clears milestone

California could soon add another paid holiday for state employees as lawmakers push to formally recognize Native American Day, a move supporters say is tied directly to the state’s violent history toward Indigenous people and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2019 apology for what he called a “genocide.”

The proposal, authored by Assemblymember James Ramos, D-Highland, cleared a major hurdle last week when the Assembly Appropriations Committee unanimously approved the measure to make Native American Day a fully paid state holiday observed on the fourth Friday in September.

Ramos, the first Native American elected to California’s Legislature, said the bill is meant to confront the state’s dark past and honor California’s tribal communities.

“Most Californians know little about the bloody history that built this state,” Ramos said in a statement. “They picture romanticized missions, the Gold Rush, the Transcontinental Railroad, not the genocide, violence, enslavement, and dispossession of Native Americans.”

The push comes six years after Newsom issued a formal apology to Native Americans on behalf of California and signed an executive order establishing a Truth and Healing Council to examine the state’s historical treatment of tribal communities. 

During remarks at the time, Newsom said the atrocities committed against Native Americans amounted to a “genocide.” 

“California must reckon with our dark history,” Newsom said in 2019. “California Native American peoples suffered violence, discrimination and exploitation sanctioned by state government throughout its history.”

California is currently home to more than 100 federally recognized tribes. 

Historians estimate the Native population in the region exceeded 300,000 before European settlement expanded through the state in the late 18th century.

According to the California Native American Heritage Commission, disease and settler violence devastated those communities in the years that followed.

Ramos noted that between 1851 and 1859, the California State Controller paid out $1.3 million for military expeditions targeting Native Americans.

Former Gov. Peter Burnett infamously described the campaigns as a “war of extermination”

“And that figure doesn’t begin to capture the loss of life, the enslavement of Native families, the destruction of sacred sites and cultural items, the occupation of homelands, and the countless other atrocities committed against California’s First People,” Ramos said.

Native American Day is already recognized as an elective holiday for state workers, alongside observances such as Diwali, Juneteenth, Lunar New Year and Genocide Remembrance Day. 

Ramos’ legislation would move it into the state’s official paid holiday calendar alongside Christmas, Thanksgiving and Independence Day.

This year, the holiday falls on Sept. 25.

A legislative analysis estimates the additional paid holiday would cost California about $16.3 million annually. 

The proposal would only take effect if the California Department of Human Resources determines the state has enough funding and reaches agreements with labor unions.

SEIU Local 1000, representing nearly 100,000 workers, backed the measure, arguing California must fully acknowledge its history before addressing modern inequities.