Assembly Select Committee on Native American Affairs

I'd like to call to order the Assembly Budget Subcommitee number six on Public Safety and the Select Committee on Native American Affairs today to touch on topics in this hearing on the missing and murdered indigenous persons crisis. With that, I'll take privilege as a Chair to be able to open up with a traditional song. This is a traditional Serrano song. Ba ba De Naiva Baht is the bighorn sheep.

The niva is searching for the bighorn sheep, similar to the issues that we're talking about here today, still searching for our loved ones, searching for that, that voice to be heard. And I've asked permission from the local tribes here, Shingle Springs, Wilton, and they've granted me that permission to continue to sing these songs when we come forward as a people. So I'll sing this song.

[Singing]

I just want to thank everybody for being here today. Colleagues, joined by my Vice Chair from the Public Safety Committee. Would you like to say a few words? And the Select Committee on Native American Affairs. We have an array of Committee hearings that are going on. So as we go through this hearing, you'll see Members come in and show their presence, and they'll have to go present bills to committees. So I just want to make sure everybody understands that component of it.

But being able to have this hearing here in the state capital, it's all recorded. It's a chance for our voices to be heard in this Legislature and the issues that plague California's first people. Our Committee hearing is prioritizing resources in tribal communities and asking the question, why is California fifth, an unsolved missing and murdered indigenous people cases in the nation, number five of all states in the nation? We will go through a panel with panel one, topic of history and drivers of MMIP.

We will then move to panel two, community impact and barriers to navigating an MMIP crisis. And then panel three, solutions to reduce and address the incidences of missing and murdered indigenous person. And then we will have public comment that will be able to touch on these issues that are here today. We will start and move forward with our first panel.

We would like to bring up to the podium or to the table Christine Williams Yurok tribal member, chief judge of the Wilton Rancheria Tribal Court, Merri Lopez-Keifer, director, Office of Native American Affairs, Department of Justice, Vice Chairwoman June Natcher from Tejon Indian tribe, April McGill Pamunkey and Wappo enrolled member of Round Valley Indian Tribe, executive director of the American Indian Cultural Center of San Francisco, and MMIP advocate with Indigenous Justice. Also with the Yuki Resistance. Thank you so much. And we will start with Judge Christine Williams.

Thank you. I don't know if I really need this, but thank you so much for having me. I qui, I am Christine Williams. I am the chief judge for the Wilton Rancheria Tribal Court. I'm also a member of the Yurok tribe. I come from the Churai village and the Lindgren family. And it's just a real honor to be here today. I'll get right to our comments. I know your time is valuable, and there's a lot that we want to make sure we cover today.

As a judge, I was brought in to kind of cover some of the background on Public Law 280. I don't know how familiar anyone is with Public Law 280, but it was a federal bill that was enacted in 1953. And what it did was, and this is generalizing, but I don't want to take the three years it took me to kind of understand all this in my law degree.

It basically took the jurisdiction that was shared with the federal government and tribes and transferred that to the state government. So we're one of only a few states, and being in California, that has the state government sharing jurisdiction with tribes rather than the federal government. So things operate differently here. That makes a big difference for law enforcement, it makes a difference for funding, and it makes a difference in how tribal courts have developed over the years.

So it also extended a little more jurisdiction to the state court than is extended to the federal government in other states. But what, what we're really focused on today is the criminal side. So in California, well, and this is true in all states, regardless of public latuity, tribes do not have complete territorial jurisdiction over their lands, over their people. We have to share that concurrently with the state of California.

And the problem is that that was an unfunded mandate back in 1953, and so the state didn't necessarily want to take on that role. And tribes didn't have any say in that either. It was just something that was done, put upon us all. And again, without any additional resources. What's resulted is a real dearth of tribal justice systems flourishing and developing. We see some fantastic examples. I'm really proud of my own tribe, the Yurok tribe.

Our law enforcement department is a leader for other tribes, but we're stifled by not having full authority to partner with our state partners. Law enforcement's officers are seen as less than a lot of times, even though most of the tribal law officers in our state go through the same training, have the same qualifications. So that's a real issue. And then, additionally, we haven't been able to access the federal funds that other tribes access across the nation.

I think the concept was, well, the state's going to handle the law enforcement issues, and the state courts will handle all the enforcement of that. And so tribes don't really need money to develop their own justice systems. But what's happened is we've become fifth in the nation. Fifth in the nation. A disgusting, staggering statistic. And why is that? Because there's a justice gap. We don't have law enforcement coming onto the reservations, enforcing things that the way they should. Most of our reservations are remote.

They're tough to get to for people who know how to navigate Indian country. And when there's an emergency, if people show up at all, it's often too late. Evidence is lost, the crime is going cold. So the best situated people to respond to this really are tribes. But again, we lack the jurisdiction and we lack the funds. But there are solutions that we can look at that can help when an actual crisis occurs.

We have better tools now, but we don't have a very good, coordinated response. The right hand is not talking to the left hand, and so we have better mandates, better tools, and a lot more respect, I think, between the state and between the tribe. But it just doesn't always get implemented and executed as well as it could. So I do want to see coordinated, dedicated task force. I want to see more support for joint jurisdiction courts in California.

We started the second joint jurisdiction court in the nation when I was working for the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians. And you're gonna hear more about that from their Chairwoman later. But that took off, and it's now spread to other tribes throughout the state, to the state of Alaska.

They're implementing that, and it's a way for training tribes and states to have judges sitting next to each other, addressing the fact that we do share jurisdiction over these cases and making sure people don't slip through the cracks. We don't both think someone's handling it, and it turns out no one's handling it. People can't kind of play the two systems against each other, because we both know what's happening, and it really gives a chance to explore restorative justice models, which, in California, I'm really proud to say, most of our tribal courts do not implement and utilize tribal incarceration.

We don't have jails. We use treatment. We use community service. We use restitution and restorative justice to create better balance. And we know it's because when someone's in a tribal community, they're going to keep coming back. We're going to see them again and again. So that's what my part here is today, is to cover, is thinking about where the gaps really are in funding, how we can close those gaps.

I'm very much a reach across the aisle and work together kind of person, and I think the systems are positioned to do that. We just need that final step of clearing the path so that we can all really, really work together and then funding it and implementing it, not just saying we like that idea, that's great, and then putting it on some shelf somewhere.

We need to actually do the work and give the people that are in the field already doing the work, the tools they need, the support they need, and the resources they need to get it done. Across the nation, I would say about 60% of tribes in other states have tribal courts. In California, it's less than 25%. So of the 110 federally recognized tribes, about 25% of us have tribal courts. Maybe a little more of them have tribal law enforcement.

But again, without the resources to develop that, we just have unsolved crimes. We have families that don't get answers. And it's just a horrible injustice and it's heartbreaking. And I think some people are going to get emotional about it later, so I'll save that for them. But it does really become a human rights issue and a public safety issue, and when you're not safe in Indian country, you're really not safe anywhere. So thank you very much.

Thank you so much for that testimony. Next we'll move to Merri Lopez-Keifer, director, Office of Native American Affairs, Department of Justice.

Miyam, good morning, everyone. My name is Merri Lopez-Keifer. I just want to say thank you first of all to the joint committees for inviting the Department of Justice to come and speak to you today. This is an issue that we like to commend you on for making sure you're bringing the tribal voices to the table to hear directly from them regarding the impact of the crisis.

So I serve as the director of the Office of Native American Affairs for Attorney General Rob Bonta at the California Department of Justice. I'm his legal and policy advisor on tribal affairs. I've been asked to share briefly my background as well as what the Department of Justice is doing for missing, murdered indigenous persons crisis, or MMIP. Talk about what we're seeing.

We do owe you a report in 2025, so consider this your sneak peek, and then also share with you some of the drivers that we're seeing that are causing the MMIP crisis. So just briefly, I come to the Department of Justice before I served. I've been here about four years in this position. I'll just start there. I served under Attorney General Becerra and then reappointed under Attorney General Bonta.

Prior to joining the Department of Justice, I was a chief legal counsel for my tribe, the San Luis Ray Band of Mission Indians in Southern California. Prior to that, I was a prosecutor and assistant district attorney for the city and county of San Francisco for a little under a decade, where I primarily prosecuted crimes of domestic violence. Before that, I became a member of the state bar in 1998.

I'm a graduate from Boston College Law School and also received my bachelor's from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Go Gauchos. In the law and society emphasis in criminal justice major. Some of the things that we've been doing at the DOJ for MMIP has been implementing the law that Chairman Ramos authored, Assembly Bill 3099. It was passed in 2020 and then funded by the Legislature in 2021. So thank you for that. It allowed us to do some very necessary work.

Part of that law entrusted the Attorney General to do a study on MMIP, identify barriers that tribal citizens and tribal governments are experiencing when reporting someone missing, as well as if their loved one had been a victim of homicide. We've learned a lot in the last few years. What we've also learned, though, is there's a lot more work to do, and we definitely need the partnership of the Legislature to continue the work that we're doing.

We've heard a lot about how California is ranked the fifth in the nation. However, that ranking is dependent on the data source, the time period it covers, and what is being measured. Sometimes those reports don't provide that information. At the Department of Justice, we have been doing a very thorough search of our own limitations in the databases. They can be more limiting than we knew before. We need more information. We need reliable information.

Typically, if I am to provide testimony, I have to give you disclaimers about those limitations in the data. There is, due to the state's role in the genocidal policy against its native population, there is understandable distrust from the native community to the government of California, especially my office, the Department of Justice. We have been building that trust back, and we've been learning more.

The other disclaimer that I have to give is that there is underreporting due to that distrust, and that is prevalent not only in Indian lands but also in our urban areas. The other disclaimer we must give is misidentification. Our databases only allow for one race identifier and it's typically not selected by the victim or the family of the victim. So there's a lot more that needs to be done in order to provide you with accurate data.

We also do not have data about crimes occurring on Indian lands. This is information we must have in order to be good justice partners with our 109 federally recognized tribes. Just to give you a little snapshot, because I know we haven't provided this information to this Committee before the sub six Committee, but we have done it for the Native American Affairs Committee, the Select Committee, is our population in California.

We have the highest and most diverse population of American Indian Alaska natives in the state of California. We represent about 3.4% of the population. We have the most representation of all tribes in the nation. So we have representatives, 574 of the federally recognized tribes. California is home to over 176 tribes. That's including the 109 federally recognized tribes and California's non-federally recognized tribes listed on the contact list maintained by the Native American Heritage Commission.

We have 103 reservations that border or align with 34 of our 58 counties. Our state is large and our native population again is the most populous in the country. The work that was mandated to us or entrusted to us by Assembly Bill 3099 is not limited to just California Indians. It is not limited to only tribal citizens who live on Indian lands. It is encompassing of the entire state because not everyone lives on Indian lands.

Actually, our highest populated areas are in our urban areas in the County of Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, San Bernardino, and Orange County.

I cannot emphasize enough about the quality and consistency of the data. But at the same time, I need you to understand that the experience and the crisis is so much more than numbers. These are family members. These are sisters, mothers, aunties, cousins, so many cousins. This is impacting men and women, boys and girls, some of the drivers of the MMIP crisis that I can share with you today. I'm going to highlight six of them.

First is the jurisdictional complexities you heard from Judge Williams about Public Law 280. Attorney General Bonta announced yesterday he's establishing a public Law 280 advisory council where he will be inviting tribal leaders with and without law enforcement, the sheriffs who serve Indian country, the prosecutors, our federal partners, all to the same table so that he can hear firsthand what it looks like today as far as public law 280's implementation and what we can do better.

The lack of clear communication and collaboration between tribal, state and local agencies slow down investigations and they create barriers to information sharing. The Department of Justice is looking to see how we can improve that intergovernmental communications, but again, we need your help at the legislature. Systemic discrimination indigenous people often face discrimination and lack of attention within the broader justice system, leading to a lack of urgency in addressing cases. Biases can affect how cases are investigated and the level of priority they receive.

Our tribal communities not only deserve justice, they are owed justice, and that is the commitment from Attorney General Bonta. As I mentioned before, the lack of data and reporting the comprehensive data on MMIP case and is often lacking misidentification under reporting truly makes it challenging to understand the full scope of the issue, and inconsistencies have hindered our analysis. That can help us explain the difficulties in addressing MMIP.

Number four is human trafficking and exploitation, and I know you'll hear more testimony later today on this point, but I must share this with you, is that tribal communities have faced heightened vulnerability due to their remote locations and limited law enforcement presence. This lack of security can make it easier for crimes to go unnoticed or unsolved. Geographical location plays a role, as in isolated areas or proximity to interstates can provide perpetrators with easy escape routes, facilitating the rapid distancing from the scene of a crime.

This is where we need to have more partnerships with our tribal governments so that we can help stop the human trafficking crisis as well. Number five is foster care placement. Native American children experience higher rates of foster care involvement compared to other racial and ethnic groups. This next statistic is heartbreaking. Nearly one in two Native American children born in California in 1999 had some level of child welfare involvement by the age of 18, an American Indian. Girls also experience more risk factors for trafficking.

Children placed in foster care are often displaced from their communities, leading to a loss of cultural identity and community connections. Children in foster care are at higher risk of human trafficking and exploitation. The lack of stable family and community support can make them easier targets for traffickers and exploiters. They are also at higher risk of running away or going missing. The placement of children into care also affects family Members.

Mothers of children placed into care have significantly higher rates of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, mental illness, and use of psychotropic medication years after custody loss compared to mothers who experienced the death of a child. And the last I'd want to bring to your attention is intergenerational trauma. Intergenerational trauma can create cycles of violence, substance abuse and other issues that heighten the vulnerability of indigenous people contributing to the MMIP crisis.

This trauma can also lead to mental health problems and domestic abuse, which are associated with an increased risk as underlying factors in the MMIP crisis. Again, I wish to thank you for your attention to this crisis and your partnership in helping the Department of Justice implement AB 3099. But I'm also here to tell you there's a lot more work to do. This was just the beginning and we look forward to continuing our partnership with you. Thank you.

Thank you so much for that testimony and those staggering statistics, but also bringing the true impact. Right. Of what it is that we're faced. Next we'll hear from Vice Chairwoman June Nachor from Tejon Indian Tribal Government.

Good morning, everybody. Thank you for inviting Tejon to the table to tell you a little bit about our area. I am eight years as tribal leader. In my second year as vice chairwoman, I serve on the steering committee of Kern Coalition Against Human Trafficking. That is the grassroots organization that was founded in 2012. Being where we're from, which is 4 hours south of here, Kern County is the third largest county in California as far as acreage.

We have beautiful mountains, we have desert, we have a topography where people can easily get lost. With that being said, we are the only federally recognized tribe in Kern. county. So we do not have a lot of tribal lands. So we do not have necessarily a public law 280 issue. We do, however, have a human trafficking issue.

And with that being said, with California being number five, California having the largest indigenous population, I can tell you some of you are missing are making their way through Bakersfield. They are coming through Kern, county, and we recognize that. So because I don't have the funding or the resources to help, we have joined the steering committee of Kern Coalition against Human Trafficking.

The steering committee consists of Department of Homeland Security, FBI, our local law enforcement agencies, the sheriff, CHP and PD, the Department of Human Services C Sec unit, which stands for commercially sexually exploited children's unit. The fact that there's a unit dedicated to that is a problem in itself. And we just created the indigenous arm of KCAT that's gonna help with the cultural and ceremonial healing that our people otherwise wouldn't get once they are saved from that lifestyle.

In working with KCAT and trying to bridge the gap, we know that there's an intersection, there's an overlap. When they've gone missing, they're not missing of their own free will when they're being trafficked. They're not being trafficked of their own free will when they are rescued from the life. If they don't know anything else than being trafficked, they're going to go back to that life for survival. There's a thing called survival sex. When people are trafficked and then removed from it, they go back to.

To the life because they need to eat, they need shelter. They don't know anything other than that. So that is another problem. And what's the root cause? Generational trauma. Familial trafficking is huge. Generational poverty, lack of resources, lack of the mental care and stability within a family. So those are all the things that KCAT can provide. As far as social services. When I reach out and I say, hey, I have this person, can you help? Immediately those resources are dispatched.

KCAT is the regional representative of the National Human Trafficking hotline. So when a call is received there, KCAT is activated and all social services are dispersed. Because we work so well with our agencies in Kern, county, the first question they ask that is not on a form is, are you indigenous? Because if you look at me, you're going to identify me as Hispanic. You're not going to ask me my ethnicity, you're just going to write it down.

So we've semi trained our law enforcement to please ask that question, because it's important. And we've directed other tribal communities to call your local law enforcement, have the case reopened, and identify them correctly so that statistics can get there. It's not easy to do, but they're doing it. The vulnerabilities are education, how to prevent from becoming a statistic. We talk about the MMIP crisis. You're already a statistic. At that point. We need to back it up and create the awareness which we're doing, create the education.

So what Tejon's done is in January, we invited strong hearted native women's coalition. Keeley Linton's group invited her to the tribal office. She educated Senator Grove's office who had no idea what Pl 280 is. I had to educate my District Attorney on PL 280. They educated our Department of Human Services, the women's shelters, sheriff's probation, juvenile probation. They educated them on the MMIP crisis, the reasons why it exists, the history of it. And they understood, you know, they're all educated.

They get why Native Americans don't trust law enforcement, why they don't disclose openly. So now they're getting training on the cultural side. They are reaching out. They're inviting me to otherwise, events that I would not be able to speak at, they wouldn't know to include, to hone. I've spoke at high school, two high school counselors to get our story into the community. I've spoken at symposiums with survival survivors. They're called lived experience experts. They don't like that term victims anymore. I've spoke alongside of them.

I didn't live that lifestyle. I don't know. But I'm speaking for a whole community, a whole ethnic group of people that otherwise wouldn't have that voice out there. So, yeah, human trafficking and the MMIP crisis, they run hand in hand, and you have to look at both. And to prevent becoming a statistic, you need to educate. You need to be out there. It is great what everybody's doing here in Sacramento, but it really starts in our community, and it really.

You have to collaborate with the external partners that are already doing the work. As a tribal nation, I could build a coalition. I could build something. But why would I want to do that when I already have people in place that are doing the thing? And I could run alongside them, and they can help me, and I can help them. So that's what town is doing.

Well, thank you so much for your testimony and really bringing attention that these are issues that aren't just siloed to Native American issues. These are issues facing the state and educating those that educational aspects of getting those resources does include the Native American population to ensure that's there. And if a program is successful, why should we have to recreate the wheel, right? So thank you for that.

Next we'll have April McGill, Uki and Wapo, enrolled member, Round Valley Indian Tribe, executive director of the American Indian Cultural Center of San Francisco, and the MMIP advocate and indigenous justice, and Uki resistance.

He's part of Uki resistance. Oh, yeah. We thank you, Assemblymember Ramos, and the Budget Subcommittee for allowing us to be here today and share some information with you that is really important in our communities. Again, my name is April McGill. I'm an enrolled member of Round Valley. I'm a direct descendant of the Uki people. Round Valley has one of the highest cases of missing and murdered populations in California. This is not including the genocide that happened to our Uki people before contact.

I'm also a family member of an MMIP. My niece, Natasha Stillbuttega, was determined dead by drowning in Del Norte County in 2019. My brother, Kavanaugh Miguel, was shot. Sorry.

And left for dead in 2020 and passed in 2021. My niece nor my brother have ever received justice. I've led several projects of domestic violence. Thank you. And MMIP bringing attention to this crisis and culturally competent campaign materials throughout California, providing insight into leading causes of domestic violence. And MMIP also advocating for traditional healing practices in our healthcare system, for our survivors, so that they can heal.

I have supported and given testimony on several bills, such as AB 1314, the feather alert, and AB 1936, removal of the Hastings name of the law school. Today, I'm here as an advocate for indigenous justice where I work with survivors in San Francisco and the Greater Bay Area. In the Bay Area and in Northern California, there's an increase in MMIP and domestic violence. We still see a lack of resources available, such as housing assistance with basic needs, just food and shelter, traditional therapy.

Our survivors are needing those. Traditional healers are needing to see clinical people who look like them that can support them in a traditional way. We also need that partnership from law enforcement. We need the support from law enforcement locally. As you heard earlier, Merri Lopez Keifer talked about that partnership. She talked about how the lack of data that is available, the misidentification of our people as being Latino, being white, being African American, women and girls are primarily the victims of violence, such as human trafficking.

But 82% of indigenous men are victims of violence as well. And we have seen the increase on our reservations and in our urban communities as well. We need rehabilitation for our native men instead of prisons. That is not the answer. But mainly, this crisis in California is due to the continued systems of oppression that have existed. We have currently a substance use issue here, this opioid crisis, and we have a serious epidemic of overdose throughout Indian country and throughout California and the nation.

We know that it's affecting everyone, but we see it in high numbers within our communities. I know there's several people in this room that can name a family member or a friend who has overdosed. I think a lot of those issues stem from not knowing who they are, not knowing who their people are, not being enrolled. You know, a lot of our native people have been adopted out into a foster system, and that's huge because that's what connects us to our identity.

That's what connects them to the teachings and understanding that violence is not traditional for our people. These are learned behaviors. The prevention work that we do with indigenous justice is really connecting these survivors to these resources of traditional healing, making sure that also our young people, that our children are connected to the culture. And it starts with the school system.

It needs to be inputted into the system so that our children, whether in elementary school, going into high school and college, that they've learned the history of California. I also think that there needs to be accountability by the state for what happened to our people. The 18 treaties that were signed, the land that was promised to us, that we never received, these are just some of the things that I'm touching on. But really, we need more spaces for women to heal.

We need more healing centers, more cultural centers, more safe housing, safe homes. A lot of our women that do go to shelters or to traditional, transitional housing, they cannot take their children there sometimes, or they cannot burn medicine there sometimes. So it's important for us to have these spaces that are culturally competent for our people and also for our men. We have men that are raising their children and having custody, and they cannot go to shelters.

There's nothing for our men to have as well with their children. But we also see that there's a huge homeless crisis in California. This homeless crisis is affecting especially our victims of violence. Again, we heard earlier about the survival sex with trafficking. You know, a lot of our survivors end up staying in bad relationships because they can't afford to leave. They don't have that large deposit to move into a new place. And, you know, that's some of the work that indigenous justice is doing.

We're having to provide that type of deposit and move in costs or hotel costs, childcare costs, while parents are looking for jobs, just trying to get out of a bad situation. Another thing that applies is, excuse me, when we're looking at this crisis is poverty. A lot of our people are still in poverty. We see this throughout California, in our urban and in our rural areas. When a loved one goes missing, it's really hard for a family that is.

That has no resources, has no money to go and look for their loved one. They don't even know where to start? Some of them don't even have gas money to get in the car to go look for their loved one. And I know some of our reservations don't even have adequate Internet to get online and try to figure that out. These are some of the things that indigenous justice will get contacted about. How do I make a flyer? How do I get this information out?

And so those are some of the things that we've had to provide money for hotels, for people. If you know that your loved one is left the reservation and they're in Los Angeles or they're in Sacramento and you don't have a way to get there, how do you look for your loved one? And it's really a community effort. It starts with the advocates. It starts with our tribal leaders really coming together.

And I just want to, you know, give props to all our tribal leaders that have come together and gotten us to where we are, because this is now creating change on a policy level for other things as well. And so I think that what we need to do is think about how do we make change that is going to help our native women? How do we stop this crisis? And thinking about this budget?

And when we give money to tribes, let's try not to create such barriers. Create such, you know, that a lot of times our tribes will not apply for this funding because there's just too many, excuse me, barriers for them to apply for this money. So when we're giving money to, say, communities that are providing these services, making sure that these restrictions are limited and that these funds are flexible so that we can actually do the work and help our communities.

So thank you all for your time today. I really appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you so much for your testimony. Thank you to the panel for adding your voice and clarity and education around the issue of history and drivers of missing and murdered indigenous persons, I want to acknowledge. We're joined by Assemblymember Bonta, who's here with us today. Is there any questions from the dais for the panelists?

You know, one of the things I've heard from the testimonies that researchers are actually finding that women are often misclassified as Hispanic or Asian or other racial categories on these missing person forms. Is there a suggestion on how to resolve this problem? I know part of it must be the lack of just assuming race. Is this by law enforcement officials, I would guess, and also coroners, possibly.

I want to just make a comment. You're going to get into the actual solutions, but,

No it's a big problem. And I think some of it goes back to just how we conceptualize native people. And I'm giving a very, like, layer, big picture answer, but there's still this idea of native people exist in this past and that we aren't like real people that exist right now. And just the other day, I was having a conversation with the colleague of what my mixed cultural heritage is and how much Native American am I, and how much do you need to be to qualify?

And I think we just really, as a community, need to get away from that. If someone self identifies as being Native American, write it down on the form. And also don't assume that if someone is multicultural, that that takes away from the fact that they need to be classified as being Native American for our own statistics and so that we can create accurate solutions.

I feel sometimes like our community is particularly targeted with not being allowed to be of multiple cultures, whereas most European people are mixed from many different countries and then immigrated here at some point in their lives, and it seems acceptable. So that's sort of the big picture. And then Mary's going to tell you how to solve all the problems.

Again, you're identifying the problem, which I pretty much understand. It's not hard to understand. The resolution is what I'm looking for.

Merri.

Okay.

At least a suggestion or two.

So thank you for picking up on that, because misidentification is right up there with underreporting, and it's because of how you're seen by law enforcement or how you're seen by the community that surrounds you. A lot of what we've been doing is actually speaking with a lot of different law enforcement agencies and educating them about the population that they serve. And it includes American Indians and Alaska natives.

Most of our urban area law enforcement agencies, our large law enforcement agencies are not cognizant of what their population is. I shared with you the highest counties that have the highest amounts of population by number, and those are Los Angeles, Orange County. There are no federally recognized tribes in those counties. There is no Indian lands in Orange County or Los Angeles, yet they have the highest population.

And that goes back down to the termination era of the Federal Government displacing, physically moving people from tribal lands in other states, making false promises to tribal citizens about job availability in the State of California. Buses literally being dropping off many, many tribal citizens. That's why we have such a high population of Cherokee, Choctaw, Navajo in our state, and that's where they live in our urban areas, multi generations.

So it starts with education, letting those law enforcement agencies know that when someone goes missing, they're not just one of four types of races. It's not black, white, Hispanic, or Asian. There's also American Indians. And it's so important for us to get that information so that we can put an end to this crisis. There's a box for other. That box is huge because they're deciding what that individual is.

It's an urgency, making sure they get the information out there, but we're hoping that they'll go back and fix it. So we're trying to improve our education to them on what their population looks like and the kinds of questions that they need to ask. Like Vice Chair Nachor has said, you need to ask the questions. Don't make the assumptions. Typically, we're not. Native Americans are not misclassified simply as Hispanic, but they get misclassified as white, black, Asian across the whole spectrum.

So it's very difficult for us to give you an accurate number because we have to go back and figure it out. And that's why it's so important for the research that the attorney general has put in place to be able to do interviews and reaching out to all the communities to find out exactly what is happening. So we're not dependent on the data that I have to give you all those disclaimers for. So the first is education.

The second is looking at these databases and acknowledging their systemic limitations. One race identifier. It is not cognizant of the community in which the State of California's people represent. I myself, just like the Vice Chair, could be classified as multiple things. Would they classify me correctly in terms of the coroners? They're only going to know what the race is, is if they know who the victim is and the victim's family tells them what they are, because they too are limited by one race identifier.

If they are unidentified, they could be. They could have the wrong rice identifier, and we have to find them. And so that's why, again, the attorney general, through his community events for missing in California Indian country, has made sure to bring his Bureau of forensic scientists to the events so that tribal family Members can provide DNA samples to be included in the missing unidentified person's database so that there could be some potential closure there for those families because their loved 1 may be unidentified.

So those are some of the solutions. It really comes down to data. I know it's not that exciting, but those systemic limitations need to be addressed, and we need your partnership in order to fix those systems.

I would just argue, too, that it would probably be a great idea that DOJ would help partner with law enforcement in addressing these very difficult circumstances, because I guarantee you, law enforcement has an interest in being accurate, especially on these very sensitive issues. And without the education, they're left with limited resources. And so therein lies the problem. So that's why I'm trying to look for solutions to that problem.

Everybody can see the problem, and it doesn't do any good to identify the problem unless there's some kind of solution stirring. And that's what I would love to see, is some kind of collaboration between possibly DOJ, because you're our state agency and working with law enforcement on helping to identify these very sensitive issues, because it is part of the problem. But unless there's a real solution en route, we just sit and get frustrated. And I don't think that's helpful.

One last thing. Cause I totally forgot to mention it. Don't tell my boss.

Of course not.

Yeah, it's a safe space. All of our best friends.

His wife just happens to be sitting.

Yeah.

Okay. No, one of the solutions is actually in motion right now. And that's through the implementation of Assembly Bill 1314, also known as the Feather Alert, and through Chairman Ramos leadership and Attorney General Bonta's support.

We've been doing a lot of outreach to law enforcement, both for our county sheriffs as well as municipal police, college police, talking about the importance of making sure you're identifying who the victim is, if they're Native American, because there is that additional resource available, a law enforcement tool to help get the information out about the missing individual.

But also the law requires that they utilize tribal resources, meaning there's a notification to the tribe to improve those intergovernmental relationships and information sharing, so together they can get more information out about this missing individual. And CHP has been a great partner to the Department of Justice as well as to the tribes in making sure that they provide the tribal affiliation of the individual missing so that people are on the lookout and. But that is.

That is one way we've been very active in working with local law enforcement is to make sure that they are aware of this additional law enforcement tool to help find missing people. And it allows us to engage with them on the conversation about what their population looks like that they're serving.

That's the kind of energy that needs to be encouraged to continue and in a more aggressive manner.

I just wonder.

That seems like the answer.

So years and years ago, so many years ago, I worked for the Judicial Council of California on the Indian Child Welfare Act Initiative. It's now the tribal relations unit. And my job was to help improve compliance with the Indian Child Welfare act based on the number of appeals that were. We were seeing cases being overturned on appeal for lack of compliance.

And one of the things that we implemented, but we did need the help of the state Legislature, was mandated inquiry kind of at every contact, because it just wasn't getting done. It was kind of like everybody thought someone else was doing it, and then cases were just getting missed as not being considered Native American. And then we would hit the first non compliance, which is tribes weren't being notified, but you can't notify the tribe if you don't know that the people involved are Native Americans.

So we were in this sort of, like, hole in the bucket situation going round and round. So it was mandated that instead of asking when you think someone might be native, ask everyone. Just ask everyone, are you Native American? Might you be Native American? And we realized there was a lot more bias around what was happening than we thought. I mean, people really were making assumptions, like, I can look at you and decide what it is, and this is a crisis situation when people are responding.

And it's the same with social workers going out on calls a lot of times to remove children. So we were sensitive to that. But we just saw the solution as ask every single time. You may not get perfect data because people are underreporting because of stigma and fear, and we can't solve all the problems with one solution.

But I would advocate it might be time to create some mandates around that, that if you are a first responder and you're encountering someone, ask them, no matter what they look like, no matter what you think, no matter what neighborhood you're in, what zip code you're in, because really, there's a high chance they could be a Native American person if you're in California. And then how that continues.

So for us, it became very much about, and then ask again when they're coming into the court system, and then ask again at the next hearing and the review hearing and sort of record that over and over so that we're just sure we don't miss anything. And it's honestly just a less than a second process to just say, are you Native American? Might your family be from a Native American background? It's just that simple. So that would be something I would.

Look into if I could just make one last statement. It seems like there's great power in communication, but there's also great problems and lack of communication. I think there's a very strong connection between lack of communication and mistrust. And I think sometimes your failure to communicate indicates your lack of interest. And I think we have a lot of that. And I think the more communication we have, the more likely we are to have greater success in alleviating some of these problems, especially this misidentification piece.

So I would encourage us all to support measures that actually encourage greater communication, especially on these very sensitive topics.

I think that's wise.

Thank you so much. Assemblymember Lackey. Assemblymember Bonta.

I wanted to just thank the chair.

For allowing me to be able to be in this space again and for really uplifting the connection between the crisis that we're having for missing and murdered indigenous people and the overlay with that around sex trafficking and sexual violence and gender violence more broadly. And thank you, Assemblymember Lackey, for reminding me how much I missed this committee. I really do. I just wanted to uplift that. There are a couple of solutions in the works I know that the chair is looking at.

One is around the prevalence study, which would allow us to be able to have additional data around the extent to which sex trafficking is abundant or not in different communities. I represent Oakland and have a very strong, as well, Native American community in Oakland, and it's also a hotspot for sex trafficking. So I'm thankful to you for framing this issue within that context.

And I also just wanted to mention that by way of solutions and the connection that you all were talking about between ensuring that law enforcement has the kind of training that they need to be able to identify and properly classify people who are a Native American.

I have legislation, EB 2020, that's focused on sex trafficking survivors and ensuring that the data that we're collecting and the training that happens for law enforcement is actually connected to the experience, lived experience of people, and would encourage us all to have that be a part of what we're looking at. But just wanted to thank you all for coming and offering such beautiful testimony and lifting up the need for us to be able to give voice to those who are often without voice.

And thank the chair, especially for framing that within this context.

Thank you so much, Assemblymember Bonta. Miss McGill, did you have something to add?

I just wanted to talk about communication. Just add that. Thank you for bringing up trust, because I think it goes both ways. Like in San Francisco, we've been able to build a relationship with law enforcement, to have an Advisory Committee that works with them. They have a Native American officer, a part of their team who works within our community. And those are examples of, like, the partnerships that we can have with one another.

Instead of waiting till we have a crisis, let's not wait until someone goes missing or has been murdered in our community. Let's start building those advisory committees on a local level so that we can build the trust and have better communication. Thank you.

Well, thank you so much for the panel adding that voice and for the dialogue here from the dais. And we still find ourselves in the year 2024, still educating the State of California on the true impact of the colonialization period, the gold rush era and its effect on our people. It's easy for those to make assumptions and stereotypes. We hear it all the time, right? Latino, African American. And then you go straight to others, not even asking about California's first people.

I think part of that has to be part of the awareness that's out there for law enforcement. Part of the areas around misclassification isn't just centered around public safety. It's centered around the remains that are still within Cal State universities and UC's, where they're misclassified also there. So the misclassification of California's first people, this nation's first people, is something that we're still dealing with within all these aspects. The trust issue. Thank you for bringing that up. There certainly is a distrust issue.

And as we made our way to the legislature and with AB 3099, called on the attorney general to start to collect the data. But because we know that the data that's there, it's hard to find during that time, but yet we have an attorney general that's stepping up and reaching out to the tribal communities where in the past history of the State of California, from the first governor on up into certain parts of history, we have that mistrust that's there.

And to one of the questions of why isn't the question being asked on are you Native American? It's easy, and still for that stereotype to see us as invisible issues, not rising to the level of the awareness. So it's easier to misclassify in those areas where you start to assume somebody's a certain race before asking them that question. And certainly dealing with the one race card identifiers brought up that California is a diverse population where many are diverse and assume different cultural ethnicities.

So maybe it's time we start to talk about those issues. And there has been outreach within local law enforcement. We were down in LA County, over in Fresno County and other areas, trying to educate the state on the issues plaguing California's first people. The trauma bringing that up, the trauma that's so real. And so it still is fresh in a lot of our minds.

When we do talk about sexual exploitation task force and bills moving forward, we always have to insert, including Native American, when it should be something that's there in the beginning, including California's first people. And to bring up that, that this is not new. This is not new in the State of California. There's nonprofits out there dealing with these types of issues, but yet when it comes to the Native American population, somehow there's a disconnect.

I think we have to start to get back into when we talk about safety and issues in the State of California for all California people, that that truly does include California's first people being a forethought rather than an afterthought. And certainly being here in this room, having this panel and these discussions on the drivers history, lack of trust, misclassification, these areas. But you hear from colleagues around the dais that there has to be solutions.

We have to move forward in the year 2024 to ensure that that voice is being heard. So thank you for lending your voice and your testimony on panel one. As now, we transition into panel two.

Thank you.

Panel two will be community impact and barriers to navigating an MMIP crisis. We have joining us on Zoom, Marlena Alva, a Member of the Blackfeet Yaqui tribes. We have Chairwoman Erica Pinto from Hamu Indian tribal government. We have Chairwoman Regina Kular, Chairwoman of the Shingle Springs band of Miwok Indians tribal government. Nissan on Miwok as they make their way up to the table. Then we have Marlena Alva, who's going to be joining us by Zoom. So we'll test out our technology.

Who's going first?

Well, thank you, chairs, for joining us and offering the testimony on this very important topic. And you two are no strangers to lending your voice to this crisis that's been now rise to the level here in the Legislature. But we all know that it's been going in our communities for generations. So thank you for lending that voice. We are going to test our technical communications to see if Marlena Alva is ready for offering her testimony over Zoom.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes. Yes, we can hear you and see you.

Okay. Marlena Alva. Good morning and hello, everyone. Thank you for having me here. I appreciate the space to share my sister's story and my story, and I appreciate you opening up with a prayer and a song. My brief background and connection to MMIW is that I am the sister of Jessica Alva, who was a woman who was murdered by her partner, Clayton Rhoades, in 2019 in San Francisco. Jessica was a mother of six beautiful children, Brianna, Cindia, Sarah, London, Alana, and Anthony.

She was a daughter, sister, friend, and a relative to all. She loved everyone. Yet she was brutally attacked in her home with her two youngest children inside on April 1, 2019. She was severely beaten and strangled in the room of her house and left on the floor for what doctors believed after examination to be more than an hour after before calling emergency services.

Excuse me. I relate personally to my sister's story because, one, she ended up dying on April 6, 2019, and I had an attack like this by a former partner of mine that was almost the same. I can talk about the biggest challenges that we face as Native women in the systems of economic and systemic racism, being that we weren't asked if we're Native or what services we apply for.

When I was attacked, I went through public services, through the county system, and I know that I was appointed an advocate, and I was encouraged to tell my story. And the day of court, none of my advocates showed up. And I was re-victimized all over again because I had to go face this person face to face by myself. And when it came to my sister's story and what happened with her, an organization called Indigenous Justice showed up, and they walked with us through everything.

They were there through every public hearing, every testimony, every crisis that my family faced. My family was splintered apart and fractured because of the trauma of losing my sister in such a brutal way. Her children... Her oldest daughter, Brianna, was 17 at the time. She's 22 now, and she has a two year old son. There's a lot of press and public awareness of the stories when they first come out, and there's a lot of support and questions about what happened and a lot of traction.

But as time goes by, the interest fades, right? And Indigenous Justice has been an organization that has been there for my family. And this is uniquely important because nobody can calculate when somebody's ready to heal. Myself, personally, it took me two years before I was ready to go into a Native American healing center and start my journey of recovery and healing around everything that's happened in my life and the correlation between my sister's story and mine. It's been three years since that happened.

I'm extremely emotional today because it's been five years now since this happened for my sister and her first daughter. She just made the decision to come to San Francisco and seek her own healing, you know. And... I'm sorry. This is exactly what my sister would have wanted, to know that her firstborn was safe and choosing a better path. And her grandchild, her first grandchild is safe. And I know that there's people in the room that have been such a major influence for this.

You know, and they watched this little girl go through these things. And right now, she's still a 17 year old girl who lost her mom tragically, and she doesn't have answers. And I'm so proud of her because she's gonna... She's gonna light the way for her other siblings as they grow and they're ready to seek answers or heal from that trauma.

She will be the beacon of light that leads the way as the oldest sibling, and she gets to change the narrative of the generational trauma in our family for her child and for the children that are yet to come. And I'm so excited for her to be able to step into the life that she's meant to have. She wasn't meant to have a life that is full of sadness and trauma and unanswered questions.

She gets to step into her power and reclaim her life, a life that her mother started by coming to San Francisco and starting her journey of recovery and getting her children back. You know, it's a beautiful thing, but this is five years after, you know. My oldest sister, she just started therapy, and I got permission to speak about the moves that they're making in their lives.

For the rest of my family, it's been three years since they've returned to San Francisco to speak on these issues because they're suffering. And this man, Clayton Rhoades, he hasn't been charged, he has arrested for these crimes. He hasn't been asked questions of why my sister's body was so severely beaten. And that leaves a very vast hole of the unknown, which can do significant damage on a family.

My biggest motivation is the rest of her children because she had a couple that were lost to the system. And one, her second daughter, Cindia, is about to turn 18. And I like fear in my soul of what happens when this little girl comes and tries to find her mom and she gets told a story that her mom killed herself and she left her in this world by herself and the rest of her siblings, which is not true.

I pray that she'll come and seek answers from the rest of us and not give up, you know. And the rest of her children, some of them are with the rest of my family, and they are seeking their healing, but they suffered trauma too.

The two youngest, Alana and Anthony Alva, who were inside that home on April 1, they still haven't spoken to events because they have said that some terrible things happened to them and they are too afraid still five years later to talk about it. So I just really want to highlight Indigenous Justice for being there for my family and for being ready to receive the call.

Because when I made my call, they came that day and they helped me financially get ready to start my path with services. You know, they helped me take care of my stuff, put it in storage, get me to where I needed to be and support me. They still support me in being able to talk and being there as advocates whenever I need them. And to be in brave spaces like this. Because, as you see, opening the door to these memories is not easy.

But I know I'm supported, and I know I'll be okay. And I ended up being, I guess, the catalyst for change for my family. I didn't mean to be, but I knew that if I continued on the path that I was on, I would die. And I have my own children. And they are so proud of me. And they get the courage from watching me speak up and continuously speak up on these issues to be brave in their own spaces as well. My niece, too.

I get to be here for her. Lastly, I just wanted to speak on some of the resources is like the long term. Again, nobody knows when somebody will be ready for healing, and that can't be a short term process. You can't push people to be ready. You can't push people into change. They can only identify that and seek that when their soul and spirit calls for that, you know. Because it's a really bold and brave thing to do. It's not easy.

I did hear something a little bit earlier about misidentifying races of MMIW and MMIP. I do wanna say that my sister was identified as white when the first report came out. And I do want to say that there should be better communication between services that are offered or services in general when they're going through investigations and reporting. Because we do have a mistrust.

You know, my sister's children were left in the home that day that she was removed and put into the ICU, and my niece and nephew were left alone with strangers. And when they were done with them, these strangers had them picked up by CPS, and CPS had them removed from San Francisco before the end of the day. And they had an ICWA worker. They had services available for them. And even after my family talked to CPS, they failed to notify their ICWA worker.

It took them almost a week to get them back. This speaks to the determination and resilience of my sister, Jessica Alva, and her heart, because even though she never responded after being admitted to the hospital, her heart never gave out. So somebody who was left on the floor unresponsive for over an hour to make sure that they're dead, her heart was able to come back until the night that her children were returned to us. After that, she was okay.

She was at peace, and she left. She left this world. And she had made a promise that she would never lose a child in this way or to CPS again. And once her children were returned on that night, you know, her heart gave out. And I just think that that's a testament to the resilience of our people, the generational trauma that she refused to let happen because she knew that one way or another, like, our family would find healing and continue to fight.

And we will always fight for her, and I will always fight for her children because that is my position as her sister and their aunt. You know, I get to assume the mom role and be there for anything that they need and ready for when they want to heal. So I just really appreciate this space. Thank you so much. And please, all of you, keep doing what you're doing.

I know that it might be an emotional thing. Because I don't know if anybody else has been privy to the knowledge that Brianna is coming back to start her life and really seek the healing that she deserves, and so she'll carry that on to her son, my sister's grandchild. So thank you so much.

Thank you so much for your testimony and for your strength, really, and your resiliency to educate us firsthand of the issues that you're going through in the long term healing that needs to take place. Not just in the days of where the situation is happening, but the long term support that's needed there.

And I want to stand side by side with you on your road, your road to overcome the historical trauma and your road to be that leader of your family that's leading the way for that healing to take place. Thank you for your testimony and for your very, very true testimony that brings the circle around why we're really here today. Thank you so much. Now we'll move to Chairwoman Erica Pinto from the Jamul Indian Village Tribal Government.

Thank you, Chair Ramos, and thank you to the Joint Committee for allowing us to be here to discuss MMIP. My name is Erica Pinto. I'm the Chairwoman for the Jamul Indian Village of California. I have the honor of serving as a Chair for 10 years at my tribe, but 27 years as a Tribal Council Member and Vice Chair. You know, as well, I'm also the Chair of the Board of Directors for Southern Indian Health Council, and that's made up of seven consortium tribes in the south.

I also serve on the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary's Tribal Advisory Committee as well as the Department of Interior Secretary's Tribal Advisory Committee. Jamul is one of 13 bands of the Kumeyaay in the south, and we're only one of 18 federally recognized tribes in Southern California. You know, when I first came into this room, I spoke with the Chairwoman, and, you know, as a woman, as a tribal leader, I'm often...

I often second guess myself and my decisions, and I take every decision to heart. And I've provided a testimony. I worked on my testimony. And I think I'm probably just not going to look at this right now because it was very powerful what I'm hearing today. And I need to acknowledge the women, the women of my tribe and the women here in this room, because we suffer, you know, as women, as the testimony that was just provided.

I need to talk to you a little bit about why this is such an important topic to me. I grew up on Viejas and Jamul, my own reservation. I was sexually abused from the time I was in second grade to the time I was in 6th grade. And that abuse that I endured for those years really had an impact on my life going forward. I became an alcoholic. I came out of the closet in high school. I was bullied.

I became an alcoholic for 14 years, for 14 years of my life. And I harmed myself. I harmed my body. I put my mom through hell. I put my family through hell. And now, you know, I'm going to be 50 years old soon, and I see just how much of an impact and things that I've done that I could have been a missing and murdered person. I could. I've been in situations. Now I'm sober. I have 11 years of sobriety. I have many nieces and nephews.

I have a young nephew that just came out of the closet. He identifies as two spirit. And for me, when I see my nieces, when I see my nephews, when I see the young women and boys and kids who come here, like last night at the reception, I feel I need to be out here and I need to protect our people. I need to.

When I hear this testimony and I see people have really been impacted and have people murdered in their family and go missing, why are they not worth getting the publicity on television like other non-Indian people? Why are we not? Why are we not located? Why are we not brought home? Are we not worth it? And I... It kills me to see that my nieces and nephews see that on social media. Are we not worth coming home? Why won't they not look for us?

And today we talk about mistrust of law enforcement. We talk about communication, which is vital in making sure people come home. I want to talk about a case that just came up yesterday morning on the way up here. I was reached out by a local Chairman in the south, and he said, Chairwoman, one of my members is missing. What resources do you have? The good thing about me is that I like to throw myself in every situation that I can and meet different people.

And I've since become a conduit. And this is about the third case where when I get reached out to, I'm going to connect to Strong Hearted Native Women Coalition. I've heard them a lot, and I connected with Keely Linton to connect him and her together. I connected with the CHP, the local law enforcement, because my tribe is the closest to San Diego and 30 minutes from the border. And we do have gaming, and we do provide for our people.

And with that, we contract with the sheriff and the law enforcement. And by doing that, we get to know a lot of the different law enforcement agencies, the Border Patrol, California Highway Patrol. I'm also the Chair of the California Native American Advisory Committee to Caltrans. And so those roadways are important. So being able to connect the dots and connect people with each other, it's about bringing people together. And I do tried to do that as a leader.

And needless to say, I think I said this last night, but she was brought home. She was brought home, thankfully, and she's safe. It ended well. But it's not always like that, and I understand that. But what we do in the south, as far as Southern Indian Health Council, servicing seven consortium tribes, non-Native population as well. We meet on a quarterly basis with law enforcement, because we need to get. Because you know what?

Unfortunately, sometimes in tribal leadership, where we have administration changes, law enforcement change, tribal liaisons change. And the good thing that I've seen is that whether it's Caltrans or the CHP or law enforcement or Department of Homeland Security, Border Patrol, SDG&E, San Diego Gas and Electric, people are understanding the need for tribal liaison people, people who understand our tribes, who understand tribal sovereignty, who understands the issues that we face.

And I mentioned earlier, speaking of the issues that we face, when I spoke about this topic with the Department of Interior Secretary Haaland and the Assistant Bryan Newland, they challenged me. Let's figure out together what are the root causes of MMIP? Why do our people go missing? I could have been a statistic. I could have been a statistic myself because of that childhood trauma. And that's layered with historical trauma because every generation has a different set of issues that we face.

I grew up poor, but not as poor as my mom, and she didn't grow up as poor as her parents. And I can tell you, and I know a lot of tribal people can understand this part, that our homes were shacks, were shacks where you can see through the cracks. You have carpet on your walls, you had dirt floors. And this is in the late seventies and eighties. And that can set you up for making poor choices, doing things. Somebody mentioned survival sex.

Those things can all happen as a result of being poor. Trauma, lack of healthcare, lack of healthcare, lack of mental health services, food security. All of these issues, when you add them up, it's a lot. And I don't know how we're here today besides our resiliency and strength and our want to be here. I'm amazed, Assemblyman. I'm amazed that we are here because we shouldn't be here. But we are here.

And while we're here, while we're using our voices, we are going to make dang sure. I'm watching my mouth. We are going to make dang sure that our people get the services and the resources needed to bring our people home once and for all. Because enough is enough. And like I said, today, you know, it's a solemn day, but also a good day because we are here together using our voices, our unified voices.

And with your guys unified ears and hearing us, you are gonna make these changes. You're gonna hear what we're saying, and you are gonna do the job that you do, and you're gonna make sure that we are watched out for, our people are brought home, and no one has to go through this. One of my goals, I wanna make healthcare obsolete. I wanna make this day obsolete where we don't have to do this all the time. Because I know it weighs on us as tribal leaders.

I know it weighs on you. Assembly Member, you are the only American Indian in the Assembly, and I applaud you for doing the work that you do. And I applaud this Joint Committee as well. So the work is not done. The tribes need the resources. And that myth is that we are all wealthy and swimming in money like Scrooge McDuck. We are not. There still are tribes that struggle. There are tribes that struggle and are impoverished. We need your help, and any help that you could do today would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your testimony in identifying the impacts and barriers, really, to navigating missing and murdered indigenous person crisis starts early on. It's not something that just shows up today. This is historic of trauma, of upbringing, of treatment here in the State of California, across the nation, for all native people that call California home. I want to recognize Assembly Member Avelino Valencia for being here and Assembly Member Phil Ting also for joining us. Now we'll move to Chairwoman Regina Cuellar of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians Tribal Government.

Good morning, Chair Ramos and Members of the Committee. Thank you for inviting me to speak today. I am Regina Cuellar, Chairwoman of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians. I am also a seated Commissioner on the California Commission on the State of Hate, aimed at stopping hate and promoting mutual respect amongst the state's diverse population.

Tribal nations across the country have long sought solutions to combat the epidemic of missing and murdered people from within their communities and have only recently achieved the mainstream awareness required to produce real change. We have seen this result in measures such as a Feather Alert and other initiatives supporting its implementation and effectiveness. But as we are all aware, there are immense barriers that remain to navigating this crisis.

I'm here to speak on my community's experience and solutions we have identified through proactive on the ground implementation of programs and services that target the root cause of violence against our people before they end up missing or murdered. Such solutions utilized by my tribe rely heavily on these consistent factors, meaningful collaboration, consultation, and funding.

As the only federally recognized tribe in our county, El Dorado County, it is imperative that the solutions plaguing our tribal community are solved with the input and voices of our people and backed by allocated resources to ensure the effective implementation of the services we advocate for. The passing of the Feather Alert is not the only example of success when good faith efforts conducted in this way are pursued with tribes.

In 2014, my tribe, the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, and the Superior Court of El Dorado County made history by establishing the first joint jurisdictional court in the state and only the second in the country. It was named the Family Wellness Court. The court has two judges, one from each court, that hear cases involving child welfare, substance abuse, juvenile delinquency, and truancy. By hearing cases alongside the county, the tribe has access to case information that we otherwise wouldn't have.

With this information, the tribe provides a holistic and culturally based case plan for the court participant. This plan helps identify and provide solutions for risk factors that could lead the court participant into becoming a missing or murdered indigenous person. The court judges then hold the participant accountable for fulfilling the case plan. Through this joint process, our participants have experienced greater success than those who have gone through solely the tribal or state court systems.

Due to the success of the Family Wellness Court model, our tribes signed two MOUs with our county to expand their court services to to include a coordinated domestic violence court and a driving under the influence program. I want to take this opportunity to encourage increased support for funding joint jurisdictional courts, an invaluable tool for indigenous people desperately in need of the healing and holistic approach this court provides.

In 2022, our tribal police department entered in a cross deputization agreement referred to as a Special Law Enforcement Commission or SLEC, with the BIA designating our Shingle Springs Tribal Police Officers as Deputy Special Officers and granting them the authority to enforce federal laws on tribal lands. This is an excellent exercise of our tribal sovereignty by allowing us as people to shed our reliance on the federal government to enforce federal laws on tribal lands.

Enhancing these law enforcement capabilities and placing them back into the hands of the tribes is critically important to the health and safety of our community and surrounding neighbors. It is an honor for them to be sworn in as federal officers and represent the 21st tribal department in the state to enter into one of these agreements. It is our hope that this SLEC leads to continued collaboration and acts as a precursor to further local cross deputization agreements.

Additionally, we must acknowledge that tribes have faced unfair barriers in addressing offering support, and ultimately closure to those affected by the MMIP crisis through lack of access to crime information databases. At the federal level, the Tribal Access Program, TAP, is one avenue to vital criminal information. My tribe is fortunate to be among the tribes selected for access to TAP.

However, the void remained for state information via CLETS, the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, preventing our tribal police and courts from receiving or sharing criminal history information and protective orders with outside agencies. In absence of this access, we were left with a void in information that limited both the tribe's and state's ability to protect indigenous people and forces us to rely on state and local law enforcement to provide this crucial info to tribes in a timely manner.

Thankfully, this issue was resolved by the passing of AB 44 at the end of last year. In context of MMIP, we are talking about cases where a matter of hours makes a difference that tribes pay for with lives lost. It is a sad reality that native communities experience a disproportionate amount of loss, including loss of land, loss of history, loss of language, and the loss of our culture, but we will not tolerate losing our people anymore.

AB 1314 and AB 44 were the first steps in creating parity between tribes and the state, empowering us to help secure our own public safety and take our lives back into our own hands. But without follow through on funding and training for state and tribal agency, I fear that these steps won't be enough in tackling this epidemic.

Therefore, I call for my fellow tribes to aid in supporting initiatives for funding to study challenges related to the reporting and identification of missing and murdered indigenous peoples in California, especially our young women and girls. This includes funding for the Department of Justice to take the momentum of progress made thus far and provide consistent and intentional training to both tribal and non-tribal law enforcement agencies and increase the effectiveness of responses to incidents of MMIP. Thank you, Chair Ramos, for inviting us to be here today.

You have been an outstanding leader in bringing this critical issue to the forefront. MMIP is important not only to my tribe, but every tribe in California and throughout the nation. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you so much for your testimony and bringing to light these issues firsthand from Indian Country in the State of California. Now open it up to the dais if there's any questions or comments. I want to thank you for bringing forward this information and especially Marlena Alva and her raw testimony of unlayering what it is that we go through as Indian people.

And as we walk through the room, everyone has another layer to them and also bringing to light the domestic violence that still plagues our people at higher rates than any others out in the State of California, but also that road of recovery. When we say the road of recovery, many people associate that with substance abuse, but never to the historical trauma road to recovery of overcoming and talking about those issues.

So we have to be more open to those issues, because if we're able to, as a state, be open to that road to recovery, then we're being truly proactive to helping someone who later on could become a statistic of the missing and murdered indigenous people, indigenous women's crisis that plagues the State of California.

And hearing that testimony of Jessica Alva in San Francisco and still the perpetrator not being held accountable brings to light what we seen here this last week, with Attorney General stepping in and doing the prosecution for that individual that murdered a Pit River tribal member. And knowing that the Feather Alert was just implemented yesterday when we started our reception and then to hear that there was some positive resolve to that shows that the state and the tribal communities are working together to start to truly address these issues moving forward.

But we can't get away of the truth, the truth of injustice within the tribal communities throughout the whole State of California. The Feather Alert and CLETS access was just a small step of a larger picture that we still have to address and getting that information there.

The joint judicial courts is another area that we would like to learn more information on and have more education around. Because if that is something that truly starts to remove those barriers that are impacting our people and driving the crisis statistic numbers farther up, then maybe that's an area that we can look into. And this Committee is interested in learning more about that information there. It truly is about time that we start to share information.

And you mentioned, Chairwoman Cuellar, that once you start to share that information, you believe that that information helped to be more proactive to helping and protecting people in our communities. So it's time that the state start to look at those areas.

We know the Department of Justice and the Administration of the state and the Legislature is working hard to start to address some of those with some of the bills that are introduced this year in the Legislature and colleagues that have been there on these bills ahead of us. So we continue to work together to make sure that that healing is there and to make sure that people truly understand. We just had a Feather Alert. We had a Feather Alert yesterday.

The individual, by the testimony of the Chairwoman from Jamul, is the individual was found, and a safe resolve was there, but that's not the end of it. There's trauma that happened. There's loved ones that happen. And it's not just about this place and time. It's about the long term support. And it was said by our earlier person, Marlena, who talked about who knows when someone's ready to come forward when they're ready for that support. So we need to be there for our people.

I want to thank you for that. So part of the barriers is not just the support around the time or the day. It's long term support for our people of coming full circle around the truth. So thank you for your testimony as now, we transition to panel three.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. [Native Language]. I'm Sonya Tetnowski, an enrolled member of the Makah Tribe, Board President of the California Consortium of Urban Indian Health, and CEO of the Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley. It's an honor to speak before the Assembly Budget Committee, and thank you, Chairman Ramos, for the time to gather today to talk about these important issues. The issue of missing, murdered, and trafficked indigenous people is an issue devastating many American Indian Alaska Native communities.

In 2022, I was appointed to the federal Not Invisible Act Commission, which was a cross-jurisdictional advisory committee made up of directly impacted families, survivors, tribal leaders, law enforcement, and CBOs. As a commission, we held seven in-person field hearings with leaders across the U.S. and received heart-wrenching testimony from families, advocates, and survivors of MMIP. Today, my comments will be informed by the recommendations outlined in the Not One More Report, published by the commission in 2023.

And I'll also explain how chronic underfunding of the American Indian health care delivery system fuels the MMIP crisis. First, I'd like to provide context for the historical significance of urban Indian health programs. Unlike other clinics, UIHPs are not just primary care providers, but they are often a home away from home for urban Indians who have been removed from their ancestral homelands and traditions as a result of federal relocation policies.

Today, 88 percent of American Indians in California live in urban settings, and many are served by urban Indian health programs. It's important to note that health services for American Indians are based on a special historical legal responsibility identified in treaties with the U.S. government. In 1954, California voluntarily accepted this responsibility. Understanding California's trust responsibility to the health and well-being of American Indians and Alaska Natives is critical to solving the MMIP crisis.

If the state partnered with the federal government to adequately fund the Indian health care delivery system as well as social safety nets, we would see a lot less of our relatives fall victim to human trafficking--I'm sorry--to human trafficking and intimate partner violence.

As a urban Indian health program, we are aware of the increased likelihood of indigenous people falling victim to MMIP pipeline. If they are struggling with housing and food insecurities, have been involved in the foster care system or justice system, and/or have a lack of access to culturally responsive care, one of the biggest steps California could take to prevent a crisis is to champion policies that provide--that properly fund health and social services.

Urban Indian health programs, alongside tribal facilities, are uniquely equipped to respond and provide care to individuals and families impacted by MMIP. At the Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley, not only do we have trauma-informed staff in-house counseling, but we also provide traditional healing services. Traditional health is an effective healing modality for American Indians and Alaska Natives that have experienced severe trauma. Survivors and families with a missing and murdered loved one need immediate access to culturally appropriate healing modalities.

In the Not One More Report, families called for legislators to, I quote, 'support and fund the development and implementation of culturally responsive community and individually restorative justice programs by focusing on healing, reconciliation, empowerment, restorative justice programs that can provide a more holistic and effective response to the MMIP crisis while respecting the sovereignty and traditions of AI and communities.' A lack of culturally responsive care compounded with the struggle to survive, forces our relatives into dangerous cycles of violence.

Through addressing the MMIP crisis may feel overwhelming, when we center the voices of MMIP families and survivors, we'll find that the solutions already exist in those closest to the problem. I end my comments with immense gratitude to the Committee for your urgency to begin addressing a crisis that has devastated so many of us. I'd also like to thank the state for including urban Indian health programs in California's 1115 demonstration waivers, which requested CMS to reimburse traditional services for tribes and urban Indian health programs.

As indigenous people, our traditions have been a source of strength for centuries. I urge the Committee to prioritize legislation that centers culturally responsive victim support services. I'd also like to acknowledge all those that testified before this Committee today for their strength, their insight, and their commitment to finding solutions to this traumatic situation facing our people. Thank you so much for your time today.

Thank you so much for your testimony and bringing the educational awareness in the state that a large portion of Native Americans do live within the urban communities here in the State of California, again breaking another misconception that all Indian people live on Indian reservations. A high population, again, live within the urban communities here in the State of California. We want to now move to Erik Apperson, Former Sheriff, Del Norte County.

Thank you for the invitation to be here. Your staff can be very persistent. A little about me, I was born in Del Norte County, and I spent most of my life there until about three years ago. As many of you know, Del Norte County has several indigenous tribes. They are the Yurok Tribe, Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation, Resighini Rancheria, Elk Valley Rancheria. Growing up, I had many friends that were tribal members, and I remain close to most of them still.

I spent countless days and nights adventuring on tribal land, participating in so many beautiful aspects of indigenous culture. I also gained an insider's perspective on just how underserved, unrepresented, isolated, and historically traumatized many tribal communities are. As a father, my two oldest children are Siletz tribal members. They're both young adults now and making their own paths. Professionally, I was fortunate enough to be elected to the Office of Del Norte County Sheriff twice.

A cornerstone of my campaign was to increase public safety on tribal lands and tribal adjacent lands. I formed a partnership with the Yurok Tribal Police Department. In January of 2020, I was able to deputize the majority of their agency, allowing them the authority to enforce California statutes on tribal property. I also helped craft an agreement that resulted in a Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation tribal member being cross-deputized as a full time law enforcement officer policing tribal land.

My agency often trained with tribal law enforcement officers and worked closely on many cases. It's critical that those of us with the opportunity to do so strive to empower our tribal communities. We must find a roadway to providing a higher quality of service and safety to tribal communities, and where there is no road, we must make one. There are many cases that I think of often, and at least one that I still think about daily.

I see images of a shocked and grieving mother, and I remember my promise to do all I can for her. This case is still active, so I cannot go into much detail. The short of it is that a boy's life was taken by another boy on tribal land. I believe in my heart that it was a homicide, even if negligence played a part in it.

The victim, the offender, and the primary witness were all tribal members, and to this day, that case has not met the threshold to be prosecuted. What I learned most from that tragic set of circumstances is that there exists a deeply rooted lack of trust between many tribal members and law enforcement sworn to serve them. Even though a young boy lost his life that night, the compulsion to help bring the offender to justice did not outweigh a profound absence of faith, ability, desire, and opportunity.

Coincidentally, the same traits it takes to commit crime are the very ones needed to reduce it. I believe California law enforcement officers are some of the best trained and most effective law enforcement professionals in our nation, even globally. I also believe that California law enforcement has a strong desire to do the job wherever it may take them, and often against insurmountable odds. They are more than able. The disconnect, in my opinion, can be found in the opportunity category. To effectively and equitably police any community, trust must exist.

Victims and witnesses must trust that they will be heard and protected. They must believe, through practice and personal experience, that they have advocates throughout all levels of the criminal justice system. Those that respond and investigate must be in tandem with those who charge and prosecute. The entire system is often viewed as separate levels of obstacles as opposed to a joint system that works together.

I don't want to speak for anyone other than myself, but through my professional and personal interactions with tribal members, it becomes quickly apparent that foundational trust does not exist. Many indigenous people, especially on tribal land, operate day to day under the belief that people off tribal land simply do not care for them at a level that results in equitable action. Sadly, their perspective is based upon historical trauma and generations of examples that support that perspective.

I keep hearing that we need to strengthen and maintain relationships between law enforcement and the people they serve. In this instance, I don't believe we are even there yet. It's my opinion we need to build positive relationships before they can be strengthened and maintained. Tribal members are victimized at disproportionate level, comparable to averages in nearly every category. Even still, where is the proactive presence? Where is the targeted mission? Where are the multiyear strategic plans and grants in partnership with all stakeholders in the criminal justice system?

Over the years, we've made united efforts against subjects as broad as alcohol use and gang violence. We've made coordinated fronts against threats as specific as fentanyl. What we have failed to do, in my opinion, is build a relationship of trust between the tribal communities and the law enforcement resources designed to serve them.

Until major steps are taken to create and foster that trust, we will continue to wonder why reports aren't made, witnesses don't come forward, cases aren't solved, and people aren't brought home. Positive steps would include continuing efforts to empower tribal members and their local agencies responsible for policing services. We need to facilitate bringing everyone to the table, identify realistic steps towards building trust, and holding everyone accountable to participate in that process. That trust must be built through actions and empowerment, not simply words. Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony and thank you for your willingness to be here today. As now, we move to Taralyn Ipina, Yurok Tribal Member, Chief Operating Officer from Yurok Tribe.

Good morning. My name is Taralyn Ipina. I am a Yurok Tribal Member from Northern California. I'm from the villages of Pectaw and Morek along the Klamath River, and I'm honored to be here today to share some of my experiences with the MMIP crisis and solutions that we've identified. A little bit about myself: my paternal grandmother was stolen and taken to boarding school during forced assimilation.

My maternal grandmother was murdered on the Yurok Reservation in the 1970s, and last year, my sister went missing in San Francisco. Fortunately we found her, but we had a denied Feather Alert activation. Personally, I want to thank Marlena for being so brave and sharing her story. I also am a survivor of domestic violence and intimate partner stalking. I haven't shared that publicly, but Marlena's bravery really touched my heart. So unfortunately, my story is not unique to indigenous people.

Rates of violent victimization of indigenous people are higher than any other state. Further to that point--thank you--homicide is the third leading cause of death for indigenous women and girls, and that's an unfortunate conversation that indigenous parents have to have with their children at a very young age. We started having that conversation with my children as soon as they could talk, like if you--especially my girls, and that's a tough dilemma to take away some of their innocence to be able to protect them.

The Yurok Tribe, along with the tribes across the State of California, have been working for decades to address public safety, justice, and the epidemic of MMIP. We need the partnership of the state to support for the calls for funding and invest in solutions. There's a severe lack of funding and resources for tribes for justice, legal, and public safety, and prevention programs that have been a key factor to the MMIP crisis.

Tribes and native-led organizations have been barred from, kept out of federal and state funding, which have had devastating effects. For example, Public Law 280 withdrew federal funding and support for tribal law enforcement and courts in six states, including California. On the state level, California tribes were written out of the 2017 CalVIP Program and its predecessor of the California Gang Reduction Act, an intervention and prevention grant program which focus exclusively on urban areas.

One major step in the right direction has been California has invested 12 million dollars in both 2022 and 2023 Budget Acts to address the epidemic of violence on tribal lands. Today, I want to ask the state to continue to authorize funds in the 2024 budget and that the state add an additional 12 million to the May Revise for the MMIP grant program to support tribally led programs to stop violence and MMIP in our communities.

Grant funds to date include advanced payment of minimum of 25 percent to tribes to ensure accessibility and remove the burden of tribes to upfront cost. Additionally, we have identified solutions, indigenous communities, and government seed funding to hire MMIP investigators. Currently, the Yurok Tribe is the only tribe in California to have a MMIP tribal investigator that is cross-deputized, and we've done this through grant funding and donations from our partners with private funding including San Manuel Band of Mission Indians.

We need law enforcement liaisons to assist families in crisis and guide families through the process to break the cycle of perpetual trauma. There's a deep-seated distrust in law enforcement, and trauma-informed liaisons can help bridge this gap. After centuries of colonization and genocide, the state has a deep debt to California's first people. The majority of the State of California's wealth came from land theft, indigenous people enslavement, and extraction of indigenous resources. The state needs to partner and invest with tribes to support tribally led solutions.

This includes notification of tribes and other essential parties when children go missing from foster care placements, strengthening the Feather Alert system, creation of an MMIP Bureau at the California Department of Justice, and supporting tribal police peace officer status. These solutions are important to protecting native people, families, and children, to ending the MMIP crisis and creating wellness in our communities. For tribal and non-tribal families, we are not asking the state for new funding.

We're asking the state to reprioritize its goals and we are asking the state to prioritize life and safety of indigenous people and asking for no more stolen bodies and stolen land. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony and bringing to light that the funding mechanisms and the request of the 25 percent upfront in some of these grants that would help pave the way in moving forward. Thank you for that testimony, as now we move to Morning Star Gali, Pit River Founder and Executive Director, Indigenous Justice.

[Native Language]. Thank you so much for having myself and our Indigenous Justice team members here today to provide testimony. I would like to acknowledge our Chairman, Yatch Bamford of the Pit River Tribe and two council members: Renee Gemmill and Theodore Martinez, that are also here in the room, along with my relative, my uncle Bruce Gali, all of our decom that are here to support today. We are very grateful.

I want to start by sharing that my connection to MMIP is that I have a number of family and extended family members who have been directly impacted by this crisis. I never wanted to be here in a position to provide testimony. I want my friends and relatives that have been stolen from us, just as Taralyn mentioned, stolen bodies taken too soon on stolen land where so much bloodshed has already occurred. Our tribal territory for Pit River spans what is now known as Shasta, Siskiyou, Modoc, and Lassen Counties.

I want to acknowledge that the family members that spoke, Marlena Alva that spoke earlier, Jessica Alva, was a friend and relative of ours. Yogi McGarva is a friend and relative of ours. I was asked to provide, to write and provide the eulogy during Yogi's funeral. I was asked to write and provide the victim impact statement just this past week where Yogi's assailant received a sentence of 26 years to life.

Policy solutions to address the MMIP crisis include the recent guaranteed income that we have worked on for the past two years with Indigenous Justice. Within rural, tribal, and inner city communities, there is a dire need across the state to invest in women, girls, and gender nonbinary, nonconforming people's potential, advance their rights, and address the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous peoples.

We are committed to working for structural change and transformation of the dominant narratives in which our stories are told, narratives that blame and further marginalize system-impacted indigenous peoples. Some of the solutions we are providing to fill these gaps include a universal basic income and guaranteed income for Native American survivors within the City and County of San Francisco with the first indigenous women and two-spirit relatives pilot project.

In this year, we have the privilege of launching the first of its kind guaranteed income program in partnership with the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women, wherein ten indigenous survivors of violence will receive 1,000 dollars a month.

We know that when women and girls are resourced and supported, they make safer choices, and we hope that with some of the financial burden lifted, survivors will have deeper capacity to engage in care, connect with this--sorry--connect with some of the financial burden lifted, survivors will have deeper capacity to engage in care, connect with the community, and heal.

We trust that resources will support their needs and provide the type of relief that comes from knowing that you have support and that your needs will be met. We extend our gratitude to the Department of Justice, Office of Native American Affairs, and to Assemblyman Ramos's Office as they have worked to provide training and guidance to law enforcement agencies and tribal governments to help reduce uncertainty regarding criminal jurisdiction and improve public safety on tribal lands.

Within these efforts include funds within the study to challenge--to study challenges related on the reporting and identification of missing and murdered Native Americans in California, particularly women and girls.

These efforts through 3099, AB 3099, should be a first step forward and not a last step, as it currently is that the report will wrap up the efforts of the Office of Native American Affairs Department. Solutions and approaches that have been implemented thus far include now the implementation of removing the S-word from over 95 public place names throughout California.

Indigenous Justice is proud to be a co-sponsor of this now two-year-old legislation and proud to address the efforts in challenging the racist name change of this past March within Fresno County. Families and survivors have espoused a willingness throughout a history of harm and mistrust of U.S. government agencies for support and resources from tribal, local, state, and federal law enforcement, and despite this willingness to collaborate, families and survivors are often met with the lack of reciprocal effort, care, and coordination.

Law enforcement entities are often the most resource agents at the table in response to missing and murdered indigenous peoples and human trafficking events. They are also often the least readily able to move into action on behalf of families and survivors.

We continue to hear how families, communities, and grassroots organizations meet the gaps to provide rapid response search parties, emergency financial assistance, culturally relevant healing modalities, and ongoing pursuits of justice of an MMIP HT instances. State law enforcement agencies are singularly unable to manage the full scope of response needed to find, solve, and heal from these harms.

Responding to traumatic events within the conditions set forth by systemic and historic oppression, generational trauma, and ongoing systemic efforts of indigenous genocide create systems and communities that are divested from and unable to hold governmental agencies accountable in meaningful and visible ways. The onus of justice is on indigenous communities, survivors, and survivor families, whereas governmental agencies claim to be trustworthy partners in our pursuits of justice.

I want to acknowledge Yurok Chief O'Rourke, who centers a trauma-informed approach and understands survivor-centered processes, the two Department of Justice missing in California Indian Country events hosted by Director Lopez-Keifer, where families were brought forward to be interviewed and continued to be supported in their unsolved cases.

In the case of Yogi McGarva, my two-spirit relative, he was killed on Likely Rancheria by a White individual who Yogi was seeking domestic violence support and services from. The individual murdered Yogi on Pit River lands in his Hamawi homelands and that should have enacted immediate responses.

The victory in justice for Yogi was not easily won. It was a difficult four years in the making with his family not knowing when they would be able to breathe a sigh of relief. As my Indigenous Justice team sat in the courtroom day in and day out, we read the victim impact statements just last week at the sentencing and a heaviness weighs on all of us affected not knowing until the jury verdict and sentencing that justice would actually be served.

When Nick Patterson went missing on the Lookout Rancheria, again, there should have been search and rescue efforts. Precious time was wasted when Modoc and Shasta Counties continued to kick the case back and forth while the family was stalled from bringing search canines, horseback, and other search efforts that tribal members were seeking out. As we have heard, the families speaking today are more than qualified as experts to speak and provide solutions on their own behalf. We consistently receive pushback when we ask for survivor families to be provided space to share their stories in MMIP policy spaces that it re-triggers the families.

We understand the impact on the families and also understand the importance of the survivor families allowed to have the space to share on their own behalf. By assessing the needs and advocating alongside on behalf of the systems that involved indigenous peoples throughout Northern California, Indigenous Justice seeks to elevate needed support in creating pathways of healing and empowerment for survivors of violence back into our tribal and intertribal communities.

For the past 175 years, California Native peoples within tribal and intertribal communities are living, resilient, and thriving, while continuing to break legacies of intergenerational trauma through traditional pathways to healing. We as organizers do this impactful community work to support this healing through ongoing community organizing, advocacy, centering of cultural practices through movement building and action. As we organize throughout urban communities, we are accountable for responding to the changing needs of those communities.

Solutions that require a cultural shift in thinking on the driver of MMIP and approaches that should be considered include that our communities instinctively rely on one another in times of crisis, making us the experts on our own experiences. We heard time and time again that equitable investment into services and grassroots organizations is urgently needed to complement and close the gap between communities and government. We carry the knowledge and trust of our peoples.

With the proper investment, we can collectively actualize the vision to ensure a whole community response in times of crisis, in addition to the necessary ongoing work to prevent, minimize, and heal from these ruptures of safety. It's the maintenance of community wellness that will keep us safe while we work to close the gap between government and community. We denounce ongoing resource extraction in all forms, especially the extraction of California Indian girls, women, and peoples. We uplift the protection of indigenous bodies on stolen land. We dance, we pray, and we sing for justice, for safety, and for change. [Native Language]. All my relations.

Thank you so much for that testimony and thank you to all those on our panel, Panel Three, for your testimony and bringing to light some of the true impacts that drastically affect us. And really want to highlight Marlena Alva for your testimony that went on today, but also Sonya, who brought to light that solutions exist with those close to the situation.

As we go through and start to look at solutions, let's not overlook those that are on the front lines, those that are living with these areas, that those solutions are right there with them. But we have to be open to hear and build on that mutual respect of understanding so that people feel comfortable in bringing those solutions forward.

And for Indian people, when we bring forward ideas or solutions, sometimes because of past treatment, we think that it's not going to fall on ears that someone could move forward with what you're putting forward, that there's hesitancy to bring those solutions forward, but here with this Joint Committee and here in the Legislature, we want to hear those solutions firsthand of how we can do a better job at bringing resources and bringing that voice of those forward.

And I want to thank you, Sheriff, for continuing to move forward and bringing up the topic. The state moved forward on gang violence, moved forward on fentanyl, but we haven't moved forward on making sure that we're building that mutual respect between California's first people and our law enforcement community and the community in general in the State of California. If we could do those things, then the state could do the issue of building that mutual respect, especially with California's first people.

It's time that we rise to that level to start to address this crisis. We continue to work on issues, issues that deal with Public Law 280 and colonizational periods, theft of land, renaming of a university in San Francisco, but also making sure that the stereotype from the colonializational time to where we are today, that we still have to tackle those issues with the S-word and bringing around respect for Native American women.

We're still in that era here within 2024, and we have to be able to move forward. And Taralyn and Marlena, being able to share your personal testimony is allowing others to be able to step forward and to bring their voices forward. We're seeing that as these testimonies unfold, and anybody that's out there, even in this audience, that need to talk to somebody, reach out to somebody, we have the nonprofits here with us today with Morning Star and Indigenous Justice.

In Indian community, if you feel you need to talk to somebody, you have testimony coming forward that are basically putting themselves out here with the raw testimony of talking about issues that they face so that others can let that voice be heard, as we heard from the Chairwoman from Hamu. These are issues that are plaguing our people, but we have to start to talk about it if we're gonna start to really move forward on that healing road to recovery.

So when we talk about recovery, let's not get caught up in the stereotype of recovery with substance abuse. We're still dealing with an issue in Indian Country, California, and the nation of recovery from historical trauma, and that starts with being able to be open to talk to somebody, and it's by you putting yourself out here and telling your testimony that you're allowing that voice to be heard from within people. So thank you for that.

And that power that you bring forward, and also with Marlena, with that power and just coming forward and anyone else out there that needs to speak to somebody, you know, Indigenous Justice is there, and the nonprofits are there, and people in the room will sit there and talk with you.

So it's time that not only our voices be heard, but it's time that we start to acknowledge that road to recovery, but also calling on the state to start to heal that practice of mutual respect so that we start to truly address these issues. I want to thank you for your testimony. I want to thank you for being here to offer your voice in this testimony on Panels One, Two, and Three. Thank you so much, as now we move to public comment.

Thank you.

Public comment will be taken from those here in this chamber, this hearing room. You'll be limited to one to two minutes apiece, so we'll open up with public comment now as we move to public comment. Going once. I think, not seeing any public comment moving forward, we want to acknowledge all of our panel and acknowledging that this hearing is recorded and moving forward, so your voices of California's first people moving forward in all that you added to this discussion is now in the archives of the State Legislature. As now, we adjourn this hearing.