Assembly Select Committee on Native American Affairs

We'd like to call the Select Committee of Native American Affairs to order. Before we do, we want to offer up a traditional song. It's a Bighorn Sheep song from our people, Serrano people, San Bernardino County. Offer that as a prayer for everything that we're gonna be talking about. In this hearing, we will be reviewing the progress of statewide missing and murdered indigenous people intervention and programs.

The panel titles will be tribal leaders that assess state impact of MMIP intervention. Our second panel will be strengthening systems, resources, and services for missing and murdered indigenous persons impacted communities. And our third panel will be foster youth at the crossroads of the MMIP crisis. We want to welcome everybody for attending this informational hearing with the Select Committee on Native American Affairs.

Today, we will continue to bring attention and to look at the progress that the state has done, but also bring to light what we need to be doing to move forward.

The disappearance of native people is something that still plagues the state of California in 2026. It also plagued our people when the state was created in 1850. From 1850 to 2026, we're still bringing awareness around this issue. We must come together as Indian people and as a community, as a state, to start to bring resolve to these issues. Legislation has been created and chaptered to support progress in this crisis.

And up to this point, we have seen the creation of the first statewide emergency notification, a Feather Alert, working with the California Highway Patrol to ensure that we're more proactive in bringing our people home. We've also seen efforts led by the Yurok tribe in the annual MMIP summit. And tonight, we'll continue to light the dome red, bringing awareness around this issue and a call to action on the issues that come our way.

All efforts are continuing to move forward to bring resolve to this crisis that has plagued our people. A crisis that per capita wise, if it was happening to any other any other people in the state of California, I truly believe that task force would be assembled statewide to bring closure to this.

But there has been progress. Progress of the feather alert, progress of working through the Department of Justice and creating positions there. There's also been one time funding for different budget components around PL 280 and MMIP. But we have to start to look to make sure that there's ongoing funding so that we don't build an infrastructure in Indian country and have it fall to the wayside.

State of California, I believe, owes it to California's first people to be able to have that funding moving forward, especially when the state continues to be number five of all states in the nation of not even investigating these murders against our people.

Today, during this hearing, we'll be hearing from those that have and are doing the work on the front lines. We'll hear from tribal leaders, the commissioner of the California Highway Patrol, and MMIP service providers to talk about the progress, but also to talk about what we need moving forward. Also, today, one of those angles is our foster care system. Through the several hearings that we've had here in these chambers, it's identified that foster care continues to be an area that needs concern.

That when people go missing, sometimes they're trying to get back to their homelands, their reservations.

We need to make sure that we bring that into perspective. The foster care system and all these issues that we're talking about aren't new to the state of California. We've worked together on foster care bills, foster care awareness. But when it comes to including tribal children into that whole component, there seems to be a misconception that tribal families are surviving on their own with federal funding. But yet, it's state dollars that brings resolve to foster care and brings resolve to California's first people.

We have to start looking at these issues, not in silos, but as a state. And when we talk about the population of the state of California, that it truly includes California's first people. With that, I'd like to acknowledge our committee members, here present, Assemblymember of Avelino Valencia, Assemblymember Tom Lackey, and Assemblymember Robert Garcia. And I would open it up now for any opening statements any of my colleagues would have. Assemblymember Valencia.

Thank you, Mister Chair, and good morning to everyone in this room and everyone watching at home. What a day. Every time that this issue is raised to light in this capital, it sends chills down my spine. It is a plague that has been a crisis to the indigenous community in this state, in this nation, across this continent for far too long. Not enough awareness has been raised.

However, as it was mentioned by our chair, the little progress that has been made has made an impactful bent in moving this issue in a much better direction. Much more is needed. Having conversations has been the first step, but continued funding is what's needed to ensure that this crisis continues to be minimized in the state and across this nation. I thank you all for being here today. We're continuing to advocate for our lost ones, for our forgotten communities, and I look forward to the work ahead. Thank you.

Thank you, Assemblymember Valencia. Assemblymember Lackey?

Yeah. As a non-native American, I just want to say, I'm sorry it's not better. I think, unfortunately, the excuse of you seeking sovereignty is used as an excuse to ignore the value of human life. And I feel like as a retired law enforcement official that it's important that we recognize all people.

And there's no excuse to not improve, and so I'm here to show you that you don't have to be Native American to understand the value you bring and the importance of improving on the situation.

Thank you, Assemblymember Lackey. Assemblymember Garcia?

Good morning. Thank you, Mister Chair. Yeah. I want to extend my thanks to Assemblymember Ramos and all the tribes, tribal leaders, organizations involved in making the missing and murdered indigenous people movement a continued force. It it was last year in this committee that I learned not just about the issue, but also why disproportionately the statistics affect indigenous women.

And so it is that the perpetrators are know that they're not investigated the same way. And so, there's still a lot of work to do to make sure we have continued resources and attention awareness. And so I want to thank everyone here for convening today. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Assemblyman Corey Jackson, any opening comments?

Thank you very much, Mister Chair. I'm honored to continue to be supporting the great work of California's first people when it comes to making sure that the first people are safe in California, just like we try to do in so many other communities. We need to make sure that California is the safest place for California's first people, and making sure that everything that we do, the systems that we create, the programs that we have, are built with the first peoples in mind.

And so looking forward to continue to learn, listen, and be given some homework on what I need to do to be helpful in making sure that the issue of MMIP are going to be taken seriously and that we root out any barrier that will prevent us from not delivering on that. So thank you very much, Mister Chair.

Thank you, Assemblymember Jackson. And with that, we're going to move to our first panel. Tribal leaders assess state impact of MMIP intervention. Panelists will be Chairperson Erica Pinto from Jamul Indian Village of California, Chairperson Deann Kamalani, Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians, Vice Chairperson June Nachor, Tejon Indian tribe, and Chairperson Joe James, Yurok tribe, and Chairperson Joe Davis, Hoopa tribe.

And we'll go in order unless there's wishes to do otherwise. Chairperson Erica Pinto.

Good morning, Chair Ramos, Chair Valencia, members of the committee, Assemblymembers Lackey, Garcia, and Jackson. Thank you for your time today. My name is Erica Pinto, and I come from San Diego County. I am Chairwoman of the Jamul Indian Village of California. I know we're on a a time constraint here each, but I would like to give a moment of silence for all those missing and stolen sisters, brothers, two spirit, aunties, mothers, fathers.

A moment of silence, please. The Jamul Indian Village Reservation is located in San Diego County, home to one of the largest concentrations of tribal nations anywhere in The United States with more than 18 federally recognized tribes. Given the unique jurisdictional complexities that this large concentration of tribal nations presents, I'm especially grateful to be here today to both celebrate progress and bring attention to the ways in which the missing and murdered indigenous peoples crisis continues to impact our communities.

I want to begin by acknowledging the meaningful progress that the state of California has made in addressing this crisis. Over the past two years, the state's missing and murdered indigenous people grant program has directed nearly $33 million in critical resources to tribes to support investigations, data collection, and community based prevention.

These investments are helping tribes, including those in Southern California, to begin building infrastructure that should have existed all along. We are also seeing increased attention to interagency coordination and legislative reform, including efforts to improve data sharing and establish a more formal statewide MMIP response framework. In San Diego County, we are starting to see stronger regional conversations between tribes, local law enforcement, including discussions around tribal liaisons and improved communication protocols.

We all know about the Feather Alert that was implemented in the last few years, and we have seen success from the Feather Alert. Each of these advancements represent important steps forward and deserve our acknowledgment.

And I want to sincerely thank you all for contributing to this progress. Despite this progress, from where I sit as a tribal leader, responsible for the safety of my community, it is not yet enough. As mentioned earlier, the San Diego County presents a unique challenge in this crisis with so many tribal jurisdictions overlapping with county, state, and federal law enforcement. Jurisdictional complexity is not the exception, it's the norm. That complexity continues to delay responses, create confusion, and in some cases, allow cases to fall through the cracks.

We still hear from families who struggle to get timely information and we will see gaps in how cases are reported and tracked. There are still no fully coordinated regional responses that treats tribal cases with the same urgency as other cases. Statewide data reflects these challenges. California continues to have one of the highest numbers of missing and murdered indigenous people cases in the country. Even today, there is no single reliable system that captures all MMIP cases across jurisdictions.

This is not just a data collection issue, it is a public safety failure. From the perspective of the Jamulian village, three priorities remain urgent. One, first, we need to hire real time coordinated regional response systems. In San Diego County, that means formal agreements between tribes and local law enforcement that include clear leadership and communication protocols and control how cases are handled from the moment someone is reported missing. Second, we need better data integration and transparency.

Tribes must have direct access to and input into the systems that track these cases. Our communities cannot continue to be invisible in the data. Third, we need sustained investment in tribal capacity. Grants help, but they are not a substitute for long term investment funding that allows tribes to build law enforcement, victim services, and prevention programs that reflect our communities and our values. In closing, as a tribal leader, I know what it means to have families come to you in fear asking for help.

When systems fail, those families often turn to tribal leadership for support and guidance. I speak for myself and other tribal leaders here today when I say that we take this responsibility seriously, but we cannot address it alone. The state of California has taken important steps, but we must focus on the next steps. The phase of this work on implementation, accountability, and partnership at the local level, we are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for our lives to be treated with equal value and urgency.

Systems that work and meaningful partnerships. We need justice that is consistent and not conditional. Let's bring our stolen sisters home so they can have justice once and for all. I thank you for your time.

Thank you, Chairwoman Erica Pinto. Next, we'll go to Chairwoman Deann Kamalani of the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians.

Thank you, Chair Ramos and committee members for your support. Hilli Hilli, my name is Deann Kamalani, and I'm the chairperson of the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians. We are located in Central California in the Sierra Nevada's foothills. In the fourth largest economy in the world, our people are dying and disappearing. And too often, no one is held accountable.

This is not just a crisis. It's a test of whether California's values mean anything at all for our native people. Thousands of native people are murdered or reported missing every year, the numbers that far exceed our share of the population. And in 2026, here in the Golden State, native people remain unreasonably vulnerable to violence, to disappearance, and to death. This is not random criminality.

This is systemic neglect. In California, we are a Public 280 state. And because of that, we have gaps in jurisdiction on our lands. Those gaps create confusion between tribal, state, and federal law enforcement, and that confusion has consequences. Too often, these crimes are not addressed until it's too late.

Too often, no one investigates because no one is clearly responsible for investigating. And when no one takes responsibility, justice doesn't just get delayed, it disappears. That lack of prompt attention leads to something else, data failure. Cases go untracked, they're misidentified, they're overlooked. And as a result, crimes in our communities become unreported or underreported.

And when cases are not even recognized as crimes, they are ignored by our media. We experience what I call media invisibility. An absence of attention, an absence of pressure, and an absence of urgency. And when there is no urgency, there's no accountability. And all of this creates something even more dangerous, a perception of impunity.

Those who target our communities believe they will not be held accountable. No one will know. No one will care. This is a system that has taught perpetrators they can get away with it. I have a cousin who was named after my grandmother, our grandmother.

She'd gone missing. We reported it to our local authorities with no action. Family members searched for weeks to find her staged in the backyard as if it was a suicide hanging by a garden hose. Authorities wanted to classify it as a suicide. She'd been missing for weeks.

We had searched. This was a message from those who had murdered her that we know who you are. This is what we can do. Even had left a note on a family member's doorstep who also has four other daughters. This has been over five years, and the case is cold.

And what is the cost to our communities? Families live in constant uncertainty, grieving without any dignity of closure, not for days, not for months, but for generations. That grief becomes trauma, and that trauma becomes intergenerational, rooted in a long history of violence and marginalization. But today, we are saying no more. No more treating these cases as statistics.

No more allowing lives of promise to be erased. No more leaving families behind without answers. We're resolved. This must stop. And we're ready to lead the way forward.

We recognize and appreciate the steps the legislature has taken. The Feather Alert system, DOJ coordination efforts, and the MMIP hearings and summits. But even state leaders acknowledge the truth. These efforts have only scratched the surface. We've raised awareness, we've held hearings, but we do not yet have resolution.

And until we do, our loved ones will continue to go missing, and our communities will continue to carry that trauma. That is why we remain here. That is why we remain engaged. And that is why we will not stop until real solutions are in place. So what must we do?

First, law enforcement reform. We need clear jurisdiction protocols put in place. We need to expand tribal law enforcement authority. No more cases going cold even before they're investigated. Second, the data and accountability.

We need a mandatory statewide MMIP tracking system with transparency and public reporting. We must remove the cloak of invisibility over our communities. Third, real support for victims and families, culturally competent services that meet our communities where we are, and sustained funding, not temporary pilot programs, and finally, partnership. The state must work with tribal leadership as partners, not override us as has too often been the case. Now let me close with this.

California prides itself on being a global leader, but leadership is not measured by the size of your economy. Leadership is measured by whether you stand up to darkness. This crisis has lived in the shadows long enough. The question now is simple: will California finally work with us to turn on the lights? Thank you.

Well, thank you, Chairman, for those words. Now we'll move to Vice Chairperson, June Nachor from Tejon Indian Tribe.

Good morning, Chairman Ramos and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is June Nachor. I am here as both the Vice Chairwoman of the Kithonamuk Nation of Tohono Indian Tribe and Program Director of the Tohono Indian Tribe Community Advocacy Program. We are located in Kern County, that is in the Central Valley right at the base of the Grapevine.

That's about two hours north of Los Angeles. Over the past several years, California tribal leaders have come together again and again to discuss, support, and advocate for legislation to address the missing and murdered indigenous peoples' crisis. And, yes, there has been movement. The state has invested approximately $35 million in grant funding to tribes, established regional task forces, and created the Feather Alert system. Those are important steps, but they are also struck largely reactive.

Because in our communities, families are still facing the same gaps in services, the same vulnerabilities, and the same barriers to safety that existed before these efforts began. I sat here in a hearing like this in 2024 and spoke about the intersection of MMIP and human trafficking. And I said then, and I will say it again now, when we are talking about MMIP in terms of statistics, we are already too late. We have to go back and ask, how did this person become a statistic? Without placing blame, we can clearly identify the gaps.

Was it a lack of behavioral health services, a lack of of safe and stable housing? Were they in a domestic violence situation and did not know how to get out or where to go for help? And we also have to look at our systems, including the training and response of law enforcement. We recently opened our casino, Hard Rock Casino to home, and we opened it November 14. Everybody knew we were coming.

But I got a bulletin from our local sheriff's department that was a page and a half long on what to do when they when they step on tribal property. That was a month too late. That was a year too late. They knew we were coming in 2015, and they issued the bulletin 12/05/2025. We opened 11/14/2025.

Every family who has lost a loved one can tell you what was missing before that person went missing or was murdered. They can tell you exactly where the system failed them. In addition to these systematic gaps, data remains a major issue. We cannot resolve what we cannot fully see. MMIP cases are still underreported and misclassified.

You can look at me and not know that I'm native. You would assume I'm Hispanic. If they don't ask the question, they're not gonna get their correct answer. Tribal data is often incomplete or missing altogether. Much of the information we rely on is outdated.

Without accurate transparent data that includes tribal input, it becomes incredibly difficult to allocate resources in a way that truly reflects the need. I remember attending an MMIP summit a few years ago where the attorney general's office rolled out a survey through a QR code for distribution to our communities. I remember that because I complained about it. It was, like, fifteen minutes long. You have to answer questions.

And I know Mary Lopez Kiefer is here, and she remembers me complaining about it. To this day, I have not seen the results of that survey. Maybe I missed it. But if so, then that speaks to the larger issue. Information is not being a share in a way that is accessible, accountable, or useful to the communities it's meant to serve.

When we talk about MMIP, we're not talking about numbers. We are talking about our relatives, our sisters, our brothers, our aunties, our uncles. We are talking about families who are still searching, still grieving, and still waiting for answers. And at the end of the day, this is about the safety of our people, the first people of California, and we need to do better. Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much, Vice Chairperson. Next, we're gonna go to chairperson Joe James of Yurok Tribe.

Good morning. Thank you, Chairman, committee, for this time and opportunity to speak. My name is Joe James, Chairman of the Yurok Tribe. We're located in Humboldt and Del Norte County, located on the Lower Klamath River.

I also come from the village of Shregan. I wanted to go backward in time. Before I do that though, thank you, Chairman and the committee for the work you've done on addressing MMIP crisis. We have come a long way in a short period of time, but the opening statement was 1850. As you all know, the first governor, Mister Burnett, at that time, through his policies and laws, to exterminate, to kill, or to remove us and our families.

And so the foundation at the highest level of state of California was to remove Indian people.

And when I think about where I'm at here today and speaking on behalf of our tribe and throughout California as not just an indigenous person, as a culture person, as a spiritual person. Those are things that we think about and how far we have come and what the foundation of the state of California was built on at the highest level at the at the government during that time.

And fast forward now, we're still dealing with that with the boarding schools, removal of our language. Foster care is a pipeline for our children to go missing. The Yurok Tribe is grateful for the BSCC leadership and the availability of funding to support the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Program efforts.

These resources have been critical in helping to address the unique needs of implementing MMIP families in our community, and we value the state's commitment to this work. We've also able to hold with our brothers and sisters throughout the state of California an annual MMIP summit. This type of work, it's tough work, it's hard work, but it's also bringing us together to address past issues, past behavior, trauma. Those are all good discussions to have as as a tribal leader. But for to solve things, you have to listen.

And that's what we're able to do in coming together as a whole, in state of California with the help of yourself, Mr. Ramos, and the committee. As I mentioned, the history where we started and we'll fast forward. We're now in 2026 and the strides we made the last five years with the Feather Alert and funding. We have made great strides. We still have a lot of work yet to go.

As I mentioned, we've got to heal and continue to work in that direction as a whole. Also, with the Yurok Tribe, we also created a MMIP program within the tribe with our funding. We have MMIP coordinator. We have MMIP drone program. This all just helps that assess the Yurok Tribe, but all tribes and all counties, provide net assistance.

Because as we know, we know what it feels like to have a loved one going missing. And so we're able to leverage and utilize that program throughout our area. And, again, we're going to continue to help and move forward in a good way.

These funds have been able to build a more robust and coordinated program that would allow others to possibility the drone program. We were collaborative closely with Humboldt and Donnell.

As I mentioned, we work well with our local sheriffs. Again, this tragedy, this topic, this injustice has brought us together. And I when I when I think about are we moving in the right direction, are we moving the needle for a Indian country and also state of California? Yes. We are we are moving.

And, again, I I'm asking support to continue it for the funding for the grant funding program throughout California. It says the right message, and it's just not the message. We're not here for looking for a handout. And again, we're we're looking for that that partner, knowing how far we have come and where we started as a whole out the state. So again, as a I thank you for your time, chairman.

I I thank the committee for their work. I urge you. I know there's a lot of priorities out there in the state of California budget, but this is one priority that we all come together as tribes, as people, as families, and as a state. It's the right message to send, not just in California. It's the right message to send in any country, and it's the right message to send across United States as a whole.

This is how we work together to combat this crisis. Thank you for your time, chairman.

Thank you so much, chairman, for those those words. Now we'll move to chairperson Joe Davis, Hoopa Tribe.

Good morning, everybody. I wanna thank each and every one of you for being here today. A little bit about my tribe, Hoopa Valley Tribe, we're we're up in Humboldt County, neighbors with the Yuroks and crew. We actually we kinda go back and forth with Yurok as far as who has the largest reservation in the state. We're definitely in the top two, largest reservation, and I think we're number two or three by, travel enrollment size, throughout the whole state of California.

And, you know, for for time immemorial before 1850, our our people thrive. We we lived a rich lifestyle, with rich in natural resources and rich in family and culture and heritage. However, after '9 1850 and, you know, the dams came in and our our salmon populations have been decimated and

our land size has shrunken down to probably, you know, maybe a third of our our original territory. And it's it's had devastating effects on our people as far as poverty and opportunities. And we've seen how that that poverty has loss of culture, loss of identity has led to a lot of substance abuse and a lot of just poor health outcomes for our people. And, you know, more recently, it it came as MMIP, you know, this this crisis we have of missing and murdered indigenous people.

I was the chairman in 2021 when Emily Rizzling went went missing. And and Emily's still missing today. She's one of our tribal members. My cousin I was a council member when my cousin Virgil Bustle went missing. He's still missing today. I've sat across from these families in my office and and looked them eye to eye when they're they're coming in to us as tribal leaders, and they're they're looking for answers.

You know? And they're they're not getting the answers from law enforcement, and they're not getting the answers from anybody. And just the the profound grief and trauma that comes along with that and and the effects that it can have over time. My dad's oldest brother was murdered by the Chico police in 1973. And he was just about to graduate from Chico State University, would have been the first person in our family to graduate college.

Well, the officers involved, they they lost their jobs as officers, but they they never did any time in jail. So I can see the the profound effect, you know, in my family, the ripple effects it's had since that time over the years of alcohol and and drug abuse and, mental health issues and just all the the the the pain it can cause families. And, when Emily went missing, we had our tribal police, searching the rivers and boats.

And, eventually, we we hired the John, Francis Foundation, came in from the Midwest. And I think we spent over $10,000 to have them come in with cadaver dogs and just a lot of resources have been dedicated towards that.

You know, $15,000 in reward money for Angela McConnell murdered in Shasta County. That that case has never been solved until this day. We've had billboards up. We've attended countless meetings, been there alongside the family in the sheriff's office and, organizing searches and and walks and and so much time and effort we put into MMIP. And and yet at times, I feel like we we failed these folks because we the cases still haven't been solved.

And so I I I thought about, you know, when I when I was invited to come down here, you know, do I what do I say? You know? I don't I don't wanna keep giving lip service, but the truth is is that we are seeing results. The feather the feather alert that happens has been very helpful. We unfortunately had a murder in Humboldt County, 17 year old tribal member murdered by 18 and 19 year old and some other juveniles recently in early March.

And the response that we received from the sheriff's office has been much better than what we've seen in the past and the resources and the follow-up. The family members, they have hope. You know? We we can't give up on this fight even though it seems like, you know, we're not solving as many of the cases that we want.

As long as we continue to work together and and be here and and and fight for more resources, our tribe has seen received money from the state for MMIP prevention.

We're getting our kids out there with with mentors. They're doing cultural activities. Things that lift their spirits, things that give the family members hope. And so I I just wanna thank you all today for all the hard work that goes into this. Let's keep the momentum going.

Let's keep this fight going. Because instead of seeing our families, you know, suffer and and give up hope and, you know, turn to alcohol and drugs for comfort, instead, we're seeing them go to college. We're we're seeing them gather here for these types of events. We're seeing them, you know, just have hope and and continue to fight on and and represent our people in a very positive way. So I just wanna encourage you all to, you know, continue to work with us as chairman James said.

It brings us together, and there's a lot of strength and power behind that. So let's not ever give up. And, thank you all again very much.

Thank you so much, chairman, and thank you to all the, tribal leaders, who spoke, here today on this panel. I wanna do recognize assembly member, Sharon Quirk Silva, who's joined us and assembly member Rogers, Ahrens, and, Caloza, who now have joined us. And so the testimony that you you've given is testimony that that that needs to be heard, and we're gonna open up the dais now for any, comments or or questions, that there would be for the panelists. Assemblymember Rogers?

Thanks so much, mister chair. I I just wanted to say thank you for coming and telling the victim's stories. I actually in preparation for this week, it reached out to a couple of of folks to see where we could get a good database or a good accounting of who is missing, who we still need to locate. And I know a a friend in the Yurok tribe reached back out, and the numbers are just staggering.

And there isn't a central database where we can pull from that that has certainly not enough to be able to explain the impact that this is having in each of these communities.

And so I I I know that it's a difficult conversation. I know it's always really hard to talk about loved ones who are still missing or who have been murdered. But I really think that it's important up in this building to tell those stories, to uplift them, and and not just allow them to be statistics. And I know you have the commitment from the the chair and from everybody here to continue to make progress on this. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Sharon Quirk Silva?

Yes. Thank you to all of you for your testimonies and to all of the individuals out here in the audience. I've had the privilege by the chair here to be at a few of these hearings and see all the effort of time and really education that the chair has put in front of this body, the assembly members that hadn't happened before he came. But I think what you're saying today is there's some progress that has been made, which is are the first steps.

And, of course, those should be celebrated and I think acknowledged, but there's also more to do and that definitely is going to be with the urgency.

This is my final months in the state assembly, And I think that word urgency across many topics. In this case, we're talking about missing and murdered indigenous people. But whether it's housing, whether it's health care, whether it's human services, I call them the three h's, housing, health care, and human services. Often, we don't see that urgency when delivering services when we know that in this in this case, time could be the determine if you can actually have a resolution if somebody has gone missing.

We know in the first twenty four hours, the first forty eight hours, those are some of the most important time periods to have a coordinated effort, to have, public safety out there doing what they can.

And as the weeks go on or months, that the resolutions aren't always positive. So what I would say, is, that we, as a body of members who care about these issues, it's really pushing, our government, which includes public safety, to being as alert and as urgent as possible. We still have to have that long term investment. We still have to have the data.

And I can speak for ourselves, You know, all of us as political figures, we've seen a temperature rising related to threats and things like this to our ourselves.

And I know for me, it's even training our staffs to keep data, And the data then can be used related to the action. And if we don't have that data, it makes it very difficult for you to draw the connection. So I'm firmly behind this, and you have told your story well. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Assemblymember Sharon Quirk Silva. Assemblymember Ahrens.

Thank you, mister chair. I wanna thank the panel. As a freshman lawmaker in the state legislature, I've really appreciated the chair's leadership and the select committee on on helping, helping folks like me understand, native issues and and what's sort of happening and what has historically occurred, because I think the that context really is really critical as the state navigates through very difficult budget situations, but needs to understand our obligations as well.

And I think we might be hearing later on, but I also just wanna uplift and appreciate everyone who's been so focused on helping reform and support the childcare bills and the and the and the work that Morningstar and so many others have have led on those issues as someone who's as someone who's a former foster care child.

There's so much work that needs to be done in that space in general, especially for our native children, but it's it's something that I wanted to uplift the the the work because of how so many communities and and tribes in this room have cared for so many foster care issues that actually uplift everyone and is uplifting all of our vulnerable children and helping, with these.

And that's so true to so many of the issues that you you all caring so passionately about, and it's something that I'm weighing more into in the legislative space. I'm looking forward to partnering with you all more on that. Thank you so much, mister chair.

Thank you so much, Assemblymember Ahrens. Assemblymember Caloza.

Thank you so much, Chair Ramos, for your leadership and for convening us today. Thank you to all the tribal leaders, council members, and just, the entire community for coming out to today's, really important hearing.

I was proud to, attend and speak at the MMIP conference, a few months ago, and it was an incredible convening of a of a of, I believe, almost, like, a thousand people coming out, to really talk about the different ways in which the MMIP crisis intersects with, law enforcement, with schools, with, every community, especially because a lot of the cases that, we heard about don't happen on reservations. Right? They don't happen on tribal land.

And I think for me, what I continue to appreciate and and learn about is really the importance of, one, raising awareness and why this week is really important, to bring more people into the fold to really know about the issues impacting, our tribal communities. And two, really what can we do in policy, and in practice so that we can make sure that, more folks are encouraging and not just saying nice things, but we're all helping address these issues.

And so, you know, just wanted to thank you all for your testimony, and we look forward to working with our chair and his tremendous leadership for continuing to advocate for the MMIP crisis, including most recently during Denim Day where I got to speak on behalf of the Native American Caucus to really elevate the issues impacting women and girls as it relates to sexual assault and violence. So thank you all for your time.

Thank you so much, sir. Member Caloza. Assembly Member Lackey?

As I mentioned before, it's startling to me that this particular problem doesn't have more traction nationwide. This MMIP thing is not exclusive to California. But as a representative in the state of California, it's exciting to see that we are actually making progress. But governmental issues, things progress happens usually very slowly.

And I'm thankful to see that the energy is here to make sure that it it continues because all these families who are not just numbers, but as you've indicated here in your testimonies, they're very real people.

And they deserve our best effort. And I don't think it's been reflective of the past that we've been given our best effort. So I look forward to being part of the success that will allow this to improve, And we thank you all for your investment and for being here to make sure that it happens.

Thank you so much. Assemblymember Garcia.

Thank you to all the panelists. I I I wanna say I did hear three things identified by multiple chairpersons, and and one of them first one, I guess, was a real time coordination between agencies, making sure there's clear jurisdictional authority. Also, the need for data transparency, make sure there's tracking MMIP. And then the last one was sustained sustained funding. And so just wanted to know, you know, are these considered legislative fixes or or or policy changes?

I guess, what next steps, what what would that be for us? It's a question for anybody.

Your continued advocation or advocating for us on behalf of the tribes. One of them mentioned was some of the state funding we received from the BCGG, and any support that you can have using your voice and advocating for that funding would really be helpful to all the tribes in the state of California.

Yeah. I always like to say that, you know, when it comes to funding, you know, ever since, you know, the the isolation of our people and the the reduction of natural resources that we've always depended upon, our our economies have struggled and and we we wouldn't be asking for the funding support if it wasn't for the just the the loss in resources that we see.

These these types of grants, particularly when it comes to housing or to, you know, opportunities for youth leadership development, all those sorts of things, they go a long ways towards getting our people back to self sustainability. You know, we never wanted to be dependent upon, governments or or anything like that.

But, however, with, the losses that we have had of our of our land resources, water, all those sorts of things, it it's put us in a position where those things can be helpful in in getting back to, self sustainability.

Thank you so much for that. And and I think it is is a mix of budget and and policy and and correcting statute. We did talk about eighteen fifty, the state becoming a state. And those laws that are still embedded in the laws in the state of California were not meant to protect California's first people. It was meant to exclude them.

And in many times, take children from tribal communities and to assimilate. So we're dealing with a a bigger picture of unraveling the issues that that really are at heart of all these issues that are here. And I wanna thank the the panelists for bringing up not only issues that you're facing, but bringing up solutions solutions that how we continue to move forward. And it was mentioned that some of the policies that we move forward on are reactive, and they are reactive.

But we have to start now looking to the state statute, budget wise, on being more proactive to the situation to bring true resolve. The region response agreements just diving a little bit more into that, chair Pinto. That would be you envision that as far as regions like southern, central, northern type of a a structure?

Yes. With your county local law enforcement, tribal law enforcement, what we've done in San Diego with state dollars is we've created MMIP SD. It's a collaborate it's a website too, mmipsd.org. It's a website where we have a collaboration of about 12 to 13 tribes out of the 18 tribal nations, and we've come together and we have MOUs with each other. Our committee is, you know, funded by the the b s BCSCC.

BCSCC. BCSCC. And, we've done our billboard campaign. So we have a lot of you know, there's eyes on everything that we're doing. Youth are beginning to, you know, be a part of the campaign as well on the billboards.

So you have buildings as I was looking up at Facebook. Many of the buildings, the dams, the county buildings, our casino are all lit up, and it's bringing awareness, and it's gaining traction and momentum more and more and more. We just need to better collaborate with our regions. And I think today that's going to happen at 03:00. I don't mean to spill the beans right now, and I hope I can. But

Yeah. You shouldn't.

There I should okay. Hold on. Sorry. But but better collaboration, but it but it is about, if I may say, building trust with your local law enforcement, with your local county, with tribes. It's about training and that was mentioned at the press conference this morning, training on sovereignty, training on the history of the first people of this this state.

Because like you mentioned, before 1850 and chairman Davis mentioned this, we were thriving. We were targeted and not meant to be here today, but we are here and we need to continue that resilience. And the kids are no, mister Pepper, sergeant Pepper as I was thinking about him. He is going to be a future leader

Of these people of our people. And I I'm so proud of that. But but I hope I answered the question. It's collaboration. It's trust building.

That's right.

It's education. It's training. We need that for the state of California.

Thank you for that. And the funding you received, it was a grant from BSCC. And so infrastructure is being built centered on that funding. Correct.

And so I guess one of the messages also is to make sure that that funding is ongoing. So infrastructure that's being built isn't lost. And so I I just wanna make that point. Yes. Right?

That that infrastructure is being built. Relationships are are being brought together that haven't been done before. So holding on to that infrastructure to make sure it stays intact. Chairman James?

Yeah. No. Thank you. You you hit on it right there as a we're leveraging this funding with our local sheriff, with our local DA, historical MOUs being signed, partnerships being bridged together. Again, we've got a lot a long way yet to go.

But, again, that funding, I don't look at it as just funding. Again, when we talk about systems that weren't built for us, partnering with the state of California with the funding. I know there's tough times. I know there's prioritizations. But when we talk with the history and the impact of the funding that we see far and we leveraged it to bring us together to combat this crisis in real time.

It is happening. It is working. But, again, we've got a lot of work yet to go. Everybody's different throughout the state. But, again, it is bringing us together.

So when you prioritize and have those discussions of that of that that budget request for us in Indian country, this grant program again, it's you're leveraging in partners and resources, and you're helping people and families at home and open up doors of resources for them with the sheriff, whether it's a DA, whether it's a the local board of supervisors. We are changing the mindset and times and saying no more. With that. There's still a lot of work yet to do. Thank you.

Thank you, chairman. And we talked about, we heard about the disparities of of jurisdictional gap that has led to crimes not even being investigated. And and we say that that California is number five of all states in the nation of not even investigating murders against our people. But yet, here in this room and testimony has been brought forward that there's cases that are being presented now to the legislature that substantiates that that claim.

You talked about loved ones where you you called on law enforcement, and you had to go and and do the searching yourself.

And so we did push, pieces of legislation and working with local law enforcement. We have great allies in moving forward on the feather alert and bringing that attention there. But do you believe that having another component within the post certification or law enforcement certification of a component on jurisdiction and a public law to 80 state would help close that gap, chairwoman?

Yes. You know, I've taken my seat as of December and, you know, trying ours our sheriff in our county, I met him, I think, last week, and he's open to meet with us. But for myself, having some type of liaison and ability to to be able to assist us, I guess, with putting together some action plans. And in a brief conversation with him, and I know he's open to it, you know, he said, I took the training, and I was like, that's a great step.

He goes, and we did host, I think, a year before that or or or two. And he goes, I was there, but really what has happened after that? You know, there wasn't any direct contact with the tribal leaders, again, in regards to the MMIW or MMIP. And, you know, that's something, yes, as tribal leaders, we need to to reach out and partner with our local authorities, and that's what I intend to do.

Well, thank you. And for that, we did have our first feather alert implementation meeting there in enter at your grounds with the Chichense people. We did bring the Fresno County Sheriff to that meeting as well as the California Highway Patrol attorney general's office there

And I was speaking to the Madera County Sheriff

Okay.

Mister Pogue, and he did state he was there as well.

Okay. Yeah. We we did with the leadership there. And so we continue to bring awareness around that. But I I do believe that there has to be more training statewide on this issue itself.

Yeah. And I guess just discussion, and I know we received a grant recently. I believe it was from the same organization you mentioned. And part of it is putting together a plan because what I see as a new leader coming in, you know, I always like to ask, well, you know, what do we have in place? What's our current ordinances state?

What is our plan when something occurs and we don't have one and it's very concerning, you know, who do we call if if there was a member who called me today? What is my action as a leader? You know, I know I'm responsible to take some action, but we should have this written plan. And then as the leader of the tribe, I have that responsibility to act. And and so that's what what we wanna put in place.

Thank you so much for that. And also, Tahoe made the statement that we can't really resolve things what we can't truly see. And and what we can't truly see, what we can't truly truly understand, within Indian country, these issues that are affecting our people. And and certainly, talking again about the training in response from local law enforcement. The message was that people knew that that Tejon was, gonna open up, but yet there was no outreach, only a bulletin that came to the tribal council.

So relationship building is something that's important, but also cleaning the lens so that we could truly understand what it is we're looking at. Was that would you elaborate a little bit more on that?

So when we when we did our first groundbreaking in 2023, we had law enforcement out there, and they knew we were building a substation. Well, that's what we did. That was our give back. We built a substation on our tribal lands for our local sheriff department. It's not tribal police.

It is Kern County Sheriff. We built that for them. And, we had an incident after we opened where they felt they had jurisdiction. They walked in with body cams on, and we had to remind them that they are we are there on sovereign land. And it took us having an all hands meeting with our DA, our CHP, sheriff's BPD, and local fire, where we had to bring in a law an attorney and explain public law two eighty and what that meant.

And then because they were already not happy when they first arrived, I had to explain to them that this was a law that we don't want. It was pushed on California. All tribal nations hate it. We're not trying to fight with you, but check it out. We are a sovereign land.

We're a tribal nation, and you have to you have to, you know, abide by that rule, but that law it's it's our sovereignty. It's our right. And once I said that, you could see them just Kinda relax a little, realize that we're not trying to fight with them. We're just trying to do what's right, and we're trying to help them. We wanna keep our people safe out there as well as themselves, but they can't walk into our property with body cams on demanding things.

And I did get a bulletin that went out to all of, the sheriff's department and it was a page and a half. And it was just, a reminder of what sovereignty meant on, on our tribal property. What that looks like in the original training of the academy, I don't know. But I wanna say it was maybe no longer than a page because they started to remember it.

But if they only hear it one time in the academy and they don't hear it again, they're not gonna remember it.

If they go to a different area in California, they're not gonna remember it unless they need to. And it's after the tribe reached out that they realized, okay. Now we're trying to be now now we're friendly. But at the at the start of it, that's not how it was. We had to remind them who we are.

And and, you know, maybe that's partly our fault as well. But we're a small tribe and they're huge organizations. You know? They knew we were coming. They knew what we were building for them.

We reached out to our local DA, and they never wanted to meet with us.

So So relationship building still needs to happen in the state of California. It's happening other places, but not consistently Correct. Throughout the state of California. Chairman Davis, you mentioned the youth and making sure that the youth and and we're getting grants and funding for that. And it was also mentioned that this is a partnership.

Right? It's a partnership of of of making sure that that youth tribal youth actually get resources like other youth in the state of California. I believe there was a partnership, and you addressed the early intervention. The early intervention of signs of of substance abuse of of school, those things. So I think even at that point, the infrastructure that we're building, through these different grants, We can't just look at one area and forget think that that survives on its own.

There's so many other areas that start early on within schools. So the partnership with schools and and and local law enforcement and others, I think, needs to happen. There was partnerships that are being built and still partnerships that need to continue to have that relationship, and we'd be willing to come down there and and have a informational meeting to bring people together so that people truly understand the impacts and the relationship building that's needed.

But we did talk about partnerships and with the state, the tribes, and schools. I think that's one thing that we wanna make sure that members truly understand that that we're not just talking about an issue right here.

It starts at an early age. And those are issues that we deal with. When we deal with mental health resources, we deal with all these different things. But we have to start inserting the tribal youth in these components also. When we talk about substance abuse, we've dealt with bills that deal with those things.

So we have to make sure that we're addressing what's happening in Indian country also, which always amazes me that we have hearings and we talk about these topics. And yet it still seems like it's it's a silo that Indian country somehow is surviving over here while the state of California becomes one of the largest economies in in the world. But we we have to be together in partnership and moving forward.

If the state's gonna tackle drug addiction, then we need to make sure that that funding inequity goes to California's first people. All these issues, that we're bringing forward, we have great, legislators up here on the diocese that have teamed up and pushed pieces of legislation and through and got assigned by the governor.

But the pose a question as we we close this panel out. Where do we go from here? Do we keep the funding of of the state moving forward as infrastructure is being built? Or will there come a time to where it's not there? I think it would be wrong for the state of California to help build this infrastructure, build this trust and partnership that still needs to be worked on in the state of California.

But after that funding goes away, the infrastructure collapses, and we're back in the same predicament that we're in. So I'd encourage my my colleagues here on this dais to continue to help raise the voice that we need to make sure that we're partnering long term partnership with California's first people on these issues. These issues that drastically affect lives.

We heard about testimony of those that had to go out and call on law enforcement, but yet they had to go and find their loved ones on their own. We hear about intervention at local schools.

Right? That if we identify a problem then, there should be more of a a resource to be more proactive to the situation. We have to come together as a state of California. These testimonies and real life testimony continues to happen. But we know that the feather alert is being implemented almost weekly for loved ones going missing in Indian country.

So it is a problem. It is something that that comes forward in the statement. How do we resolve something that we can't truly see or even truly accept as a state of California? So I wanna thank you for your testimony here on this panel as now we'll move to our next panel.

Thank you, chair, and thank you to every one of you for your advocacy and and for help. Thank you.

Thank you, chairwoman. Thank you. Our next panel will be strengthening systems, resources, and services for MMIP impacted communities. We have CHP commissioner Sean Duryee, California Highway Patrol. Director Janet Bill, Picayune Rancheria of Chachancey Indians, office of native American affairs of department of justice, and the department attorney general's department.

We also have Brianna Moreno from Coyote Valley council member. And we will go with the the order, unless there's a change at the from panel. So we'll start with commissioner Duryee.

Thank you, mister chair, members of the committee. My name is Shaundry. I'm the commissioner of the CHP. Let me start by saying it's a privilege to be here today with you, with the tribal leaders that made up the panel before us. I think there was a lot of wisdom there.

I know I took some notes. I appreciate their leadership and them using their voice to highlight these issues. As the state police, the California Highway Patrol is responsible for facilitating our statewide alert systems. One of those is the feather alert and which is not a panacea that solves this problem of missing and murdered indigenous people, but it is one of the tools that's available to law enforcement. I wanna start by just talking about the last hearing that we were we're here.

I think it was almost two years ago or maybe it was two years ago, and, we participated in that and received quite a bit of criticism and candor, constructive criticism. I wanna say thank you to the people that use their voice. And it wasn't just panel members. It was the public. They gave us some feedback on how we were implementing the feather alert, how we were not activating certain alerts.

What we walked away from there was and what we heard was the need to do better, to do better outreach, to do better training, to improve our accessibility to the tribes. And today, I wanna take just a moment of my time and report back on some of the things that we've done. In regards to the alert activation, I think the concern as we heard it was that officers were acting as a gatekeeper. They were deciding when criteria was met and when it wasn't.

And sometimes that was on very ambiguous or technicality terms.

In the first two years of the alert, there were seven alerts that were not activated, and many of those were highlighted in that last hearing. I want you to know, and I know, chair, you ran some cleanup language, some legislation that cleaned up what a feather alert was, And we didn't wait for that. We went back immediately after that hearing, and we told our people to not operate in the gray area.

If a local agency is requesting to activate an alert and the officer didn't feel like the criteria was met, let's on the side of caution and let's issue that alert. Last year in 2025, there were 45 alerts activated of the 47 that were requested.

And my understanding is the two that were not activated, the people were found before the alert could be activated. So, essentially, a 100% of the alerts last year were activated. This year, there's been 15 requests, and all 15 have been activated. From the re the alerts in 2025, it was a 95% recovery rate of the alerts issued for indigenous persons, and that was compared to twenty twenty four and eighty four percent.

Additionally, through legislation that was sponsored, there was a concern brought up that the CHP, that locals sometimes were gatekeepers and tribes did not have a conduit to communicate with the CHP, and I know the legislation changed that.

And after twenty four hours, if the local agency has been nonresponsive or if the tribe community has concerns that they're not being heard, there's an avenue now for them to contact the CHP directly, and we'll help facilitate that alert. Related to education and outreach, we've we've done several things. Mister chair and I filmed a public safety announcement related to the feather alert.

We did that at CHP headquarters, and we were proud to lift that message up on all of our social media platforms as I know you were too, sir. We provided outreach and training statewide.

We started with ourselves. I think the point was made very well in the last panel that this training on p l two eighty is a perishable skill. It's something that's covered briefly in the academy with, quite frankly, thousands of hours of other things that officers are trained on, and so the need to retrain and educate our own people. We also took on a role of training and educating our allied law enforcement partners, especially with the things that we have primary responsibility related to the alerts.

We, and also offer training.

We take part and provide training as was mentioned With the communities themselves. And so we're proud to do that. We offered a tour of our emergency notification and tactical alert center. Last time we were here, mister chair and his staff took us up on that. That invitation remains open for anybody here.

If you'd like to come by and see the twenty four hour seven day a week operation that facilitates these alerts, I would invite anybody to come and see that. The point was made in the last panel, the issue of human trafficking and how California may lead the nation in that. The CHP, we make over 3,000,000 public contacts a year, and we recognized that we needed to do more in human trafficking.

And as a leadership team, we committed in training every member of the highway patrol from myself on down in eight hours of human trafficking, how to recognize and see the signs of human trafficking, and we will have that completed by the end of, 2026. One of the best things we've done, and I'm gonna embarrass her, is we appointed a tribal liaison for our department.

Somebody that would build a relationship that would be accessible and help educate us and help build that relationship with the tribal community. And that's sergeant Carrie Mendoza. Carrie, raise your hand. She's here with me today.

I'm gonna embarrass her. But she is phenomenal, and I'm proud of her, and I wanna publicly recognize her for the work that she's doing in regards to this. I I know that there's more work to be due as the panel before us pointed out. I agree with that a 100%. I do think it's worth, to pause and just celebrate the successes that we've had in the last little bit, but at the same time, recognize there's much more to do.

I believe actions speak louder than words. Last time, we took a lot of criticism, and I think through our actions, we've shown that we wanna be a productive partner in this. Look forward to working with this body and with the tribal communities to further this effort in California. Thanks for having me today.

Thank you so much, Commissioner Duryee. Next panelist.

Director Janet Bill.

I'm a member of the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians. And today, I'm here in my official capacity as the Director for the Office of Native American Affairs at the California Department of Justice. Thank you all for allowing me to speak here. And, of course, thank you to all the tribal advocates, tribal leaders who continue to make this an issue and make their presence heard within the state capital.

The Office of Native American Affairs advances the Attorney General's commitment to strengthening government to government relationships with tribes in the State of California and improving public safety and justice outcomes for tribal communities.

Today's update reflects the Attorney General's leadership through the California Department of Justice in implementing AB 3099, AB 134, Public Law 280, and in coordinated and fiscally responsible manners. At its core, this work reflects the Attorney General's commitment to ensuring that jurisdictional complexity does not become a Barrier to safety or justice. I'll start with AB 3099 and the Tribal Assistance Program.

Under AB 3099, the Attorney General has prioritized addressing long standing jurisdictional complexity and gaps in public safety in Indian country. PL 280 creates concurrent jurisdiction, but inconsistent application has led to confusion that can delay response and impact investigations including MMIP cases.

In response, the Attorney General established the first of its kind Public Law 280 advisory council bringing together tribal, local, state, and federal partners along with subject matter experts to address these inconsistencies. Through ONA, the department is working with post law enforcement and tribal partners to improve training so peace officers better understand jurisdiction and responsibilities in Indian country. This leadership ensures that when jurisdiction is clear, response is faster, and outcomes improve.

In addition to training and coordination, the Department is focused on improving crime reporting and data in order to address the data genocide of our tribal communities. Under the Attorney General's direction, ONA is coordinating across divisions within the department to improve how crimes on Indian lands are identified, reported, and tracked.

These efforts are addressing long standing data gaps and strengthening reporting pathways to better support investigations and inform policy decisions. We are committed to strengthening data and reporting systems to improve public safety outcomes, ensure accountability, and support more timely and effective responses across jurisdictions. Equally important is ensuring tribal communities have access to clear information and resources. The department has developed culturally relevant resources including Native American Marcy's Law cards, reporting guidance, and MMI focused materials.

ONA engages directly with tribal communities through conferences, MMIP task forces, roundtables, and other tribal events to share information, provide guidance, and support reporting efforts.

In addition, the Department continues to update its website to ensure these resources are accessible beyond in person engagement. ONA supported development of the missing in California FAQ and outreach on tools such as the Feather Alert, including assisting tribal communities in understanding when and how the alert can be activated. Through these combined efforts, the Department has reached thousands of individuals and families across the state.

This reflects the Attorney General's commitment to ensuring tribal communities have access to both direct engagement and ongoing access to the information and resources necessary to seek safety and justice. Under AB 3099, the Department has been advancing the required MMIP study.

The Department has conducted outreach with tribal communities, families, and justice partners to better understand barriers to reporting and investigating missing Native Americans. The Department is working to finalize the AB 3099 report, which reflects extensive engagement with tribal communities, justice partners, and subject matter experts. This work is focused on ensuring the recommendations are thoughtful, informed, and responsive to the needs identified through both data and lived experience of our tribal partners.

Moving to child welfare, our office remains committed to supporting and advocating for ICWA compliance throughout the state because an MMIP case can easily become an ICWA case. And so people need to understand that MMIP is also a matter of child welfare.

Building on the work under AB 3099, we have worked for AB 134, which is the tribal police pilot program, and it advances a structural solution to many of the jurisdictional challenges identified by AB 3099. Under the Attorney General's leadership, the California Department of Justice in partnership with POST has advanced implementation of this tribal police pilot program to strengthen public safety in tribal communities and surrounding areas.

We conducted extensive outreach to tribes across the state, completed the application process, developed FAQs, published a dedicated web page, held listening sessions, standardized selection framework, and conducted a full review of interested tribes. We selected the Yurok tribe as a participating tribe and are working closely in partnership to support implementation, compliance, and readiness for the program's 07/01/2026 start date. This includes coordination with tribal leadership on statutory requirements, post certification pathways, and development of reporting and accountability systems required under the program.

This program is designed to improve response to crime, strengthen investigations, and enhance coordination across tribal, state, and local law enforcement. This reflects the attorney general's commitment to implementing the TPPP thoughtfully in partnership with tribes and with a focus on measurable public safety outcomes. Taken together, these efforts reflect the Attorney General's coordinated and fiscally responsible approach to improving public safety in tribal communities. This work is grounded in partnership with tribes and a deep respect for tribal sovereignty.

The department remains committed to advancing meaningful, lasting solutions that strengthen public safety across the state.

We stand ready to answer any questions and to continue working in partnership with the committee to advance these efforts.

Thank you so much for that testimony. It's now we move to Brianna Moreno, Coyote Valley council member.

Hello. Good morning. My name is Brianna. I am from Coyote Valley, and I'm honored to be here before you today alongside the dedicated team from Coyote Valley, we are the Pomo Indians who helped lead and implement our missing murdered indigenous people. This work is not done by one person.

It is carried forward by a team committed to prevention, advocacy, and justice for our communities. I want to recognize them today. We have Danielle Harjo, Sarah Kayla Gibson, and Annette Asbell. All the individuals are here today. If I can have a couple of them stand, please.

Can you move your mic closer?

Can you hear me now? For generations, our indigenous communities across the country and here in California have faced a harsh reality of our Native American women, girls, men, boys, and two spirit relatives who go missing or being murdered at disproportionate rates. And too often the too often their cases are overlooked, underreported, or left unsolved. But the crisis is not only about violence, it is about the gaps in the system to protect them.

This work is deeply important to our community because the MMIP crisis is not abstract in Mendocino County.

It is personal, ongoing, and devastating for troubled families. For me, it is deeply personal. A family member of mine who was like a brother to me, his name was Roman Elliott, a young man of the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians. He had early turned 19 when he was shot multiple times on 10/09/2015. Paramedics were not allowed to reach him.

As he took his last breaths, they weren't allowed to help him. And to this day, no arrests have been made. The case is still open. Roman is remembered for his big heart, his smile. His story is not just a tragedy.

It's a reminder of what happens when the system fails to respond with urgency and accountability. This is why programs like ours matter. The Coyote Valley MMIP program was created to address gaps, prevention, victim services, and coordination between tribal governments, law enforcement, and services providers. Through this grant, we have successfully provided preventative education out and outreach in our community, helping youth and families better understand risk tied to violence, trafficking, and exploitation.

We also recently co hosted an MMIP awareness event in Ukiah where families and guest speakers share their stories of loved ones and walk together for those who couldn't.

That event reminded us that this work is not only about policy, it's about people healing and ensuring indigenous lives are not forgotten. This program is helping strengthen systems, improve communications, and build accountability in communities that have too often been overlooked, but there's still more work to do. We need a continued legislative support to ensure tribal communities have the resources, coordination, and emergency response systems necessary to protect our people and support our families because every life matters, every response matters, and every moment matters.

Thank you for your leadership and commitment to this issue.

Thank you so much for for your testimony and for the recognition of the members that are here today, with you. As now, we'll bring it back to the dias for any comments or questions. Any comments or question? Assemblyperson Caloza.

Thank you so much, Xhair. Thank you so much for your presentation to to all the panelists for giving updates on how we can strengthen systems and resources to improve on this issue. I just wanted to ask a few follow-up questions to the commissioner. You know, one, thanks for your honesty and for following up, even before today's hearing. I know it's thanks to the leadership of our Chair, and all of our tribal leaders and communities and that partnership and strengthening and building that trust that we've heard.

And so it's great to hear about some of the updates that you've shared, including designating a liaison, and making sure that, you're not only receiving the feedback that you're hearing, but you're working to implement them and make improvements. I just wanted to ask in terms of when CHP learns of a case and when an actual Feather Alert goes out, what does that turnaround time look like?

It depends on the case, but, really, it's within a couple hours, I would think. You know, things are activated and moving. Sometimes we're missing pieces of information from the locals, so there's some back and forth. And sometimes the local agencies don't deal with these all the time. And so it you have to help get some of the information before the alert's activated, but oftentimes those happen within hours.

Okay. Thank you for sharing that. And then the second question that I had was around the criteria. I know you mentioned there's a list of criteria you work to implement and make changes to that so that, you know, the Feather Alerts were responsive and going out timely. What were some of the criteria that CHP has that maybe would be helpful to share with everyone here so that we can continue to see how we can better help you implement the Feather Alert program.

Yeah. And the criteria was established in statute, and I think some of the the original bill, there was some confusion. I think the original language, I'm going off the top of my head, but just missing was under unexplained circumstances. And and sometimes the confusion early on was coming from officers' interpretation of that and whether or not somebody was missing on their own free will or based on choices they were making or officers were denying them if the person had a history of drug abuse. They were saying, well, that was more of a choice, and the law helped clear that up.

So the the criteria now is the missing person is an indigenous woman or indigenous person. The investigating law enforcement agency has utilized available local and tribal resources. The law enforcement agency determines that the person is missing, and the law enforcement agency or tribe believes that the person is in danger and is missing under circumstances that indicate any of the following, and there's three following: the missing person's physical safety may be endangered, the missing person may be subject to trafficking, the missing person suffers from a mental or physical disability or substance use disorder.

And then there's information that if disseminated to the public would help in the recovery is the last criteria. And so I think the holdover, the confusion came in that number four where the circumstances under the where they're missing. And so like I said, when we went back, it was clear that we had some that were kind of a gatekeeper mentality that, we're only going to issue it if the strict guidelines were met.

And we just cleared that up and said, look. In any wobbler, in any gray area, error on the side of caution and issue the alert.

I appreciate you sharing that and for working with our tribal leaders in our communities to continue to implement this. If there's anything that we can further do to help you implement this outside of what we've already heard, the training, the resources, convenings like this, thanks to our chair, please do let us know. But I do appreciate you continuing to follow-up and look forward to seeing the continued collaboration between CHP and our tribal leaders.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you so much. Assemblymember Ahrens- Rogers?

Happens all the time, chair.

Yeah. He walked in.

So I appreciate the panel, and I just wanted to follow-up on some of the questions that my colleague was asking. We heard a little bit about the discussion around post training and then what CHP and other law enforcement agencies are doing after that to make sure that there's a utilization of this knowledge and that it isn't just a one time discussion.

And and oftentimes, when we talk about this, a lot of the cultural competency that we need in our communities is embedded at the the dinner table with folks who have lived experience. So what is CHP doing to make sure that they get that lived experience not just as something that they are trained on, but something that is actually embedded into the culture at CHP?

Yeah. Great question. And it is tough. As a statewide agency, we have 7,500 sworn positions throughout the state.

And one of the challenges, I think one of the panel members brought it up before these officers may or may not be in an area at portions of their career where they are enacting with tribal communities. And so those that are and they're there for a long time, you build those relationships like you're talking about. Some of the things we're doing in addition to designating, Sergeant Mendoza who's phenomenal in helping us and educating us, we're broken into eight geographical regions throughout the state.

We have in each division designated a tribal liaison person who should become a person most knowledgeable, a subject matter expert on the issue and help train and educate others. And then we when you get down to the granular level for the highway patrol, we're divided into area commands.

Those area commands that have touch points with tribal communities, the commanders, the leadership, the expectation from us is that they're spun up on those rules and laws, that they're building those relationships. When the first panel was speaking, I wrote a note for myself, an action item to have PL 280 training in September at our all commanders training conference. That's where every commander comes from throughout the state. They'll come up. And so I think it's there's not one answer.

It's a combination of all these efforts across the board, but most importantly is keeping it on the front burner and making sure that we're being mindful and educating ourselves.

No. I appreciate that. And to the issue of when folks move from one area to another area, is that a criteria that you look at when determining where somebody is going to be restationed or when somebody applies to move? Do you look at what their competency is with the communities? And, obviously, every tribe is going to be a little bit different.

But, like, for instance, in my district, we already don't have enough CHP officers. And so transferring somebody in who has no connections, relationships, and then also not a history of working with tribal communities would be a disservice to the community.

Yeah. Absolutely. Unfortunately, no. To directly answer your question, the transfers are all based off through the contracting, through negotiations of the union based off seniority. We do have some latitude when you're selecting the command, the leadership positions, and putting people in the right position based off their skill set.

And so we do have a little latitude there, but the rank and file currently transfer based off seniority throughout the state.

Is that something that you could advocate for or push for in the next contract negotiation?

We could definitely bring it up. I think we have so many touch points with tribes where we'd probably get more traction. It's just leveling up the level of training at all levels in this area and just making sure those areas our area commands that are connected with tribal communities do have that level of training.

Alright. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your questions. We're gonna welcome Assemblymember Harabedian to the committee hearing. I just wanted to run through the process of the Feather Alert. The Feather Alert, when someone goes missing, calls 911. And your local jurisdiction, your local city police, your local county sheriffs are the first ones to respond and start to look at the case that's there. And so we had a hearing sometime back, and we identified some some areas.

So we made amendments to the Feather Alert. I think, actually, two bills that had amendments to it. Because what we found was that local law enforcement sometimes were reactive and sometimes were requesting the Feather Alert from the CHP. So the local jurisdiction, county sheriff, city police, don't have the mechanism to implement the Feather Alert. The alert system in the state of California is maintained by the California Highway Patrol commissioner direct.

You correct me if I'm wrong on some of this. And so it starts at the local level and then moves forward. What we did and work together with the CHP, we implemented a twenty four hour period that if the family, tribal government, and the local jurisdiction failed to implement a Feather Alert and there was just cause for it, then those individuals could go directly to the CHP to request that Feather Alert to be implemented.

And we even put in there criteria, right, twenty four hour area that held local law enforcement accountable for why they were or why they were not. They have to explain if they denied a Feather Alert to move forward.

And so those amendments actually resulted in the statistics that the commissioner attested to that there's been more Feather Alerts being implemented since those amendments took place and moving forward. So when we talk about training at post for PL 280, tribal government, that is the local law enforcement, county sheriffs and police departments. And so what the CHP has done through their own academy has implemented the PL 280 in classes and awareness there. So I wanna put the mechanism correctly there.

Now what is happening in Indian country is there's opportunities for tribes to do cross deputization, hiring different reserves, and enlisting the Bureau of Indian Affairs for some of the policing activities.

That has been going on. What we want to highlight is the Feather Alert and the resource. I believe it's something that is working and making sure that we're celebrating successes that we've come to. But now that we're here, what comes next? Right?

The prosecution. We've heard from earlier panels that prosecution has not moved forward. Local jurisdictions haven't picked up the case. In one case, a travel chair from Chukchansi described a hose that was used and rode off as suicide, but there could be a homicide. So where is the investigation on that?

So we passed another piece of legislation, AB 3099, that called on the Attorney General to create a division on collecting, again, the data. And Janet Bill is the second director of this body. It started with Attorney General Javier Becerra, and then Attorney General Bonta really picked up the cause and we're moving forward on those. So much so that Attorney General Bonta actually brought prosecution to a cold case out in Pitt River.

And so we have to continue as legislators to support these efforts and bringing justice to California's first people.

And grants have moved forward. We were successful in getting one time funding for grants to move forward. The Councilmember Moreno talked about a time when when no one responded to the tribal community, but also is sitting here and telling us that the grants are starting to make a difference and creating a relationship building with local law enforcement. So that if somebody does go missing, that there is someone to talk to, someone to call. And that is the infrastructure.

That's the infrastructure that this body has put forward in Indian country. And it's that infrastructure that we want to make sure stays intact, not just for a a a short period of time, but for ongoing. Because that infrastructure is being built. There's trust that's starting to happen in Indian country and with the local communities. Now it's not consistent throughout the state of California, but we're hearing that it's starting to make progress.

So I wanted to lay that groundwork that's there. The CHP does issue the Feather Alert, but it's the local jurisdictions that are initially called to investigate. There is a mechanism that could call on the CHP to look into these areas. But we are making stride. We are making progress on some of these issues.

But we still have a long way to go. We still have a long way to go as a state of California. So I want to thank you for your testimony in being here. And if there's no further questions or comments from anyone on the dais on this panel, we'll move to our third panel. Thank you so much. Comments?

Can I say one thing?

Yeah.

One thing I also wanna ensure that you are also helping is our tribal court systems.

That's right.

Not to get left behind in this conversation. I serve as Attorney General Bonta's representative on the Judicial Council of California's tribal court state court forum. And a lot of our tribal court judges have brought up the concern that their protection orders are not being enforced throughout the state of California. Again, those protection orders are vital to protecting our people, and those could also be preventing more MMIP cases. So, again, I wanted to ensure that our tribal courts are also on the forefront of your mind.

I do serve as the chief justice for the Tule River Indian Tribe's Court of Appeals. Our council member is here today. So, again, please also keep our tribal justice systems in mind as you're doing this work.

Thank you so much for that. And and putting the pieces together, ICWA continues to be an area that we need to continue to get resources and awareness around with the missing and murdered indigenous persons issue as well as the courts and adjudication, those types of things, restraining orders. I mean, we've talked about those having reciprocity if I correctly said the term. But there has to be.

Restraining orders, temporary restraining orders, those things are vital when someone's in a situation that needs to be protected. Assemblymember Rogers.

Yeah. Thank you so much. I just wanted to put a pin in part of what you were just talking about. Obviously, not for the discussion today, but I have heard from folks that an area of possible legislation or possible work could be not just supporting tribal judicial systems, but also recognizing when cases need to flow back into California's overall judicial system that that's very difficult and cumbersome and oftentimes ends up denying people the justice that they deserve.

So, again, not for today, but just wanna put a pin in that as an area for us to continue to to work.

Thank you so much. Any final comments from the panelists?

No. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

As now we'll move to our third and final panel. Foster youth at the crossroads of the MMIP crisis. Executive Director and founding member Morning Star Gali, Big River. Legal Director Kimberly Clough, California Tribal Families Coalition. And Executive Director Keely Linton from Mesa Grande Tribe, Strong Hearted Women's Coalition.

And we'll go in order unless there's a different order you wanna go through. Start with Morning Star Gali.

I was asking the panelists if either of them wanted to start first. But I'll go, I'm ready to go.

Today, we are here to speak about the connection between foster care and the missing and murdered indigenous people's crisis. I want to say thank you to Chair Ramos and to the honorable members of the committee here. Native children in California are placed in foster care at approximately four times the rate of other children.

State analysis also shows native youth are represented in foster care at rates nearly four times higher than their share of California's child population, and nearly one in two native children are experiencing some level of child welfare system involvement by the age of 18.

This is not just a statistic. This is a warning sign. In my organization, we share that a 100% of native youth are system impacted due to the history of colonization and boarding schools.

I mentioned during the press conference in a recent MMIP report by the Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley that over seventy percent of tribal participants reported experiencing abuse before the age of 10.

Many of our youth are pushed into systems that fail to protect them and are later blamed when these same systems fail them. Too many of our youth are pushed into systems where the MMIP crisis does not begin the moment that someone disappears.

It begins earlier. As MMIP is a public health crisis, it is also a crisis affecting youth in the child welfare system. It begins when native children are harmed, when they are removed from family and community, when they are unseen, misclassified, criminalized, and left without protection.

The foster care to MMIP pipeline is real. We are witnessing this in real time. This is a result of the pipeline of violence tied to colonization, forced assimilation, boarding schools, trafficking, foster care systems, systemic neglect, and the ongoing criminalization of indigenous peoples.

We recently had a feather alert deactivated this past weekend that involved a 14 year old mountain Maidu, Pit River, and Washoe tribal member who had been missing for over five months before she was finally located and picked up. She has now gone missing again just this past week.

And if another feather alert is issued, this will be the third one for this tribal child that has been in the system since the age of 10 years old, and should never have had been had to be missing for months before the systems responded with urgency.

Her family contacted us as they did not know her whereabouts. And in November, I shared the feather alert criteria with her social worker here in Sacramento County.

The social worker was not aware of the feather alert, and we continue to educate social workers, the minor's attorney, and law enforcement on the criteria.

The minor's attorney did not want the case transferred over to a tribal youth advocate that we work with stating that she had been on her case since the beginning. With this tribal youth that was system impacted needed was runaway stabilization, a meeting with the tribal social worker.

We asked for documentation of locating her efforts, a missing person's report, an NCMEC report, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's, and a feather alert reactivated. It took an entire month with us working with all of these entities.

And when her tribal, ICWA social worker and county social worker did not wanna take the initiative to activate the alert, we worked with CHP and have worked with CHP on over 15 alerts activated in this past year.

We need this feather alert reactivated when native children remain vulnerable or at continued risk. We need immediate coordination with tribes and families.

We need urgency from the beginning, not after weeks or months of searching. We need earmarked resources for LGBTQ and 2 spirit youth that are most invisible and under resourced when it comes to services.

Families searching for their loved ones continue to face barriers, delayed responses, jurisdictional confusion, lack of communication, misidentification in databases, and systems that still fail to understand the urgency when indigenous children are disappeared.

Our youth need protection, and we need to continue to create culturally grounded healing spaces because our communities cannot afford to wait. When indigenous children are separated from family, culture, language, ceremony, and community, vulnerability increases.

We cannot talk about the MMIP crisis without talking about foster care, trafficking, poverty, houselessness, and the ongoing impacts of historical trauma. Indigenous justice stands with impacted families and tribal communities across the state because our children deserve dignity,

protection, and belonging. We need stronger protections for native children in foster care. We need investment into tribally led prevention and youth services. We need housing, mental health support, healing programs, and culturally grounded services for our native youth.

We need stronger implementation of ICWA and accountability across systems interacting with our children. Our youth are sacred, our relatives are sacred, and we will continue fighting until there are no more stolen relatives. To come on my relations.

Thank you so much, for your testimony. As now, we'll go to, Legal Director Kimberly Clough.

Thank you. Kimberly Clough, Legal Director at California Tribal Families Coalition. And I wanna start with just saying it's truly an honor to be here and share space with all of you and my co panelists.

I wanna talk about three very distinct links between the MMIP crisis and the child welfare system, specifically Indian children subject to the Indian Child Welfare Act. And I'm using that term very specifically because as was mentioned earlier, we cannot talk in silos anymore.

These are links, and we have to see those links in order to do effective work to change the system. So one of the first was referenced by my co panelist, which is the overrepresentation of native children in the child welfare system.

The data depends on kind of who you trust and where you look, but some pretty reliable data tells us that native children are five times more likely to be in the child welfare system than their white counterpart.

In one county, and it's a county Assembly Member Rogers where you you represent. Yes. If you look at the disproportionality, native people are approximately, depending on whose data you look at, two to 3% of the population. But the percentage of the children in foster care is 36%.

That's a level of disproportionality that should alarm all of us. And then when we take that disproportionality and we look at the number of children in foster care who end up being missing, exploited, and tracked by the database, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Of the 3,000 children that were tracked between 2012 and 2021, fifty three percent of the native children came out of foster care. They were missing from foster care.

So the first link is the more children in foster care, the more children missing, and that's the pipeline to the MMIP crisis. The second link. When a child is in the foster care system, they have essentially a substitute parent, and kind of a substitute community.

That substitute parent is the state and the county. Now, I want you to think about when a child goes missing, who rallies around? Who raises the voice? Who may creates visibility? It's their family. It's their community.

But if the county or the state are that child's community, and they refuse to raise a voice, they refuse to create visibility, especially as was noted by, our partner from the CHP, in the first 24 or 48 hours, which we know are critical, We are feeding the pipeline of a bad outcome for that child.

Now tremendous work has been done specifically on this issue. There's been a lot of discussion about the feather alert. AB 2108 was a terrific step, and thank you very much Assemblymember Ramos for your work on that and also the Yurok Tribe. California Tribal Families Coalition worked on that, and that is a a very good step.

And what that did is it said to the county and the state, when a child is missing from foster care, there must be notice to their tribe and to their community very quickly.

So was stated when we just got started in this hearing, what's the homework? What are the things that can be done? So one that I would ask that this committee look at is what is happening in Indian country when a notice is received?

When when the community and the tribe are told that one of their children is missing? And does the tribe have the resources to act on that? And maybe what we need to look at is not just grant funding, but systemic funding that supports a tribe's ability to receive that notice that a child's missing and be able to act on it.

The third link that I wanna highlight is that we know through the data and part of this is by the tremendous work done by the Yurok tribe, that it is not only a link of children in foster care that feeds that pipeline of MMIP status, It's also their parents.

When we look at the mothers who go missing, the indigenous women who go missing, who we are searching for, in one study out of eight women, five of them had children lost in the foster care system.

There is a link between a mother or parent losing their children to the foster care system and them themselves becoming missing and murdered statistics.

So by looking at these links, it's essential that we see that this system of the child welfare system, the foster care system, whatever term you want to use, and the Indian Child Welfare Act, which is an essential overlay in all of this, our compliance, and I prefer not to use the word compliance because I think compliance is a floor.

If we can meet the promise and potential of what the Indian Child Welfare Act provides, if we meet the promise and the potential of what tribes can do when given the resources to protect their children and families, that's when we really are not being reactionary.

We are stemming that pipeline at its source. So with that, I just wanna thank you very much for the opportunity and, of course, welcome any questions.

Thank you so much for your testimony. As now, we'll go to executive director Keely Linton from Mesa Grande Tribe Strong Hearted Women's Coalition.

How good. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for allowing me to be here. I am a victim advocate. I have spent my career oftentimes being the voice for the voiceless, working with domestic violence victims, sexual assault victims, sex trafficking victims.

And I have spent the majority of my time working with law enforcement, with the state court system, with tribal law enforcement, with tribal court systems, helping and assisting victims in and out of our justice system and helping them to understand the jurisdictional nightmare that becomes with

navigating these systems, not just between states, between the the counties and the tribes, but counties against counties, how counties handle situations differently, how there's a different relationship between the tribal community and the and the counties, that there's no consistency across the board.

I've also become an educator. When we talk about the silence and the invisibility of our people, it becomes the lack of training and education. I spent a lot of my time training and educating our counties, our law enforcement,

our judges on the history of violence in our tribal communities, the public law two eighty issues that come about. I just and this includes every aspect from county mental health, our count county social workers.

I was a post subject expert, and we did a domestic violence and sexual assault training in Indian country. And that was over twenty years ago. Where has it where is it today? We need to start asking those questions. How much training do our social workers get on Indian country?

How much training does our law enforcement get? It's not enough to just add MMIP training. We're talking about that as an umbrella for the violence that occurs in our community. When we're doing domestic violence training for law enforcement, it needs to include Indian country.

When we're talking about stalking issues for law enforcement and how do they respond, it needs to include Indian country in every aspect.

And we wanna look at what actually, I'll just share an example. One of my staff was working with a county sheriff, and we were talking about training. And they said, well, you know, the academy is already, what, six months? Six months. Any other profession is years, years.

So expanding training is a no brainer from our perspective. Why is it just six months? When we wanna talk about law enforcement safety, domestic violence is oftentimes the most dangerous call that they can go on. So why are we limiting their training and education on these issues?

They need expanding training on trauma informed and not just the higher levels. We're talking about first responders. If I have to respond and I have to explain to an officer that they can enforce a restraining order on tribal land, that's a training issue. I shouldn't have to explain to them.

I shouldn't have to say you need to call your sergeant. You need to call your higher up so that you understand what it is and and what needs to happen to support someone on the ground level.

These are the issues that need to look at. When we talk about the foster care system, we're oftentimes asking social workers to do investigations on abuse and being able to identify crisis, which they're not doing. They're not being they're not identifying sex trafficking.

They're not doing what they should be doing. What is their what should their response be? Where is their response? What can they what can we put into place to safeguard that? You are responsible as the state. You are taking our children, and what are you doing with them? What is the response?

And I'll give you a couple examples. We've had three cases of sex trafficking out of foster care. They were recruited out of the holding facilities in our accounting. Recruited out of them. We had one case where a young woman was taken, trafficked, and drugged.

That case never went to law enforcement. It was never investigated. She was recovered and sent to a substance abuse treatment facility paid by the county. But the trafficking trafficking issue was never ever addressed. That's a serious gap.

That is a training issue. That is a response issue, and that is something that can be changed, whether that's legislatively, on a local level, or however we need to talk about it, but those are the issues that we need to continue to talk about and continue to discuss. Yes.

We've made several train changes. But I've worked in this field for a quarter of a century now. And, yes, it does take a long time to make change, but we need to start asking the right questions on where we can make those changes.

And to help and assist our families and our victims, you know, we're working together with you. One of the other things that I wanna address too that I've seen over the years, and I know we're taking some strides to alleviate that, is the position of our tribal law enforcement.

I've worked with county sheriff for a long time, and there's really good officers. And we have good officers who have retired from the the sheriff's department and have moved over to tribal law enforcement to help us build our law enforcement agencies.

But as soon as they carry that tribal title as tribal law enforcement, they lose the respect of their fellow officers in the county because they're tribal law enforcement.

We need to respect the position of our sovereign our sovereign nations and to develop a partnership, a clear partnership that doesn't strip our sovereignty as nations, but really is working together with the state to address issues and to look at how we collaborate between law

enforcement agencies through the between the counties and the tribes to have a better response system in place. We have too many cases that bounce between counties, and everyone is pointing fingers at each other.

We have a current case right now that is being tossed around between county to county. We are just now starting the family is just now starting to work with the Department of Justice to help alleviate some of those issues.

And all of this can be eliminated if we have a statewide task force, that we have some guidance and response. We are a unique state. We have a large population. We have a large population of tribal people. We have a large number of tribal nations within the state.

We can be the example for other states across the nation if we can figure it out. We're unique, and we need to rethink how we do policing and not just stick the standard format or force the standard format on our tribes. Thank you. That's all I have.

Thank you so much for for all of your testimony on this topic and really being more proactive in in bringing awareness around these issues and training. Open up to the dais. Any questions? Assembly member Rogers?

Yeah. I just wanted to start with a a thank you for framing the conversation in a way that I think is really important for my colleagues, talking about the importance of the state to see itself as the family of the children who are in the foster care system.

I think that is a really good start in a lot of these conversations. I know many of my colleagues agree on that. But I wanna thank in particular Kimberly and the California Family Tribals Coalition tribe tribal coalition for, their advocacy in this space.

I've been very honored for the last two years to be working with them on a bill specifically around, the overrepresentation of tribal youth in the foster care system.

And I was struck listening to the data that even having spent the last year and a half working with you all and talking about it, just how shocking some of those numbers can be.

And while it's been great that, from a legislative perspective, all of my colleagues have agreed with those bills and they've been on consent and noncontroversial, that also means that we aren't having these opportunities to talk about that data and to talk about it with the impact that I think that it deserves.

So I wanna just, first of all, recognize and appreciate that opportunity here and lending that voice to it for members of this committee, but also for members and staff who are watching over in the capital and the the swing space, because it really is shocking when you start to frame it in those numbers.

And especially what you mentioned with with Humboldt County, that's one that I use when I talk to to folks all the time is the the two to 3% in terms of representation, for the population of the county versus the 36% in the foster care system.

And those numbers are just just striking, and I know not uncommon. I think my question that I'd posit to all of you is we've talked about resources. We've talked about partnerships.

Where the challenge comes in is how do we create an adequate legal construct that, to your point, doesn't take away tribal sovereignty and doesn't require this push pull of in order for us to, as the state, to try to help tribes and empower them to solve the problem,

you have to give up a piece of your own sovereignty and a piece of yourself. So I just kind of I know it's a broad question, but can you help us in how we should view those conversations in particular?

So if I may start. If you think of just one thing, trust tribes. Tribes know their community. There was discussion earlier about cyclical grant funding to put out some money and then take it away. See some progress, take it away.

Why not say, we trust the tribe to know how to build their judicial system. We trust the tribe to know how to build a child welfare system or a thriving community. And so to the idea that the tribe needs the outside government systems in order to thrive, that's a dynamic that has to be undone.

We have to trust tribes. So that's my big answer to your big question. And then I also, unfortunately, I wanna burst your bubble a little bit about data because it gets worse.

If you were to look on what's called the CCWIP, which is a primary data system that the California Department of Social Services, where all of their data exists, it's a California child wellness something out of UC Berkeley.

You will see that probably today that database will tell you that there's about 3,000 children in the child welfare system that are ICWA or that are native. That number is certainly off by a factor of at least two. Why?

Because that data system, if a child is Hispanic and native, can only be Hispanic. We are undercounting the number of children in the system to a tremendous degree. And so when we think about and we wanna be guided by the data, we also have to be very careful about the data that we're looking at.

And so I think so I very much appreciate the work that we've been able to do with your office and and of course with Assemblymember Ramos' leadership, and there is just so much more work to do.

And I just wanna elevate that anytime we are talking about policy, statute, funding, that if we start with trust tribes, I think we will be more likely to get to the right outcome because tribes know the community and other families.

Before I give the other panelists an opportunity to answer, the CCWIP, who maintains that and who is responsible for that data?

So that's data that comes out of the CFR system or the the CDWIS CMS system, which is the primary data system that the state of California where it collects from counties all of the data about child welfare. It's data that I'm sure you all rely on in thinking about funding, for example.

That data is then there's an agreement with UC Berkeley to make a dashboard that people can look at. So all of us can look at that data and and analyze it and utilize it as we move forward with with our efforts to address the issue. And that data and and we all know data is essential.

The ability to see those numbers or to see those statistics is incredibly important. And at the same time, we have to remember of the erasure of native people and of tribes from data systems, like the use of Hispanic, making it less possible to see those true numbers. So

So is that presentation of the data, is that an issue in how it is calculated, quantified, taken in, or is it an issue of how it's being presented?

It's both in that the CMS CWS system is and I'll simplify it. I imagine it. There's a county social worker who gets a phone call, gets a case, and punches in a bunch of drop down menus.

That data process happens a thousand times in a month probably, and all of that data then goes to a system that Berkeley makes visible for people to interface with.

So it if you have a social worker, at the county level who is doing his or her best to enter data, but is unsure and unfamiliar with Indian country and native families and doesn't ask the questions, then that data is missing and then it's missing from the Berkeley, data dashboard.

So that's the flow of the data. It is primarily county agencies collecting it, it being put together, and then going over to be seen as a data dashboard. And, again, that is essential data that's used anytime we talk about child welfare.

It has data about children missing from the foster care system, super helpful to see that data, and at the same time, we have to understand that it's not always accurate.

Thank you.

Just a comment too on, data collection. It's whether it's law enforcement or other county collect data collection, it's databases. It's a training issue too as to making sure that they're asking those questions, but, also, it's not enough just to ask whether we're Native American or not.

It it really needs to include our tribal affiliation so that you can connect with our tribal nations. But when it your other question regarding, you know, working with sovereigns, It really, you know, is making sure that our sovereign nations are included in the multitask force.

I mean, you have some of most of a lot of our counties have sex trafficking task force. We were talking with Riverside County, and this was a few years ago, and they were, you know, setting up a rural sex trafficking task force.

And they were presenting, you know, about you know, that they're hoping to expand and move out to the rural community, and our first question is, great. I said, what tribal community is part of that task force? Zero.

They didn't even reach out, didn't even think to reach out, and they, you know, and then they followed up with, oh oh, you know, that's a great idea. We should. Well, we should. When we're talking about trafficking, trafficking happens in our tribal casinos. Right?

That's non native community as well. That's not just tribal communities. I mean, why aren't we having these conversations? So in making sure that we're included at the table is the first step in any of these task force.

Anytime you're looking at multi jurisdiction, I mean, how do you how does the state work with Arizona when there's, you know, cross state issues?

It should happen similar with tribal nations. We already have examples in place. We just need to implement that with tribes as well.

I'll answer your question in regards to the BSCC funding because it has been mentioned. There are tribes that refused the funding after they were awarded it because they felt like the requirements in terms of reporting were too stringent.

And so and although there was not a waiver of sovereign immunity included, that that was not a requirement for the BSCC funding, it was still too much of an oversight.

And so I wrote the grant for my tribe, for Pit River tribe but when you look at the funding overall just as has been mentioned by Chair Ramos that this is $39,000,000 for a 109 federally recognized tribes over a three year period, three years of funding that or three rounds of funding that was provided.

And so it was an equitable and it was a competitive grant. And so, really, only a little more than one third of California tribes that are federally recognized have received this funding to be able to move forward.

And so when I would say that removing the restrictions of of competitive grant funding and making it non competitive and really allowing tribes the opportunity to be able to design the programming because every tribe is different. Everyone is going to have a different needs and requirements.

And so to be able to have more unrestricted funding so that they can't invest more. And so I had shared in the last panel when we were testifying for the the budget for additional funds for MMIP that my tribe is within a four county area, Shasta, Lassen, Modoc, and Siskiyou Counties.

It is known as the 100 mile square 3,500,000 acres. And so even the $1,000,000 that we have received to develop our department and have an MMIP coordinator now, when you stretch that across 3,500,000 acres, $1,000,000, it does not go very far. And so that's what I would share.

Thank you.

Well, thank you so much for that Assemblymember Rogers. Now Assemblymember Harabedian.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for having me. Thank you for the powerful testimony. There's a lot that we could talk about. I really just have one, one question and would love the three different perspectives.

And it's really why are so many of our native children entering into the foster care system, and what is the one thing that we could do at the state level to help stop that?

You have no idea how much I wish I could answer that question with a short and concise statement. It is a multifaceted, extremely complex issue that would require a history lesson going back hundreds of years. I don't think we have time for that, and I'm not the right person to do that.

So I would invite you to invite people in this room to come to your office and talk to your staff. It's just

If I could, though, just your best your best synthesis here given that this is the setting that that we are in and very complicated in any community. But you guys are here as the experts on this panel, and you have decision makers here with our chair. If you could just in a best attempt.

Colonization, intergenerational trauma, forced poverty, forced removal, forced loss of all the things that create healthy communities and families. We should not be surprised by the disproportionality.

We should be saddened. But when you when a community, any community, has the level of trauma inflicted on it, you're going to have systems fall apart. The systems so if we want to look at, okay, what does it look like to decrease the number of children native children in foster care?

I wanna I wanna preface very important. I am not making a call to action to simply reduce the number of children in foster care. That would be very dangerous. There are children in Indian country who and families that need the support of the child welfare system.

However, if you, and I'm just gonna go back to, you trust tribes and say to tribes, what is it that we need, and every tribe is differently situated, I imagine there'll be some commonalities.

There'll be economic support. There'll be, for example, housing support. There will be mental health treatment services. There will be educated law enforcement. I mean, it's any it would be reckless to state any single solution. I wish I could, but I can't.

I mean, I agree. It's it's so multifaceted, but I will give you an example of struggle, that oftentimes, our clients see. So, one of the common issues, that we see, especially from the a domestic violence perspective, is a failure to protect.

And so the children, because of someone else's actions, a child children are removed from a victim who is a victim of abuse. The children are also a victim of abuse, but the children are oftentimes removed from both parents.

And so the hoops that an individual has to jump through in order to get their children back becomes substantial. And for a victim of violence, when they have to, you know, they need to cooperate with law enforcement. They need to get a restraining order, go to court.

Maybe there's criminal court. Maybe they need to talk to the DA. They also need to find housing. They need to make sure that their job is secure. They need to make sure that all of these things are in place.

And then in addition to the county requirements that come into place and the lack of support in order to get their children back lack of housing, lack of access to mental health services, lack of access to a substance abuse treatment if that's the case.

There are so many barriers and hoops that someone needs to go through, and so those children then remain in in foster care during this time, or in going through that whole additional system. And then there's a lack of support services for those children.

Where is their their mental health support? Where is, you know, their, security and and housing security when they're where they're thrown into oftentimes facilities to stay for weeks at a time before getting into a foster home.

So that's just one example of just there's so many issues related to. And the bottom line that we still see is misconceptions and racism against tribal communities. It's still there.

And I'll just add that there are historical and current conditions that both of the panelists shared that still very much exist today when it comes to youth and foster care.

And so we've been here in these hearings and testifying about human trafficking and MMIW testifying about PL280 and how that affects our communities and here today talking about youth and foster care. And these are all intersectional issues that they are not siloed as has been mentioned previously.

And so the infrastructure is not there and as was just mentioned in terms of supporting our families, in terms of supporting youth, to feel safe, within their homes and within their communities.

And so, as Kimberly mentioned trusting tribes, investing in tribes, investing in tribal programming, and family, and continued family support.

You know, we talk about the exchange that there was an exchange, of indigenous women and children's bodies for stolen land and we're sitting here in that capital where the state of California was founded on the bounties of of our heads of California Indian women and children.

And so here we are today, every California Indian that is in this room is a walking miracle. Everything that was done to exterminate us, miracle. Everything that was done to exterminate us every effort and every attempt to possibly be done was was committed against us.

And so here we are still existing today, but that support and those resources are needed for the safety and for the healing of our tribal communities.

Very helpful. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much. Any other questions, comments from the dais? Senator Garcia?

Yeah. No. No. No questions. I just wanna thank everyone for for their testimony.

I really appreciate it. The big takeaway for me is any issues related to tribes is just tribes. Thank you.

Thank you.

I wanna thank you for bringing light around this component. Certainly, talking about law enforcement, Public Law 280. But we we wanted to also identify that there's red flags early on within the system.

It's not that someone a feather alert goes out because that's the first time an individual basically is crying out for help. It's happening at at a earlier stage within the social service program, foster care, domestic violence.

When someone there's an alert system that goes out on the same individual three times. That should be a red flag. There should be more resources. There should be, again, system coming together to get those resources to find out and and to help.

And when we start to look at the early components of missing and murdered indigenous women that that plagues the state and plagues the nation, we start to see early on intervention like we've talked about with several bills of of intervention, pipelines, and those types of things.

It's no different here within foster care and ICWA that that becomes the the beginning of the pipeline that's there. So so how do we move forward? We did move that piece of legislation and got signed into law, but now what comes after that? Right?

And that was we found that Native American children, when they go missing out of foster care, that there was really no mechanism to notify the tribal community or the families.

And in some cases, there was pushback to even notify tribal communities when the individual could be trying to get get home and there could be, right, a mechanism to find them before they became missing and murdered or missing. And so what is the next step? Right?

We've done a lot in the state legislature in the time that we've shed light on this, but but where are we headed? Right? And certainly, the question is from my colleagues. Where are we going?

And when you look back at the colonization and the history that started before the state of California became a state, that the Spanish rule, the Mexican rule, and then The United States, then the state of California.

It's all those layers that that that came forward that put bounties out on our people. And when you do that as a government, you see people not as equal.

You see them as less than yourself. And so we're still dealing with those pieces of legislation that were embedded in this legislature that was meant to force us out.

It's been stated that every living California Indian person today wasn't expected to be here because of the atrocities that move forward. So layering back all of that trauma, historical trauma, and identifying that and getting resources there. It was talked about educating social workers and training.

We did talk a lot about training local law enforcement, but that's more of a reactive. And and if we wanna get to more proactive situations, we should put a focus on on training social workers on the impacts of tribal components.

Especially, we just have to believe that their training and what they went through was not embedded to protect Indian people. And so there's a a lot to your question. What can we do?

And certainly, starting the process to collect data, true data, misclassification. Misclassification goes on. We we have a a bill that we're moving on misclassification data collection in the school systems. It's happening everywhere throughout this this whole process.

But I did wanna bring to light, certainly, the components we've done to react. But I think there has to be more light shined on the proact being more proactive, and it starts at an early age. Somebody mentioned that those that are 10 years of age have been impacted.

As early as 10 years of age, California Indian people are being traumatized. Still, in 2026. It's not 1850, but we're still dealing with those issues that have come our way.

Educating social workers is something that that, you know, has resonated. We do a lot of training with social workers in the communities and the counties and those things, but has there been enough moving forward on there?

And to find out that that persons that have been gone going missing, that they're recruited through through these areas in Indian country. And yet there it's known, but there's no investigation into it. That's alarming.

And and will training move forward and and to help close the gap on that? But we have to continue to move forward. When we start to look at areas that the mentality of a state that still has embedded these things, has the mentality of the state truly changed?

We passed these pieces of legislation. We have these hearings, but yet the mentality of the state hasn't changed. And so to answer a question, changing the mentality of the state of California is what has to happen to move forward and to show respect and to show the training and the protection

of all in the state of California. If we really wanna dig deep into the issues that are there, that is the underlying issue that's there. And certainly, the facts are here. The pipeline. We we hear a lot, and we we talk about intervention pipelines to prison, but there's no difference here.

This is a pipeline to missing and murdered Native American people in the state of California. I think it's time that we get more proactive, tear back that that onion a little bit deeper, and truly look at the mentality of these policies and the treatment towards California's first people.

Is the state doing enough to be proactive to protect California's first people? This nation's first people. Certainly being reactive and creating feather alert and other components with the attorney general's office moving forward on that piece of legislation, but there's still far more work to be done.

And so, yeah, we have to sit back and and understand the progress that has been made in a short period of time, but there's still so much to be done. There'll be another feather alert that will probably go out here in the next couple weeks.

And so we wanna get resources to those individuals when they come back to the to the community. But it doesn't just start there.

A feather alert should be the alarm of going, getting resources there, and then hearing about generational trauma, generational MMIP connections, those that that lose their their their kids into the foster care system, that then those kids go missing.

And the social workers that aren't trained to identify those things or even reach out to the tribal communities, and they'll see those parents with a feather alert issued on them. This isn't just a a one time thing. This is generational.

It's historical trauma that continues to play out in the year 2026. So I would challenge our my colleagues and and certainly we work well together, but start to pose the question within the social workers component.

Are we giving adequate training to them to be the frontline workers to identify these issues? We have a lot of work to do as a state of California, but to answer one of those questions was, what can we do? We could change the mentality of the state of California when it deals with California's first people.

And to see them as equal and to see them as human, not like the past practices, which still I keep saying, the bills that embody this legislature have been entwined from 1850 all the way to where we're at now.

We have never went back to remove any of those those statements from laws, even apologies, from the legislative body itself. So there's still is a lot of work to do, but working together, we are making headway into this issue.

And I wanna thank you for your testimony for coming forward and everyone to be here as now. We'll move to public comment. Public comment is meant for those in in the audience. State your name and short statements. Come up to the mic.