Governor Newsom proclaims Indigenous Peoples’ Day

SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today issued a proclamation declaring October 12, 2026, as “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”

The text of the proclamation and a copy can be found below:

PROCLAMATION

For the eighth consecutive year, California proclaims today Indigenous Peoples’ Day. We honor the enduring peoples, cultures, and lifeways that originated in the lands and waters now called California, and we celebrate the Indigenous peoples from elsewhere who have enriched our state with their languages, cultures, and worldviews. Together, these Californians form one of the largest and most diverse Indigenous populations in the world, and they are foundational to the spirit of inclusion, adaptation, and exuberance that defines our state.
 
Indigenous peoples, while making up only 6% of the population worldwide, have proven to be especially effective at stewarding the rich biodiversity and vibrant landscapes that we all depend on. With worldviews largely based in connection, reciprocity, and sustainability for future generations, it is no wonder that this is the case — and here in California, we are putting these principles in practice with historic land return, co-management, and restoration of Indigenous sciences to lands and waters of this state.
 
This year, we mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day having just witnessed the tragic felling of the last of four ancestral cottonwood trees. Known lovingly as “grandmother” or “abuela,” depending on which side of the line one stands, these trees hold deep spiritual and material significance for Indigenous peoples throughout the Southwest and Mexico. Many of these tribes span a border that continues to threaten their connection to their relatives, their lands, and their lifeways.
 
The loss of the grandmother trees reminds us that borders do not define the relationships between people, land, and ways of being. In California, our strength has always come from welcoming those who arrive here while honoring those who were here first.  On this Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that every Indigenous person who calls California home, whether their ancestors walked these valleys or crossed oceans and borders to reach them, continues to be seen, heard, and included in shaping our shared future.
 

NOW THEREFORE I, GAVIN NEWSOM, Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim October 12, 2026 as “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 12th day of October 2026.

GAVIN NEWSOM
Governor of California

ATTEST:
SHIRLEY N. WEBER, Ph.D.
Secretary of State