NEWS RELEASE
California Reaffirms Support for Tribal Sovereignty

Date: 9/15/2000

I received the following in my personal email today, and felt it was important enough to publish here.

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NEWS RELEASE      FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE      NEWS RELEASE

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE TAKES ENLIGHTENED POSITION ON TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY

SACRAMENTO, CA, September 15, 2000 -- The California Legislature has passed unanimously a resolution which points to a genuine concern for this country's first peoples. In a whirlwind push designed to enact in one week a resolution to make the state's position on tribal sovereignty abundantly clear, the California Legislature passed a landmark bill, Assembly Concurrent Resolution (ACR) 185 concerning Native rights.

Written by Assemblyman Jim Battin and several dozen others listed in the official text, the measure was introduced on August 23, just a week before the Legislature was due to adjourn. On August 31, Battin succeeded in walking it through both houses, where it received unanimous approval.

A summary of the measure prepared by the Legislative Counsel and included in Battin's letter reads as follows:

"This measure would reaffirm state recognition of the sovereign status of federally recognized Indian tribes as separate and independent political communities within the United States, encourage all state agencies, when engaging in activities or developing policies affecting Native American tribal rights or trust resources, to do so in a knowledgeable, sensitive manner that is respectful of tribal sovereignty, and, in recognizing their tribal sovereignty, encourages all state agencies to continue to reevaluate and improve the implementation of laws affecting Native American tribal rights..."

The full text of the bill as amended and passed unanimously may be found at Battin's home page: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_0151-0200/acr_185_bill_20000823_introduced.html
(2/24/01: the above no longer links to the bill. You can look for it if you wish starting at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/. Bill is Battin # ACR 185 Native American tribal rights. NACulture ran out of time, sorry)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Assemblyman Jim Battin
State Capitol
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0080
(916) 319-2080

OR

Liz Pollard * Smoke Signals Enterprises
505 W. Louisiana, Anadarko, OK 73005
(405) 247-2251
EMAIL lpollard@smokesig.com
ON the WEB: http://www.smokesig.com/ (Site missing.)

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