Authored by Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-Highland), Assembly Bill (AB) 2115 officially passed the California Legislature on Aug. 26 and has advanced to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.
Formally known as the “Rowena Mae Ramos Act,” in honor of Ramos’s mother, the bill states that California recognizes and accepts legal and moral responsibility for harms and atrocities committed against Native Americans by past public officials since 1850.
Ramos, the first Native American to serve in the California Legislature, said he named the bill to honor his mother, a tribal elder who dedicated herself to teaching Native American history and culture.
AB 2115 cleared its final legislative hurdle with a unanimous 79-0 Assembly vote after passing the Senate 40-0 earlier in the month.
“This history of violence against California’s first people created deep and lasting trauma that continues to this day and affects Native American communities across our state,” said Ramos.
“Although the governor issued an apology on behalf of the state in 2019, this body, this institution, which enacted laws that facilitated the removal and destruction of Native communities, has never issued its own apology for its direct role in these injustices,” Ramos added.
The measure requires a plaque memorializing the Legislature’s apology to be placed publicly and conspicuously inside the State Capitol Building.
If Newsom approves the bill, a final copy of the apology will bear the Great Seal of the State, be signed by top state officials and the Governor, and reside permanently in the State Archives, Ramos told California Black Media (CBM).
“While we cannot undo the wrongs of the past, the state has a responsibility to confront it with honesty and pave the way for the true account of history to be told,” Ramos said.
Ramos pointed to California’s first governor, Peter Hardeman Burnett, who publicly called for a “war of extermination” against Native Americans.
“In 1851, California’s first governor, Peter Burnett, addressed the Legislature where he openly declared a war against California’s first people,” said Ramos, a member of the Serrano/Cahuilla tribe and the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation. “That war was paid for using taxpayers’ dollars to eliminate the Native American people of this land.”
AB 2115 aims to promote healing between tribal communities and state government by acknowledging historical atrocities, including violence, forced displacement, land theft and family separation approved or ignored by past state leaders.
Although AB 2115 focuses specifically on California Native Americans, the measure mirrors the concept and placement of the slavery-apology plaque established under the 2024 reparations-related AB 3089, authored by former Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-South Los Angeles).
Passed as part of California’s 2024 reparations package, AB 3089 formally apologized to Black Californians for the state’s role in perpetuating chattel slavery and systemic discrimination. Although California entered the Union as a “free state” in 1850, the state enforced fugitive slave laws and allowed enslaved people to be held within its borders.
Like AB 2115, AB 3089 required a commemorative plaque memorializing the apology to be publicly displayed in the State Capitol. Newsom signed that bill into law on Sept. 26, 2024.
On June 23, Kenneth Kahn, tribal leader of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, testified before the Senate Committee on Governmental Organization in support of AB 2115.
Kahn said laws California enacted and enforced against tribal communities “were not abstract or distant.” Those policies stripped Native people of “basic civil protections” and made the survival of many tribes “extraordinarily difficult,” he said.
“These harms were the direct result of state-sanctioned policies adopted and maintained during California’s early history,” Kahn said. “In 2019, Gov. Newsom took an important step by issuing an apology on behalf of the executive branch and establishing the Truth and Healing Council. But as AB 2115 correctly recognizes, the violence and discrimination inflicted upon Native communities were not confined to executive action alone.”
CLBC member Sen. Laura Richardson (D-Inglewood) also expressed support for a formal apology and emphasized the importance of permanently displaying it.
“I just want to say that I think the permanency (of the plaque) is so important that (Indigenous) people will continue to be remembered and recognized and do better,” Richardson said during the Senate committee hearing.
Ramos said educating lawmakers about California’s history was a significant part of getting the legislation passed.
“It’s very special. One of the main processes of getting this passed was educating the Legislature that these things actually did happen,” Ramos said.
For Ramos, the legislation is also deeply personal.
“My mom grew up at a time when racism wasn’t hidden. She went through a lot,” he said. “I thought that it was only fitting to honor her with this bill, a formal apology on behalf of the state of California, that would now carry her name.”
