SACRAMENTO –A measure to help ensure Native American students may exercise their right to wear items of spiritual or cultural significance at high school graduations was approved today on a bipartisan vote of 64-0. The measure, AB 945, by Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-Highland) will be sent to the Senate.

“Despite existing protections in state law, local school officials continue to object when students wish to wear items such as eagle feathers, sashes with basket designs, basket caps or beaded medallions during graduation ceremonies,” Ramos stated. He noted that in 2018 former

SACRAMENTO—The Assembly today unanimously approved a resolution designating May as California Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Awareness Month; it was introduced by Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-Highland).

“California has the sixth highest death rate of indigenous women in urban cities – and our state has the largest Native American population in the country,” Ramos said. “Native American women face a pandemic of violence against them, and we must be persistent and consistent in increasing awareness, increasing preventative measures and in resolving these cases so loved ones

SACRAMENTO—California’s state Assembly today approved a historic measure to grant state Judicial Branch employees the first-ever paid holiday on California Native American Day, which falls on the fourth Friday of September every year. AB 855, by Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-Highland), heads to the state Senate on a unanimous 72-0 bipartisan vote.

Ramos, a member of the Serrano/Cahuilla tribe, is the first California Native American lawmaker elected in the state’s 170-year history. He has been laboring to enact a California Native American Day since 1998. “I was a San Manuel council member

SACRAMENTO—With approval today by the Assembly Appropriations Committee today, a measure to allow state and local court employees to receive a paid holiday in celebration of California Native American Day will go to the full Assembly.

Assembly Bill 855 introduced by Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-Highland) said, “This is one more step forward in statewide recognition of the history, culture, and contributions of California’s Native Americans.”

AB 855 would amend the Code of Civil Procedure to recognize California Native American Day as a judicial holiday to provide proper recognition for

SACRAMENTO—Native American foster students would receive the same educational rights as other foster children under AB 1055, a proposal approved Wednesday by the Assembly Education Committee on a bipartisan vote of 7 to 0. Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-Highland) authored the measure.

“This bill ensures that tribal foster youth are afforded the same resources and services as their non-tribal counterparts,” Ramos said. If AB 1055 is enacted all California foster youth – those under supervision of the county or tribal court systems – will receive the attention they need to achieve success in

SACRAMENTO – A measure to help ensure Native American students can wear items of spiritual or cultural significance at high school graduations was approved Wednesday in the Assembly Education Committee on a bipartisan vote of 7 to 0.

Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-Highland) said his bill, AB 945, is aimed at making sure students are not prevented from exercising this right guaranteed by the U.S. and California constitutions and state law to wear cultural and religious items at their graduation ceremonies. “Despite existing protections, local school officials have raised objections to students

SACRAMENTO—The Assembly Judiciary Committee today approved a measure on a bipartisan 10-0 vote to allow state and local court employees to receive a paid holiday in celebration of California Native American Day.  

“I am appreciative that the Judicial Council brought this forward,” Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-Highland) said. “For more than 20 years, I have worked to help create a day that recognizes California’s First People and their history,” Ramos stated. "Our state has the greatest number of Native Americans residing within its boundaries, and it is fitting that we begin to expand our

SACRAMENTO—An Assembly constitutional amendment and bill to strengthen and assert current instructional California Native American social science standards and frameworks was introduced today by Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-Highland).

The language in ACA 6, the California Indian Education Act, is also included in AB 1554 which Ramos introduced earlier this year and has since amended.

“California’s Native Americans resided in our state long before explorers, missionaries and settlers, yet little is acknowledged or even studied about that past or even present. Native people have been made

SACRAMENTO—Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-Highland), the first California Native American elected to the Legislature and a lifelong resident of the San Manuel Indian Reservation, today cheered the 11-9 vote by a key U.S. Senate committee advancing the nomination of Rep. Deb Haaland (D-New Mexico) as U.S. Interior secretary.

I am excited and proud to see Rep. Haaland’s nomination move a step closer to reality. For hundreds of years, the Department of Interior has wielded enormous power over the lives of the country’s Native Americans without including them in decision making that affects their

SACRAMENTO—Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-Highland) today urged the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to confirm the nomination of U.S. Representative Deb Haaland (D-New Mexico) as Secretary of the Interior. If approved by the Senate, Haaland would be the first Native American to serve in a position that oversees federal bureaus and agencies critical to Native American governance, education, and culturally sacred lands.

“I am asking that the Energy Committee members refer her historic nomination to the floor and that the full Senate approve this historic nominee,” Ramos said