Monday April 28, 2025
Capitol Weekly —
An intense dispute between federally- and non-federally recognized California Native American tribes over a bill intended to give tribal governments more control over development that encroaches on their sacred lands has convinced the author to pause the measure.
After significant negotiations over the last few weeks failed to bring the opponents together, Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters) turned her proposal, AB 52, into a two-year bill to allow the two sides time to come closer together.
The bill – sponsored by the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, and Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake – attempts to address a problem that has long plagued California’s Native American tribes: lead agencies under the California Environmental Quality Act who rely on the expertise of outsiders instead of the tribes when negotiating access to Tribal Cultural Resources (TCR).
It is not the first effort to codify the tribes’ primacy in such circumstances. In 2012, then-Assemblymember Mike Gatto authored another AB 52, which requires lead agencies to consult with Native American tribes in such situations.