Proclamation on Native American Heritage Day by California Governor Jerry Brown

October 1, 2012
By Gov. Jerry Brown
Indian Country Today Media Network

California has been home to human beings for at least 12,000 years, with the period of European-American settlement representing only a tiny fraction of this time. The first Europeans to arrive in California encountered hundreds of thousands of people organized into hundreds of distinct tribal groups. They flourished in the bountiful hills and valleys of what would someday become the Golden State.