Gavin Newsom Celebrates Indigenous Peoples’ Day by Welcoming Immigrants

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) observed Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Monday with a curiously mixed message: he honored those who have immigrated to California “from across the globe” as well as the original local population.

Monday, which is still observed by the federal government as Columbus Day, marks the third observance Indigenous Peoples’ Day by the State of California. Long a fringe, left-wing day of protest against explorer Christopher Columbus as the supposed herald of imperialism, Indigenous Peoples’ Day has recently been embraced by the Democratic Party.

President Joe Biden observed it on the campaign trail in 2020, and issued the first-ever presidential proclamation of the day on Friday.

On Monday, as part of Indigenous Peoples’ Day observances, Newsom announced a partnership between the state’s Truth & Healing Council, which exists to provide a forum for Native American perspectives on California’s history, and the Decolonizing Wealth Project, a self-described “radical” group that aims to “disrupt” capitalism. The Decolonizing Wealth Project is, in turn, run by a left-wing non-profit organization based in Detroit called Allied Media Projects, Inc.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.