William Franklin Jr. Monumen( rendering displayed last year. Photo/Assemblymember James Ramos)
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Native American Heritage Month. Tribal leaders, lawmakers, students, and other dignitaries will be on hand on Tuesday, November 7, 2023 for the unveiling of a historic monument dedicated to memorialize the Native Americans in Capitol Park on the grounds of California’s state capitol in Sacramento, California.
The capitol stands on the ancestral lands of Sacramento tribes that still exist today. The timing of the unveiling coincides with Native American Heritage Month. A groundbreaking ceremony for the new monument was held during November 2022.
The new monument replaces the statue of controversial Franciscan Friar Junipero Serra, which stood in the park since 1967, wastoppled by protestors on July 4 2020, but because the sculpture was created pursuant to legislation in the 1960s, another law is required to create a new monument.
California Assemblymember James C. Ramos, a Democrat who represents San Bernardino and the first California Native American elected to the Legislature, authored AB 338 in 2021, which authorized establishment of the monument. Capitol Park’s latest monument commemorates a respected Miwok leader and cultural dancer, William J. Franklin Sr.
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