<\/p>\n
Activists occupied Alcatraz Island beginning in November 1969 to protest the treatment of Native Americans. California’s story of becoming an economic powerhouse is also one of trauma, oppression and conflict.<\/p>\n
Vincent Maggiora\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, one question feels increasingly urgent: Where does California fit into the story of America?<\/p>\n
A reporter recently asked me how museums are marking the milestone and what the Oakland Museum of California, where I am president and CEO, has done to interpret the Gold Rush. But behind that question is a larger one: Who gets to define the national narrative, and whose histories are centered within it? That question has guided our thinking about this anniversary, and about the responsibility to tell California\u2019s story in all its complexity.<\/p>\n
When the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, California was home to the largest Indigenous population of any region in what is now the United States, and today there are more than 170 tribal nations in California. Despite displacement, genocide and oppression, Native Californians are still here and continue to tend their ancestral homelands and cultural practices.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Indeed, diversity and migration are the very foundations of California\u2019s history. Spanish colonizers occupied a significant portion of California in the late 18th century, and in 1776, they founded the Presidio of San Francisco. The invasion and conquest of California by the United States began in 1846, and with the discovery of gold in 1849, the world literally rushed in with the migration from across the country, Native Americans from eastern tribes and thousands more from Mexico, Latin America, the Pacific islands, Australia, Europe and China. With the Gold Rush, San Francisco became one of the most multiculturally diverse places in the world.<\/p>\n
The 20th century was marked by even greater migration with the arrival of Dust Bowl farming families during the Great Depression and the Great Migration of Black Americans from the segregated South during and after World War II. Changes in immigration laws beginning in 1965 and continuing into the 1980s made migration possible from places around the globe, including Southeast Asia and Africa, as well as large immigrant streams from Mexico, Latin America and China.<\/p>\n
San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n
Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n This history of diversity and migration has created the most populous state in the country and fostered one of the largest economies in the world. It has also been marked by times of great trauma, oppression and conflict, especially for California\u2019s Indigenous people and by Black and brown people who have come here seeking better opportunities and that elusive California Dream. These are the complex and contradictory stories that must be shared \u2014 for and by California. We must tell the stories that connect California\u2019s incredible landscape and environment with its history and creative expression \u2014 and the stories that grapple with the tensions in our histories that cause us to reflect, to acknowledge and to repair.<\/p>\n And yet California is the only state in the country without a state historical society. The California Historical Society<\/a> closed in 2025 and transferred its collections to Stanford University. Even without this state-designated resource, important repositories do exist for California history,\u00a0including at the California State Parks<\/a>, the California Museum<\/a> and institutions\u00a0like the\u00a0Autry Museum of the American West<\/a> that place California within the context of Western history. Add to this the dozens of small historical societies and sites that preserve vital local histories.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n