"This has always been an event led for us by us, with the full support and recognition of every previous mayor's office. The top-down restructuring of this celebration, without input from the American Indian community, undermines our autonomy and feels like an erasure of Native leadership in our own cultural affairs. This is not reflective of a 'shared leadership model'; rather, it suggests a unilateral decision-making process that excludes the very community the event is meant to honor."
"The City envisions a long-term framework in which community-based organizations take the lead in organizing these events, We've identified a new partner, is welcome to join the planning meeting. The first meeting will be scheduled for next week."
For 20 years the American Indian Cultural Center partnered with San Francisco City Hall to organize the annual Native American Heritage Night each November. On Sept. 22 Mayor Daniel Lurie's office informed the center that last year would be its final year leading the celebration and that planning will move to a dedicated committee co-facilitated by the Mayor’s Office and city staff. Moisés Garcia, the mayor’s community liaison, said the City envisions a long-term framework where community-based organizations lead events and that a new partner had been identified. April McGill, the center’s executive director, said the change undermines the center’s autonomy, amounts to erasure of Native leadership, and criticized land acknowledgments as meaningless without genuine inclusion.
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