Newsom Diverted Taxpayer Funds That Could Have Stopped Palisades Fires
California Governor Gavin Newsom has allocated millions of dollars to a program that funds Native American “food sovereignty,” owl counting, and “cultural burns,” according to a report published this week. Advertisement in which tribal groups use traditional fire techniques to clear brush from the landscape and preserve their “close kinship” with plants, animals, and “other natural relatives.” Advertisement Since 2023, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) has distributed roughly $24 million to tribal organizations and nonprofit groups through its “Tribal Wildfire Resilience” program.
Advertisement Crowfoot has said the Newsom administration has made progress in returning the land to the “leadership of California Native American tribes.” While a portion of the Tribal Wildfire Resilience funding has been directed toward traditional wildfire prevention and land-management efforts, critics argue that a closer review of state grant records raises serious questions about how much of the money is actually being spent on fire mitigation.
In recent years, CalFire has awarded grants that have dubious fire-management benefits: $1 million for a grant that will help a tribe provide “forest-themed ingredients” to tribe-owned restaurants; $599,000 for another to help renovate land for use as a Native American summer camp; $166,000 to one that will pay for “[t]ribal staff and members” to observe spotted owl nests; $746,000 to one supporting a tribe’s “food sovereignty” and “Fire-Centered Climate Action Plan”; and $521,000 to one that will help a tribe maintain “close kinship” with plants, animals, and “other natural relatives such as water and fire.”
Fire Prevention Concerns and Victim Compensation
The state has not released any data on the tribes’ progress, and some tribal leaders apparently insist on keeping the fires small. As Ron Goode explained, “We never burn anything bigger than a big beaver hut.” Meanwhile, victims of the deadly Los Angeles Palisades fire that began in January 2025 are still waiting for compensation from the state.
“Sixteen months after California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a $2.5 billion package of relief funds and other measures for the victims of the January 2025 wildfires, state records show most of the fund remains unused, few of the dollars reached victims directly and some of the money was diverted for law enforcement unrelated to the response to the fires,” NBC4 in Los Angeles reported this week.
The local news outlet also “found much of the $605 million expended to date was circulated to state agencies that performed tasks related to the Eaton and Palisades fires, $37 million went to the LA City and County fire departments to reimburse the costs of firefighting, and nearly $21 million was paid to the California Highway Patrol for managing road closures and security in the fire zones.”