Former California Governor Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown Jr. made a surprise visit to Tuolumne on Saturday for the 30th anniversary celebration of the Native American Heritage Commission, an agency he signed into law 30 years ago.
The Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk hosted the event, which also drew about 500 American Indians representing more than 40 tribes throughout California.
The commission's mission is to protect American Indian burial sites and other sites sacred to American Indians from vandalism and inadvertent destruction.
The law that created the commission also gives tribes the power to monitor development projects and demand that sacred sites are identified and protected.
"I was proud to help start this 30 years ago," Brown said. "I was committed then to preserving what was beautiful about California, and I still am. A lot of things we started then are still around and going strong."
http://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=20716
