Thomas Catenacci of the Washington Free Beacon documents a problem plaguing California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration.
“Indigenous knowledge,” a pseudoscience that posits Native Americans possess an innate understanding of how the world works, is thriving in California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D.) administration has contended that “Western science” must embrace “the generations of knowledge held by Indigenous communities,” according to a Washington Free Beacon review of state documents.
Since Newsom entered office six years ago, the California state government has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars on programs promoting the idea, which the state also refers to as “traditional ecological knowledge,” and has leveraged it across several government functions, including wildfire mitigation, energy development, wildlife recovery, and land conservation, the documents show. The Newsom administration has made indigenous knowledge a central pillar of its climate agenda in particular.
The extensive taxpayer-funded indigenous knowledge efforts in California, which are detailed in an intricate web of state initiatives, reports, programs, and laws, highlight just how far a fringe academic theory has proliferated throughout Democratic Party-controlled governments. While scientists describe it as “dangerous” and a rejection of the scientific method, the Biden administration forced indigenous knowledge into agencies across the federal government, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to the Department of Defense.
Newsom’s embrace of indigenous knowledge has been similarly enthusiastic.
“Western science has overlooked the generations of knowledge held by indigenous communities, who have stewarded the land since time immemorial,” states a draft copy of California’s 2024 climate adaptation strategy released last year. “Seeking and elevating Traditional Ecological Knowledge can augment conventional research methods to better understand how California’s climate and environment have changed over time.”
That strategy, the Newsom administration said, will be implemented over the next three years. According to the California Energy Commission, as part of that implementation, the state will develop its fifth climate change assessment, which will expand reliance on indigenous knowledge through its Tribal Research Program.