Many of the state’s most pressing policy questions — land use, cultural preservation, economic development — can’t be fully understood without Indigenous perspectives, and students in Eduardo Garcia’s California policy course at the Luskin School of Public Affairs had a chance earlier this month to hear directly from someone reshaping that policy landscape.
Rudy Ortega Jr., president of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, came to campus June 2 to speak about tribal history, self-governance, sovereignty and the complicated work of leading a people whose political status remains unresolved by the federal government. (see sidebar)
His remarks, grounded in lived experience and decades of organizing, gave students a better understanding of what tribal leadership looks like in practice. For Garcia, the visit was part of a broader effort to build UCLA’s political literacy around Native issues and to prepare students for the complexity of policymaking in a state with more than 50 federally unrecognized tribes.
Ortega shared stories about the history of his community, from Mexican-era land grabs to ongoing legal efforts to reclaim tribal land. He spoke about policy battles that remain invisible to most Californians — like the lack of a formal process for tribal recognition by the state of California — and discussed the creative ways his tribe exercises sovereignty without having federal acknowledgment. That includes operating a land conservancy, launching a lending arm to support Native entrepreneurs and training youth through a tribally run conservation corps.
The Luskin visit was more than a lecture; it was a model of how classrooms can become spaces for relationship-building and truth-telling, Garcia said. Students asked about legal barriers, tribal governance and cultural revitalization. Some had spent the final quarter of the academic year researching these very topics for policy memos, but hearing directly from Ortega gave those issues new weight.
“My tribe has created systems for ourselves, despite the obstacles,” Ortega said. “That’s sovereignty. It’s not something we wait for — we practice it.”
Garcia, a senior advisor at UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute, a former state lawmaker and longtime advocate for environmental and economic justice, said these moments like this with with the Fernandeño Tataviam are essential to how future policy professionals should be trained.
“Too often, the communities most affected by policy are left out of policy discussions,” Garcia said after the class. “Bringing in voices like President Ortega’s isn’t just educational — it’s necessary if we want better, more inclusive policy outcomes.”
The Fernandeño Tataviam band’s story is a local one, rooted in the San Fernando Valley, but it speaks to larger gaps in how governments engage Native nations. Ortega reminded students that meaningful policy change starts by listening to the people living with the consequences of government policies.
“Coming in and presenting to a classroom, my hope is to educate newer, younger minds that will be future leaders, policymakers or policy advocates,” Ortega said. “[They] can take the understanding, the struggles that tribes take on, as one of many communities that need to be addressed — but lifting the Native American community overall.”
In that way, Garcia’s final class of the quarter was less of an ending and more of an opening: a challenge to future public servants to lead with humility and to center diverse community voice at every step.
