Fresno County voters last week overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to change the county charter to affirm county officials’ ability to change the name of geographic features and places.
Out of 100,413 voters who weighed in on Measure B, 64% rejected the proposed charter amendment, according to the latest election results as of March 11.
“The voters said ‘no,’ and I respect that,” said Supervisor Nathan Magsig, who proposed Measure B — which he said was about maintaining local control. “Why voters voted ‘yes’ on (Measure) A and ‘no’ on (Measure) B, I don’t know that for sure. I don’t know the minds of each voter.”
Measure A, which Fresno voters approved, allows the supervisors to reschedule law enforcement elections to the lower-turnout gubernatorial cycles, a big win for local Republicans. But those same voters refused to back the other conservative-supported initiative, Measure B.
Measure B was one of two efforts by Fresno County officials to challenge the renaming of Yokuts Valley, a foothill town in Fresno County whose old name contained a racist and sexist slur for Indigenous women.
In March 2023, a majority of Fresno County’s five supervisors voted to sue California over a state law that banned racist and sexist geographic features and place names in California and required them to be changed by 2025. The case was thrown out because a judge ruled the county had no grounds for the lawsuit.
Then, the same majority of supervisors — Magsig joined by Steve Brandau and Buddy Mendes — also approved putting Measure B on the March ballot, which ended up costing taxpayers between $20,000 and $30,000, according to the Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters James Kus.
Even if Measure B passed, it would not have given county officials new powers — Fresno County already has the ability to change the names of places and geographic features within its jurisdiction.
“They speak of local control, and here you have the results,” said Roman Rain Tree, a member of the Dunlap Band of Mono Indians and the Choinumni tribe. “The people have responded at the local level and it’s a landslide, it’s pretty resounding, it’s definitive. It’s time to give the new name a chance.”
Rain Tree was at the center of the federal renaming effort, filing a petition in 2022 to change the name of the Fresno County foothill town. In January 2023, the United States government listened, renaming the town Yokuts Valley.
However, it turned out the decision was not binding on the state or local levels. Rain Tree said he hopes that Magsig will move on from challenging the Yokuts Valley renaming now that voters rejected Measure B.
“That’s really what I hope will change moving forward, that it’d be put to rest,” Rain Tree said. “Give the new name a chance and put that time and energy and our taxpayer dollars to better use.”
One issue in particular close to Rain Tree’s heart: helping local Indigenous tribes obtain federal recognition, which is something his tribe and several others, including the Waksatchi and Wukchumni tribes, do not have.
Tribes without federal recognition are barred from rights afforded to those recognized, including tribal sovereignty. Rain Tree said Magsig could be directly advocating about this issue from a local level, and he wants to see that happen.
“Here I stand, trying to extend the olive branch and say I’d like to still be in conversation with you and dialogue about other pressing tribal issues that are affecting your district that were just simply not being addressed and kind of being ignored,” Rain Tree said. “What can you do now?”
This article first appeared on Fresnoland and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.