November 6, 2025
The Yolo County Board of Supervisors recognized November as Native American Heritage Month during its most recent meeting, honoring the diverse cultures, traditions, histories, significant contributions, and present-day lives of Native American peoples.
The board passed a resolution on Nov. 4, acknowledging the history of Yolo County’s longest-residing residents.
The county was established in 1850 within an area of California that is the unceded homeland of the Patwin — also known as the Southern Wintun — peoples, whose historic territory extends from the eastern North Coast Ranges to the Sacramento River and south toward the San Pablo and Suisun Bays.
There are three federally recognized Patwin/Wintun tribal governments with homelands in and around the Yolo region: the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, the Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation and the Cachil DeHe Band of Wintun Indians of the Colusa Indian Community. The Nation sustains a diverse tribal economy, including the Séka Hills agricultural enterprise and olive mill that supports Tribal and local growers with milling, storage, and bottling services.
Additionally, the Yocha Dehe continues to actively steward natural and working lands in the Valley.
Yolo County and the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation maintain a government-to government partnership memorialized by an Intergovernmental Agreement, which directs significant investments to county and community priorities — more than $161 million over 22 years.
“Native peoples have made and continue to make distinct and significant contributions across academic scholarship, agriculture, ecology, education, engineering, governance, health, language, leadership, the arts, and cultural lifeways,” the resolution reads. “In Yolo County, community partnerships reflect these contributions in areas ranging from education and child development to land stewardship and local economies …
“The Yolo County Board of Supervisors hereby recognizes the month of November as Native American Heritage Month in Yolo County; affirms the County’s commitment to respectful, transparent government-to-government relations with the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation and neighboring Patwin Tribal governments; and commits to promoting the health, safety, cultural vitality, and well-being of Indigenous and Native American communities in Yolo County year-round.”