A popular stretch of California’s Mendocino County coastline is being handed over to an Indigenous peoples group after a Gov. Gavin Newsom-backed state commission approved the transfer of 136 acres of beach and coastal bluffs.

The property, which includes Blues Beach just south of Westport, will be transferred from the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to Kai Poma, a nonprofit founded by representatives of the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians, Round Valley Indian Tribes and Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians.

Caltrans gave final regulatory approval to the deal on June 26.

«For the first time in California’s history, land managed by Caltrans and owned by the state was transferred to Kai Poma, a nonprofit established by three local Native American tribes with ancestral ties to the region,» Caltrans District 1 announced in a statement last week. «Once transferred, Kai Poma will own and maintain the 136-acre site and protect sensitive natural resources and Native American cultural resources.»

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The state acquired the windswept shoreline and rocky bluffs in the 1960s as part of plans tied to Highway 1 expansion and the creation of a scenic overlook for motorists, according to the California Coastal Commission.

In recent years, the beach has drawn large summer and holiday crowds, with public access largely unregulated. State planning documents say visitors have camped and partied on the beach, driven through sensitive areas, damaged cultural resources and left trash behind.

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The Blues Beach Project turns over a portion of the Mendocino, California, coast to three tribes. (Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Tribal leaders have described the land as culturally and spiritually significant. The coastal waters are used for traditional gathering, including seaweed and abalone, and the shore has hosted youth cultural camps.

Kai Poma is expected to conduct cultural, archaeological and environmental surveys before developing a long-term resource management plan for the land. The nonprofit has also worked with the Coastal Commission on a public access plan that will keep the property open to visitors from sunrise to sunset.

The transfer required years of work and a change in state law. Until 2021, Caltrans did not have authority to transfer state-owned property to tribal governments. That changed when Newsom signed legislation sponsored by state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, allowing such conveyances.

«With 136 acres now officially transferred into tribal stewardship, one of the most spectacular stretches of the Mendocino Coast will be forever protected,» McGuire said in a statement. «This agreement, the first of its kind in California, gives these three dynamic Native American tribes the rightful opportunity to reclaim sacred lands and cultural traditions on this special piece of earth. And it’s about damn time.»

California coastline north of Mendocino will be transferred to a group of Native American tribes after final approval last month. (Smith Collection/Gado)

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The law bars commercial activity on the property and requires continued public access.

Supporters say the transfer will protect one of the region’s most scenic stretches of coast while returning sacred land to the descendants of the people who historically stewarded it.

«This is beyond huge,» Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians Chair J. Carlos Rivera told the Los Angeles Times. «It’s enormous from our tribal perspective that we are basically obtaining the land that our people once lived on before colonization.»

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With the commission’s approval complete, Caltrans staff are expected to record the deed transferring the property from the state to Kai Poma.

Fox News Digital reached out Newsom, the coastal commission, Round Valley Indian Tribes and Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians for comment.

Más de 11,000 muertes y desapariciones de migrantes en tránsito han sido documentadas en las Américas desde 2014, según los datos más recientes de la Organización Internacional para las Migraciones (OIM).

En el caso específico de Centroamérica, esta es considerada una de las rutas migratorias más letales con más de 2,800 muertes y desapariciones documentadas por la OIM desde el 2014.

La Organización Internacional para las Migraciones (OIM) advierte que, entre 2014 y 2026, al menos 2,835 migrantes han muerto o desaparecido en los flujos hacia Norteamérica, usando rutas que atraviesan Centroamérica y otras regiones de las Américas.

Esta cifra —que podría ser aún mayor debido al subregistro— expone la gravedad de la crisis y los riesgos extremos que enfrentan quienes huyen de la pobreza, la violencia y la falta de oportunidades.

Las rutas migratorias más peligrosas, como la frontera México-Estados Unidos y la selva del Darién, concentran la mayor parte de las muertes: 1,121 y 448 casos respectivamente. Ahogamientos (1,025), accidentes de transporte (781) y violencia directa (319) son las causas principales, a las que se suman condiciones ambientales extremas y enfermedades sin atención médica.

Este balance revela la magnitud de la tragedia humanitaria que atraviesa Centroamérica, donde rutas como el Tapón del Darién y la frontera México-Estados Unidos concentran las cifras más altas de fatalidades, esto según el informe “Proyecto Migrantes Desaparecidos” que divulgó la OIM el mes de junio.

El drama infantil es otro rasgo alarmante: solo en 2023 desaparecieron 47 menores de edad en rutas migratorias centroamericanas. Las cifras anuales muestran un aumento sostenido desde 2019, con un pico de 564 muertes y desapariciones en 2023 y una tendencia que no cedió en 2024 y 2025.

De acuerdo al análisis del documento, la región se ha convertido en un corredor obligado no solo para quienes huyen de Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua y El Salvador, sino también para migrantes de Sudamérica, el Caribe y África.

La combinación de desastres naturales, violencia estructural, pobreza y falta de acceso a servicios básicos ha empujado a miles a buscar alternativas fuera de sus países de origen.

La OIM señala que migrantes económicos, solicitantes de asilo y refugiados conforman este flujo diverso, todos enfrentando riesgos similares.

Muchos, especialmente familias y jóvenes, escapan de amenazas directas de pandillas o de la ausencia de oportunidades laborales.

El Tapón del Darién se mantiene como una de las rutas más letales del continente. A través de esta selva que separa Colombia de Panamá, cientos de personas mueren o desaparecen cada año debido a condiciones ambientales extremas, ahogamientos y violencia directa.

La frontera terrestre entre México y Estados Unidos registra el mayor número de víctimas, con más de 6,600 muertes y desapariciones en poco más de una década.

Las travesías marítimas entre el Caribe y Centroamérica, aunque con cifras menores, representan un peligro significativo por las condiciones precarias y la presencia de traficantes de personas. El terreno hostil, sumado a la actividad criminal, agrava el riesgo en todas estas rutas.

La crisis migratoria centroamericana se caracteriza por un crecimiento continuo de víctimas fatales y desaparecidos, sobre todo en la última década.

Los datos muestran que las muertes y desapariciones pasaron de 618 en 2014 a 1,413 en 2023, manteniéndose en niveles elevados en los primeros meses de 2024. Las causas principales incluyen ahogamientos, accidentes de transporte, violencia y enfermedades sin atención médica, con muchos casos cuyas circunstancias permanecen sin esclarecer.

La OIM recalca que sus servicios son completamente gratuitos y advierte sobre la proliferación de fraudes y ofertas migratorias engañosas. El organismo mantiene un monitoreo activo de personas desaparecidas, ofrece orientación y asistencia, e insta a la población a evitar intermediarios irregulares.

A pesar del acompañamiento institucional, la persistencia de cifras elevadas de fallecidos y desaparecidos subraya la necesidad de acciones coordinadas entre gobiernos, organismos internacionales y sociedad civil. Las causas estructurales de la migración —pobreza, violencia y desastres— requieren intervenciones urgentes para prevenir más tragedias y garantizar rutas seguras para quienes se ven forzados a migrar.

El fenómeno migratorio en Centroamérica se mantiene como uno de los desafíos humanitarios más graves de la región. Las autoridades y la OIM insisten en la urgencia de crear políticas de protección y cooperación internacional que atiendan tanto la emergencia como las causas de fondo, con el objetivo de que historias de pérdida y sufrimiento como las actuales no se sigan repitiendo.

A sweeping new White House report concluded that the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History (NMAH) has become a taxpayer-backed institution of «ideological capture» and «extreme political activism.»

«The report concludes that the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Museum of American History in particular, under its current leadership and current interpretive ideology, cannot be trusted to tell America’s story honestly and in a way that is inspiring, unifying, and worthy of our great republic,» the White House Domestic Policy Council wrote in its July 4 report following up on President Donald Trump’s March 27 executive order. «By the intention and at the direction of current Museum and Smithsonian leadership, NMAH has become subject to institutional capture by a radical, activist ideology that is fundamentally opposed to telling the noble, honest story of the great country we know and love.»

According to the 162-page «Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History» report, delivered on America’s 250th birthday, NMAH treats the American story as a political tool rather than a shared national inheritance.

«At the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, visitors young and old should encounter the story of the United States told with honesty, seriousness, and pride,» the report’s executive summary began. «In particular, it should help the American people understand where America came from, what makes it distinctive, and why it is worth preserving.»

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Instead, the museum has moved «away from straightforward historical education and scholarship» and toward activism, the report found.

«Anthea Hartig, NMAH’s director since 2019, has explicitly stated that she sees history as a ‘prime tool of social justice’ and one of her roles as connecting ‘research and scholarship to activism and advocacy,’» the summary noted.

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Crowdgoers to President Donald Trump’s Salute to America on Saturday night huddle took cover with the National Guard in Smithsonian museums after being evacuated of The Great American State Fair along the National Mall due to severe weather. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld)

«Hartig has also stated that ‘we work to reframe the traditional celebratory narrative of U.S. history for visitors.’ She claims to have had a personal head start ‘propped up as I was and I am by the cushions of whiteness and the pillows of the bourgeoisie,’» the report said. «These are not the words of an objective historian, but rather those of an activist advancing an ideological agenda contradictory to the Museum’s founding purpose of fostering patriotism.»

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The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is being called out for being ‘ideologically captured’ and presenting woke revisionist history on the weekend of America’s 250th birthday. (Kevin Carter)

The report made five key conclusions about the museum:

• It attempted to «subvert» America’s founding and cancel America’s founders, with only mentioning them in the context of ties to slavery.
• It «‘problematized’ the 250th anniversary of America’s founding.»
• It changed the words to loaded modern political activist terms and not ones from history.
• It «abandoned historical scholarship for political activism.»
• It failed «obligations» to American people.

«One of the most significant findings in this report concerns what is missing,» the report stated. «A visitor to the Museum today will find no major exhibit dedicated to America’s Founding era, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, other Founding Fathers, the Continental Congress, the Pilgrims, the Puritans, or major moments of the American Revolution, such as Washington’s crossing of the Delaware.

«Instead, visitors will find Founders, such as Benjamin Franklin, introduced chiefly through their connection to slavery while their decisive roles in building the Republic and their anti-slavery efforts are minimized or ignored.»

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The NMAH presented revisionist history, using terms that exist now but not then, including «a popular term-of-art to ‘Critical Social Justice,’» the report found.

«The Museum is not merely neglecting America’s central story,» it stated. «It is intentionally withholding and subverting it.»

Noted was the political revision of «its mission statement under current leadership, which replaced the phrases ‘infinite richness’ and ‘American history’ with language about empowering people to create ‘a more just and compassionate future’ by exploring ‘the complexity of our past.’»

«The Museum has shifted from scholarship to activism,» the report read, «pointing to Museum leadership’s own public statements tying ‘research and scholarship to activism and advocacy,’ dismantling inherited narratives, using history as a ‘prime tool of social justice,’ calling for American history to be ‘reframed,’ and describing museum work in terms of ‘reparations,’ ‘restorative history,’ ‘systemic intervention, ‘decolonization, ‘social justice.’»

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The report also criticizes the museum’s approach to race, immigration, gender and sexuality, alleging that exhibits and programming have been shaped by modern activist priorities rather than neutral historical scholarship.

The Smithsonian Institution receives more than $1 billion annually in taxpayer support and its ideology does not comport with Trump’s executive order and initiatives to remove political influence in government entities, according to the Domestic Policy Council.

«As this report shows, confirmed in the words of Museum leadership, this ideological capture has moved the Museum’s mission away from straightforward historical education and scholarship toward an extreme political activism that seeks to transform our country,» it wrote.