Instead of asking why Native communities were dispossessed, museum visitors could watch a fire-making demonstration.

The “last survivor” story focused sympathy on one individual while making the destruction around him feel distant and irreversible.

That is one reason the label remains dangerous even when used with good intentions.

It implies that Native disappearance was the endpoint of history.

But Native California did not end.

Many communities survived.

Some lost federal recognition and fought to restore it.

Some rebuilt languages.

Some recovered land.

Some pursued repatriation.