Acknowledging Native Homelands

In recent years communities and institutions across North America and globally have begun seeking to acknowledge the Indigenous communities and nations in whose homelands they are situated. The resulting statements—often termed “land acknowledgments” or “territorial acknowledgments”—have endeavored to recognize specific Indigenous people, geographies, and polities, and to stress their ongoing presence and significance. Some of these statements have been devised in close consultation with Indigenous communities and Tribal Nations/First Nations. Others have been formulated more internally by non-Indigenous organizations.

There are many perspectives on land acknowledgments and the work that they accomplish, as well as their complexities and limitations. Below I have compiled some resources about them, focusing on the Northeast while also pointing to broader conversations and practices.  I hope these resources can provide useful touchstones for organizations beginning to reckon with these topics. My intention is not to define or prescribe a single way of approaching these statements and processes. Indeed, as a non-Indigenous settler person and scholar, I stress the importance of seeking out Tribal Nations’ guidance and preferences when appropriate, and thinking in place-specific ways about long-term relationships, reciprocities, and responsibilities.

Land acknowledgment statement at the entrance to “Places, Nations, Generations, Beings: 200 Years of Indigenous North American Art,” Yale University Art Gallery, 2019 (photo by C. DeLucia).

General resources and commentary

Debbie Reese, “Are you planning to do a land acknowledgment?” American Indians in Children’s Literature blog, March 9, 2019.

“Honor Native Land: A Guide and Call to Acknowledgment.” U.S. Department of Arts and Culture.

“You're on Indian Land: Making the Case for Indigenous Land Acknowledgment in Collecting Institutions” (video). Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, June 2020.

“A Guide to Indigenous Land Acknowledgment.” Native Governance Center.

âpihtawikosisân, “Beyond territorial acknowledgments.” Sept. 2016.

Popular media coverage

“Indigenous Land Acknowledgment, Explained.” Teen Vogue, Feb. 2018.

“Indigenous Artists Tell Us What They Think About Land Acknowledgments.” Vice, Aug. 2019.

Siobhan Burke, “On This Land: Dance Presenters Honor Manhattan’s First Inhabitants.” The New York Times, Aug. 2018.

Lauren Wingenroth, “Who Are Land Acknowledgments Really For?” Dance Magazine, Oct. 2019

Nick Martin, “The Dissonance of a Land Acknowledgment at the Oscars.” The New Republic, Feb. 2020.

Lou Cornum, “Burial Ground Acknowledgments: Land acknowledgments as acts of institutional inclusion obscure the antagonism that follows from genocide.” The New Inquiry, Oct. 2019.

APTN News, “Questioning the usefulness of land acknowledgments—APTN InFocus” (video). Feb. 2019.

Joe Friesen, “As Indigenous land acknowledgments become the norm, critics question whether the gesture has lost its meaning.” The Globe and Mail, June 2019

Portugal. The Man. “Land Acknowledgement—2018 Tour” (video).

Native Northeast resources and commentary

Mikhu Paul, “Glacier Stories: Land Acknowledgment” (video).

“Bilingual signage—English and Penobscot—now at UMaine.” UMaine News, July 17, 2019.

“Land Acknowledgment” from Indigenous New Hampshire: Reframing New Hampshire’s History from an Indigenous Perspective.

“Land Acknowledgment.” Framingham State University.

“Land Acknowledgment.” Stonehill College.

Myisha Majumder, “The Indigenous Footprint,” Tufts Observer, Oct. 2019.

Debra Pérez, “Transformation and Action: The Importance of Meaningful Land Acknowledgments.” Simmons University, Feb. 2020.

“Land Acknowledgment Statement.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Whose land are you on?” Article about Harvard University Graduate School of Education project. Via Harvard University Native American Program, Nov. 21, 2017.

“Acknowledgment of Native Land and Peoples.” Remarks by Elizabeth Solomon (Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag), T.C. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, May 2018.

Sarah Kanouse, “Ecologies of Acknowledgment.” Installation at UMass Boston about Boston-area (including Deer Island) Indigenous places and knowledges.

Bethany Hughes, “Guesting on Indigenous Land: Plimoth Plantation, Land Acknowledgment, and Decolonial Praxis.” Theatre Topics 29:1 (March 2019): E23-E32.

Lorén Spears, “A Guide for Land Acknowledgments.” Tomaquag Museum, March 2020.

Panel discussion about land acknowledgments (and more). (video) Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, Brown University, April 2019.

“Conn College, UConn acknowledging their land once belonged to Native Americans.” The Day, Nov. 20, 2019.

“University of Connecticut Land Acknowledgment Statement.”

“Land Acknowledgments Statements.” Office of the Secretary and Vice President for University Life, Yale University.

“Five Colleges in the Kwinitekw Valley.” Statement from Five College Consortium Native American and Indigenous Studies Program.

“Land Acknowledgement.” R.W. Kern Center, Hampshire College.

“Community Members Acknowledge Abenaki Homeland.” Marlboro College, Oct. 2019

“Who We Are.” Bard Farm, Bard College.

“You Are On Indigenous Land” (downloadable and printable posters for the Northeast). Upstander Project.

A few examples from other institutions and sites (in progress!)

“Welcome to Tkaronto: A Welcome into Good Relation with Lands, Water, and Each Other in Tkaronto.” Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) conference, May 2020 (cancelled due to pandemic).

Past programs from NAISA conferences (containing land/community statements).

Chi-Nations Youth Council. “Land Acknowledgement Chicago” (video). Dec. 2018.

“Land Acknowledgment.” The Newberry Library.

“Land Acknowledgment.” Native American and Indigenous Initiatives, Northwestern University.

“Land Acknowledgement.” Field Museum.

“Land Acknowledgement.” Kalamazoo College.

“Land Acknowledgment.” Lawrence University.

“Land Acknowledgment.” Miami University of Ohio.

Logan Metzger, “Iowa State introduces official land acknowledgment.” Iowa State Daily, March 2020.

“UMN plans to formally recognize campus placement on Indigenous land.” Minnesota Daily, March 2020.

“In honor of the Lenape people: A guest post from the Native American Council at Columbia, on their organization and an historic plaque on campus.” Columbia University, Oct. 2016

“Acknowledging the Land on Which We Build.” Johns Hopkins Nursing, Oct. 2019

“Decolonizing Humanities Project.” College of William and Mary.

“Carolina Indian Circle acknowledged that UNC was built on Native American land.” The Daily Tar Heel, Aug. 2019.

“On support for Native Americans, UC Berkeley must turn its words into actions / Acknowledging the land of Ohlone people is a step in the right direction, but more action needs to happen.” The Daily Californian, April 2018

“Land Acknowledgment Statement.” UC Davis.

“Land Acknowledgment.” UC Santa Cruz.

“Land Acknowledgment.” McGill University.