Dear Hornet Community,
At Sacramento State, we have committed to bringing truth into events, meetings, and our campus by reading the following draft land acknowledgment statement:
“We acknowledge, with respect, the land our campus is on today was, and continues to be, the homelands of the Indigenous people of this area, the Nissim-Pawenan, Nisenan, and Miwok. The larger Sacramento area and its rivers serve as a gathering place for many local tribes from the surrounding valley and foothills including the Southern Maidu, Patwin, and Wintun.
We recognize these lands and riverways as unceded traditional territories of these Native peoples. We further recognize these California Native nations and respect their sovereignty. By offering this land acknowledgment, we affirm a commitment to build relationships and foster a university environment of success to better serve Native nations and communities.”
The practice of making land acknowledgments began in the 1970s in Australia and Canada and has become a more universal practice at universities and in cities since the early 2000s. The reading of a land acknowledgment is an important, yet small step in describing and responding to such horrific acts of genocide, occupation, and colonization of Native peoples. In recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ History Month, it is critically important for our campus to grapple with “why” a land acknowledgment is necessary, “what” precipitated this formal acknowledgment, and “how” to use our academic platform to chart a path to prevent present and future acts of homeland expropriation of innocent Indigenous peoples.
The 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, which highlighted substantial evidence of such things as the Indian Removal Act (1830) and the Indian residential school system, resulted in official recognition of these acts as government-sanctioned cultural genocide. Additionally, the Association for the Study of Higher Education established a guide for land acknowledgments that tell the true counter story of the Indigenous people that stewarded, cultivated, and lived on the land long before the European “discovery” of America. Ignoring timelines, historical facts, and the presence of a people perpetuates generational ignorance. Therefore, we use these guides and acknowledgments to awaken our collective consciousness of the fact that the colonization of Native peoples is ongoing and remains at play to dehumanize, disenfranchise, and make powerless Indigenous peoples.
Despite the atrocities waged against Native peoples, the Native tribal communities survive today. At Sacramento State, we have a vibrant Native American Studies Program within the Department of Ethnic Studies that “utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to the theoretical, historical, cultural, and contemporary perspectives in the study of Native peoples.” Ethnic Studies, as a general education requirement, is foundational to any quality higher education course of study.
As a campus, we have much to do to ensure that our reading and recognition through land acknowledgment statements are not performative. In our pursuit of being an antiracism and inclusive campus, we must learn to assume a posture of humility and consult with our Native communities about the best way to establish a respectful and trustworthy relationship with the Native Tribal Nations. We must learn to shift our mindsets and avoid perpetuating a colonial stance by honoring NAGPRA and CalNAGPRA requirements, and legally and physically repatriating ancestral remains, sacred items, and cultural belongings held in the name of research. We must learn to account for our inheritance of illegally acquired land and our daily use, and sometimes abuse, of this land. As an institution that has benefited and continues to benefit from stolen land, we must learn to denounce the transgressions of our ancestral leaders and recognize that these atrocities do not exist in isolation from today’s impacts on the presence, livelihood, and well-being of Native peoples. The best acknowledgment is never to allow this to happen to a people again.
In partnership,
Dr. Mia Settles-Tidwell
Vice President for Inclusive Excellence and University Diversity Officer