Introduction
Welcome to this guide on land acknowledgements. Whatever brought you here, we are glad you have come. In this guide you will find an explanation of what a land acknowledgement is and why you might want to write one. You will also find resources to learn more so you can draft an accurate and thoughtful land acknowledgement that is followed up with actions that support Indigenous initiatives, communities, and individuals.
What is a land acknowledgement?
A land acknowledgement is a statement that acknowledges and honors the land you are on and the Indigenous citizens of the Indigenous Nations of that land. The statement typically acknowledges the history of colonialism, violence, and treaties that displaced the Indigenous communities from their traditional homelands. It also respects tribal sovereignty, highlights local Native peoples and groups, and offers suggestions for actions people can take to support Indigenous communities and initiatives.
A land acknowledgement is a way to educate, inform, and spark action. It is only a first-step toward reconciling and addressing past harms and ensuring no further harm is done. Actions will always speak louder than words. It is hoped that the knowledge gained in the writing of an acknowledgement will underpin the actions you or your organization will take in the future.
Why do you want to write a land acknowledgement?
There are many reasons and occasions that may have you considering the writing of a land acknowledgement. Some common places land acknowledgements are used are:
- Event openings
- Conference and meeting openings
- Conference presentations
- Initial class meetings
- Email signatures
Working through the writing of a land acknowledgement provides a tangible project that requires the building of knowledge and understanding around the history and present day experiences of the Indigenous Peoples on whose land you reside. Like any other project it will require learning, reflection, and work. The process of creating the acknowledgement is important. Take your time and enlist others in your organization to help (learn together).
Do not ask Indigenous Peoples to write the acknowledgement for you. If you feel that a review of your land acknowledgement is necessary, it is appropriate to ask a qualified individual to review it. Be prepared to compensate them for their time and energy. Also, be prepared for them to refuse.
Writing a land acknowledgement encourages me to learn, consider, and take the time for deep reflection. The process causes me to reconcile my identity as a descendent of European settlers with my beliefs, values, and priorities. Reconciliation to me means that I have obligations to both the land and its Indigenous stewards. How we all got here matters.
-Kat Nelsen, Librarian for American Indian Studies
Step 1: Learn about land acknowledgements
- A Guide to Indigenous Land AcknowledgementRead this first! The Native Governance Center has guidance for writing land acknowledgements.
- Recording of Indigenous land acknowledgment event co-hosted by the Native Governance Center and the Lower Phalen Creek Project, October 2019
- 'I regret it': Hayden King on writing Ryerson University's territorial acknowledgementInterview with Hayden King on the writing of the Ryerson University land acknowledgement and their perspective on what land acknowledgements could be.
Step 2: Find out whose land you are on
- Native land mapAn interactive map showing ancestral lands and the effects of treaties on tribal boundaries.
- U.S. Forest Service Tribal ConnectionsInteractive map that shows all the treaties in the U.S. and links to the text as well as lists of each modern tribal government.
Step 3: Learn about tribal sovereignty and Indigenous People
Understand and respect tribal governance and sovereignty
- Tribal governanceNational Congress of American Indians webpage on tribal governance.
- Why tribes exist today in the United StatesFAQ from the Bureau of Indian Affairs covering legal status, federally recognized tribes, sovereignty and federal-tribal and state-tribal relations.
Books
Accessing books in this guide
The links below the description of each book will take you to either the WorldCat entry for the specified format of the book or the UMN library catalog.
If you are not a UMN affiliate you can use the WorldCat link to find the closest library to you with the book. If there are no copies owned by your public library or another library you are affiliated with you can request a print copy* using interlibrary loan through your local library. Another option is to visit the UMN Libraries to access and use books onsite.
*Note that audio and e-book formats are typically not available through interlibrary loan due to licensing restrictions.
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by ISBN: 9781594633157Publication Date: 2019-01-22Treuer melds history with reportage and memoir. Tracing the tribes' distinctive cultures from first contact, he explores how the depredations of each era spawned new modes of survival. The devastating seizures of land gave rise to increasingly sophisticated legal and political maneuvering that put the lie to the myth that Indians don't know or care about property. The forced assimilation of their children at government-run boarding schools incubated a unifying Native identity. Conscription in the US military and the pull of urban life brought Indians into the mainstream and modern times, even as it steered the emerging shape of self-rule and spawned a new generation of resistance.
The Rediscovery of America by ISBN: 9780300244052Publication Date: 2023-04-25The most enduring feature of U.S. history is the presence of Native Americans, yet most histories focus on Europeans and their descendants. This long practice of ignoring Indigenous history is changing, however, with a new generation of scholars insists that any full American history address the struggle, survival, and resurgence of American Indian nations. Indigenous history is essential to understanding the evolution of modern America. Ned Blackhawk interweaves five centuries of Native and non-Native histories, from Spanish colonial exploration to the rise of Native American self-determination in the late twentieth century.
Learn about the Indigenous communities with traditional lands in Minnesota
- Why Treaties Matter Virtual ExhibitToday, treaties continue to affirm the inherent sovereignty of American Indian nations. Tribal governments maintain nation-to-nation relationships with the United States government. Tribal nations manage lands, resources, and economies, protect people, and build more secure futures for generations to come.
- Minnesota Indian Affairs CouncilThe mission of the Indian Affairs Council (MIAC) is to protect the sovereignty of the 11 Minnesota Tribes and to ensure the well-being of American Indian citizens throughout the state of Minnesota.
- Minnesota Historical Society - collection of research guides on American IndiansA list of research guides on topics related to the history of Native Americans in Minnesota and featuring resources at the Minnesota Historical Society.
- Bdote Memory MapA digital resource for understanding more about the Dakota people's relationship to Minnesota.
Ojibwe in Minnesota by ISBN: 9780873517683Publication Date: 2010-03-01A compelling, concise narrative that traces the history of the Ojibwe people in Minnesota, exploring cultural practices, challenges presented by more recent settlers, and modern-day discussions of sovereignty and identity.
My Grandfather's Knocking Sticks by ISBN: 9780873519243Publication Date: 2014-12-01When Ojibwe historian Brenda Child uncovered the Bureau of Indian Affairs file on her grandparents, it was an eye-opening experience. The correspondence, full of incendiary comments on their morals and character, demonstrated the breathtakingly intrusive power of federal agents in the early twentieth century. While telling her own family's stories from the Red Lake Reservation, as well as stories of Ojibwe people around the Great Lakes, Child examines the disruptions and the continuities in daily work, family life, and culture faced by Ojibwe people of Child's grandparents' generation--a generation raised with traditional lifeways in that remote area.
Mni Sota Makoce by ISBN: 9780873518697Publication Date: 2012-09-01Much of the focus on the Dakota people in Minnesota rests on the tragic events of the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War and the resulting exile that sent the majority of the Dakota to prisons and reservations beyond the state's boundaries. But the true depth of the devastation of removal cannot be understood without a closer examination of the history of the Dakota people and their deep cultural connection to the land that is Minnesota. Drawing on oral history interviews, archival work, and painstaking comparisons of Dakota, French, and English sources, Mni Sota Makoce tells the detailed history of the Dakota people in their traditional homelands for at least hundreds of years prior to exile.
- UMN catalog (print and ebook) - note the ebook is available to all Minnesota residents through Ebooks Minnesota.
- Worldcat (print and ebook)
- Worldcat (audiobook)
Learn about tribal relationships with the University of Minnesota
- TRUTH Project ReportThe Towards Recognition and University-Tribal Healing—TRUTH—project is a Native-organized, Native-led, community-driven research movement that offers multiple recommendations on how the University of Minnesota community can be in better relation with Indigenous peoples.
- Where we stand: The University of Minnesota and Dakhóta treaty landsArticle by Čhaŋtémaza (Neil McKay) and Monica Siems McKay in the Open Rivers journal describing the history of the University of Minnesota in relation to the Dakhóta tribes.
Step 4: Find Indigenous communities, organizations, and businesses
The land acknowledgement you write will vary depending on its purpose. What is your end goal? Some possibilities are:
- To educate yourself and others.
- To encourage some form of action beyond the land acknowledgement.
- To provide a jumping-off or centering point for reflection and discussion.
No matter what your purpose, finding Indigenous businesses, artists, communities, initiatives, and organizations to support is a good first step toward taking action.
To find businesses and organizations in Minnesota try the Minnesota Indigenous Business Alliance directory.
Some Indigenous-led initiatives in Minnesota are:
Step 5: Write, review, and revise your land acknowledgement
A land acknowledgement is not just a one-and-done deal. Hopefully, writing the acknowledgement gives you a jumping off point for learning, understanding, working with, and supporting Indigenous Peoples and initiatives. New understanding, perspectives, initiatives, and challenges mean that a land acknowledgement will grow and change. Take the time to do a yearly review and revision. Put it on your calendar!
Selected resources for more learning!
Non-fiction books
All Our Relations by ISBN: 9780896085992Publication Date: 2008-10-01Native environmental activist Winona LaDuke gives a thoughtful and in-depth account of Native resistance to environmental and cultural degradation. LaDuke's unique understanding of Native ideas and people is borne from long years of experience, and is deepened by inspiring testimonies from local Native activists sharing the struggle for survival.
Our History Is the Future by ISBN: 9781786636720Publication Date: 2019-03-05How two centuries of Indigenous resistance created the movement proclaiming "Water is life" In 2016, a small protest encampment at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, initially established to block construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, grew to be the largest Indigenous protest movement in the twenty-first century. Water Protectors knew this battle for native sovereignty had already been fought many times before, and that, even after the encampment was gone, their anticolonial struggle would continue. In Our History Is the Future, Nick Estes traces traditions of Indigenous resistance that led to the #NoDAPL movement.
Braiding Sweetgrass by ISBN: 9781571313355Publication Date: 2013-10-15An inspired weaving of indigenous knowledge, plant science, and personal narrative from a distinguished professor of science and a Native American whose previous book, Gathering Moss, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing.
Fiction books
The Seed Keeper by ISBN: 1571311378Publication Date: 2021-03-09A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakhóta family's struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most.
The Night Watchman by ISBN: 9780062671202Publication Date: 2020-03-03Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich's grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, D.C., this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.
There There by ISBN: 0525436146Publication Date: 2019-05-07Tommy Orange's first novel is a wondrous and shattering portrait of an America few of us have ever seen. There There is a multi-generational, relentlessly paced story about violence and recovery, hope and loss, identity and power, dislocation and communion, and the beauty and despair woven into the history of a nation and its people.
The Road Back to Sweetgrass by ISBN: 9781452942995Publication Date: 2014-09-01Set in northern Minnesota, The Road Back to Sweetgrass follows Dale Ann, Theresa, and Margie, a trio of American Indian women, from the 1970s to the present, observing their coming of age and the intersection of their lives as they navigate love, economic hardship, loss, and changing family dynamics on the fictional Mozhay Point reservation.
- UMN catalog (print book)
- UMN catalog (ebook) - note the ebook is available to all Minnesota residents through Ebooks Minnesota.
- Worldcat (print and ebook)
- Worldcat (audiobook)
Podcasts and websites
- All My RelationsOn each episode hosts Matika Wilbur (Tulalip and Swinomish) and Adrienne Keene (Cherokee Nation), delve into a different topic facing Native peoples today, bringing in guests from all over Indian Country to offer perspectives and stories.
- The HenceforwardThe podcast began as part of a graduate course taught by Eve Tuck at the University of Toronto. The intention of the course, and the podcast, is to examine settler colonialism and anti-blackness as entwined historical and contemporary social structures. The podcast appraises lived consequences for Indigenous peoples, Black peoples, European settlers, and other arrivals. It considers theories of decolonization and abolition within settler colonial contexts.
- Native OpinionThe Hosts of this show are Michael Kickingbear, an enrolled member of the Mashantucket Pequot tribal nation of Connecticut and David GreyOwl, of the Echoda Eastern Band of Cherokee nation of Alabama. Together they present Indigenous views on American history, politics, the environment, and culture. This show is open to all people, and its main focus is to provide education and insight about all things Native American.
- The Red NationThe Red Nation is dedicated to the liberation of Native peoples from capitalism and colonialism. Links to the blog, the podcasts The Red Nation, Red Power Hour, and Bands of Turtle Island, and more Indigenous media.
- This LandEach season host Rebecca Nagle tells the story of a present day challenge to tribal sovereignty.
- Toasted Sister PodcastThe Toasted Sister Podcast is all about Native American food, food sovereignty, people and culture. Hosted and produced by Andi Murphy, Diné journalist.
Streaming films
The links provided below go to the item page in "Just Watch" which will provide streaming options for the film. In cases where the UMN Libraries have a streaming license for the film, the link to the catalog record is provided.
- Ohiyesa: The Soul of an Indian (2018)A deeply personal family film that follows Kate Beane, an urban, Dakota scholar, and her family as they trace the remarkable life of their celebrated relative, Ohiyesa (Charles Eastman), an important author, activist, lecturer and one of the first Native American doctors. Along the way, Beane uncovers uncanny parallels between their lives, though they were born more than 100 years apart.
- Gather (2020)Gather is an intimate portrait of a growing movement amongst Indigenous Americans to reclaim their spiritual and cultural identities through obtaining sovereignty over their ancestral food systems, while battling against the historical trauma brought on by centuries of genocide.
- Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the WorldDocumentary about the role of Native Americans in popular music history, a little-known story built around the incredible lives and careers of the some of the greatest music legends.