A few years ago, I wrote a post about land acknowledgements. I learned a lot by researching that blog post and thinking more deeply about the practice. Since writing that post I’ve learned more about land acknowledgments, how Native Americans and Indigenous people want us non-Natives to participate in land acknowledgments, and the work we need to do to not be askholes.

It isn’t about the land acknowledgment

A land acknowledgment isn’t about the words we say, it is about recognizing and being in a just relationship with Native people and the land and place. It is about remembering we are guests and need to be respectful guests in other people’s homes. Being a guest means learning how to be a respectful guest, including learning whose home you’re entering. As an example, if you visit someone’s house you probably know the name of the person you’re visiting. Same here you should know the name of the ancestral land who you’re visiting.

The land acknowledgement is a moment to slow down and to acknowledge our Native relations.

Understand Context

Making a land acknowledgement is dipping into politics. In learning about the history of whose land you’re on and how the boundaries and boarders were drawn shows a history of migration, forced migration, politics, and colonization. Understanding this history also shows how complicated it can be in making a land acknowledgement. There isn’t always agreement on which tribes should be named when making an acknowledgement. As a non-Native person understanding this context is important to ensuring hurt, erasure, or more damage isn’t done.

If you’re a non-Native person, be thoughtful before asking a Native person to write or advise you on your land acknowledgement. Asking a Native person to advise you or write your land acknowledgment is asking for unpaid labor. It also puts them into awkward spots of having to decide who to name and not-name in the statement. Do your own work before consulting with Native people about a land acknowledgement.

If you are asking a Native person who’s land you’ll be on to speak at an event, they may prefer to do a welcome to their land and land education. They already acknowledge their land and a welcome may be more appropriate.

Land Education

For many Native people they would prefer we as non-Native people learn about their land – land education. That learning should be deep and meaningful, not a passive one-time reading of a prepared statement or even reciting who’s land we are on. It is about learning how they view and value their land, learning about their relationship with the place, nature, and geography.

This can also include learning about unceded land. A colleague showed me a map of her people’s traditional lands versus where their tribal nation lands are today. I was struck by how her traditional lands followed the waterways and were very fluid, the reservation map of today had straight lines and did not follow the river.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post on land acknowledgments, reading the treaties between the tribal nations and the US government is one place to start. Also read a lot of books by Native authors, especially authors from your area. If you need book suggestions, check out previous book lists on the blog.

Final Thoughts

I offer these thoughts as a non-Native person living on Native lands and working to stay educated and to be in more justice based relationships with diverse Native people. I cannot speak and will not speak for Native people. Please do your work of learning directly from Native people in your own community. Listen to them, learn respectfully, and be a good partner in learning.

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