What is a Land Acknowledgement and Why Is It Important?

November is Native American Heritage Month! Click here to view Governor Cooper's proclamation, and click here for President Biden's.

What is a Land Acknowledgement and Why Is It Important?
While Indigenous peoples have practiced land acknowledgments for generations, Westerners have adopted the custom relatively recently as they attempt to reckon with the harms brought on by colonization. We know that Columbus did not discover the Americas, nor did the other European seafarers who preceded him. This land was—and still is—already inhabited for well over 10,000 years by thriving traditional territories and bands of Indigenous people.

A Land Acknowledgement is a formal statement that recognizes the unique and enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories and commemorates the fact that Indigenous people have not and cannot be erased. But most importantly, it recognizes the sustained oppression, land dispossession, and involuntary removals of hundreds of Indigenous tribes over a relatively short period of time.

WHY DO WE RECOGNIZE THE LAND?
To recognize the land is an expression of gratitude and appreciation to those whose territory you reside on, and a way of honoring the Indigenous people who have been living and working on the land. It is important to understand the long-standing history of colonialism that has brought you to reside on the land, and to seek to understand your place within that history. Land acknowledgements do not exist in a past tense, or historical context: colonialism is a current ongoing process, and we need to build our mindfulness of our present participation. It is also worth noting that acknowledging the land is Indigenous protocol.

North Carolina has been home to many Indigenous peoples at various points in time, including the tribes/nations of: Bear River/Bay River, Cape Fear, Catawba, Chowanoke, Coree, Creek, Croatan, Eno, Hatteras, Keyauwee, Machapunga, Moratoc, Natchez, Neusiok, Pamlico, Shakori, Sara/Cheraw, Sissipahaw, Sugeree, Wateree, Weapemeoc, Woccon, Yadkin, and Yeopim.

Today, North Carolina recognizes 8 tribes: Coharie, Lumbee, Meherrin, Occaneechi Saponi, Haliwa Saponi, Waccamaw Siouan, Sappony, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee.

We recognize those peoples for whom these were ancestral lands as well as the many Indigenous people who live and work in the region today.

Let this acknowledgement serve as an ongoing reminder of the original inhabitants where you reside.