About the author: Alexander is a citizen of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation. He is a recent graduate of Dartmouth College where he studied Environmental Studies with a focus in Native American Studies. He is particularly interested in the different ways in which communities relate to and depend upon natural resources, an interest which developed during time spent fishing and hunting with his grandfather, as well as working with dairy farmers across the northern part of the state for the U.S.D.A. 's Natural Resources Conservation Service. 

Today, many know that the colonization myths taught in schools don't accurately depict the story of how the Americas were violently “settled.” As the trope goes - In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, to a so-called “New World.” In reality, Columbus had arrived on a continent inhabited by millions of indigenous people, with vast civilizations, complex government systems (some of which the European “Founding Fathers” drew inspiration from in drafting the U.S. Constitution), hundreds of Indigenous languages and a local history spanning tens of thousands of years. 

Residing in villages, cities, bands, and confederacies, traditional territories spanned the length of the entire North and South American continents, and yet a combination of slavery, introduced disease, forced displacement, broken treaties and violent persecution by European settlers led to significant reductions in both the number of Indigenous peoples and size of their homelands over the last 500 years. (In fact, a new genetic study has confirmed that the number of Native Americans quickly shrank by roughly half following European contact about 500 years ago, due to a wave of disease, warfare and enslavement.) 

Despite widespread violence perpetrated against them, Indigenous people and communities are alive and well today, yet many of us remain unable to name the specific tribe or nation whose land we live on. In countries with large indigenous communities - from Australia to Canada (and yes, even here in Vermont!) - it’s becoming harder not to be aware, and this is in part thanks to the broader adoption of so called “land (or territorial) acknowledgements” - formal statements paying tribute to the original inhabitants of the area. Here at Audubon Vermont, we are working with local Abenaki Tribes to craft our own version of a land acknowledgment to be recited at the start of public programs, educational events, as well as to feature at the start of our upcoming online welcome guide to the lands upon which the Green Mountain Audubon Center currently resides. As we take this first step towards recognizing the long and continued presence of Vermont’s Indigenous peoples on the lands Audubon helps to conserve, I feel it is critically important to answer misconceptions about what a “land acknowledgment” is, what purposes land acknowledgments serve, and to clarify how going beyond reciting land acknowledgements is essential in building meaningful relationships with Indigenous peoples.  

First and foremost, what is a land acknowledgment?

A Land Acknowledgment is a formal statement (typically recited at the start of a group meeting, speech, or other public events) recognizing and respecting Indigenous Peoples as traditional stewards of the surrounding land and the enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories. In countries with histories of settler colonialism, the practice of reciting land acknowledgments has become increasingly commonplace during events and gatherings. Many cultural and educational institutions in the United States have adopted this custom in the past 10 years, from Middlebury College here in Vermont to the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C.. An acknowledgment can be very short, such as - “This event is taking place on traditional Abenaki land” - or may take a longer and more detailed form, such as: “We are gathered here today on the occupied territory of the Elnu Band of the Western Abenaki people, who have stewarded this land for generations....”

Another question that frequently comes up is “Why do we call such statements “land acknowledgments” and not “Indigenous people acknowledgments?” By recognizing “the land” in which you now learn, work, explore, and/or reside in, you also recognize the long existence of Indigenous communities and their traditional (and continued) ties to the area. The act of recognizing land can be viewed as expressing gratitude and appreciation to those whose territory and homelands you reside upon, but the process also implies reflecting on the long (and often ugly) history that has brought you to reside in the area. Thus, by acknowledging the land, we seek not only to express our appreciation for the space, but to understand our place within that region’s history. On this note, it’s critical that land acknowledgments reflect not only on the past: colonialism is a current, ongoing process impacting our relationships to the outdoors and spaces, and as such we need to examine how we currently work, learn, live and/or recreate on the land. 

Another reason acknowledgments refer to land and not “Indigenous people” is because, as Mary Lyons (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) writes, “When we talk about land, land is part of who we are. It’s a mixture of our blood, our past, our current, and our future. We carry our ancestors in us, and they’re around us. As you all do.” Indeed, the concepts of “land” and “place” are uniquely tied to Indigenous identities; so much so that settlers seeking to “exterminate” Indigenous identities actively removed Indigenous communities from their traditional lands. The violent history of land dispossession that Indigenous peoples have faced, in addition to the fact that Indigenous identities are often intricately tied with land, makes the term “land acknowledgment” highly fitting to frame conversations about Indigenous-non-Indigenous relations.

What’s the purpose of a land acknowledgment?

At this point - you may be asking yourself - why the growing interest in acknowledging original inhabitants of the local land? It’s a good question to ask, especially since many of us have or will experience land acknowledgments in our lifetimes but rarely pause to consider what their intended purpose is. On this note, here are four ways land acknowledgments can be beneficial when delivered with the proper intent (*NOTE: make sure to continue reading to learn why land acknowledgments aren’t a final “solution” to repairing relations with Indigenous communities):

(1) Land acknowledgments highlight the names of the traditional inhabitants 

Most land acknowledgments begin with some iteration of the following phrase: “We would like to acknowledge that the land we [live, work, learn, and commune] on is the original homelands of the [insert Tribal name here] people.” By opening the statement in such a manner, land acknowledgments expose community members —many for the first time—to the names of the traditional Indigenous inhabitants of the lands they are on. By directly calling these communities by name, acknowledgments help fight the erasure of Indigenous communities from local historical narratives and misconceptions about a colonial past devoid of pre-European peoples.

(2) Land acknowledgments emphasize continued Indigenous presence

Today, many land acknowledgments include references to the continued stewardship of lands by Indigenous peoples through phrases such as “continued relationships” and/or the use of present tense verbs when describing Native communities. Although this seems like a minute detail, present tense wording is significant in that it seeks to combat colonial narratives and misconceptions that Indigenous people were “exterminated” as European colonists moved in and/or that Indigenous cultures and identities cannot exist within “modern” society. By asserting that Indigenous community members are active agents on the land today, we remind ourselves that these communities survived forced assimilation and other acts of violence and are adaptable and shaping modern society.

The fact that land acknowledgments aren’t written solely in past tense also serves to reminds us that colonialism is a current and ongoing process, and not just a bygone period of expansion and exploitation covered in history textbooks. By situating colonialism in the present, land acknowledgments can help us to be mindful of our current participation in the colonial process.

(3) Land acknowledgments tell a more truthful historical narrative

Many acknowledgments nod to the process by which Indigenous communities have lost access to their traditional lands, either by referring to the land as “unceded territory” or directly mentioning forced displacement and broken treaties (official agreements signed between the U.S. government and sovereign Tribal Nations). By calling out the fact that the land was not “given up” or (as is the case in many areas) was unlawfully taken into possession by European governments, an acknowledgment helps to better situate the complex relationship that exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities on the land. 

(4) Land acknowledgments discomfit folks in attendance (and that’s a good thing!) 

Another purpose of land acknowledgments (related to emphasizing continued Indigenous presence and the violent process by which Indigenous lands were taken) is to make people vividly aware of their place in the region’s turbulent history. As Chelsea Vowel, a Métis author, writes in Beyond Territorial Acknowledgements, “If we think of territorial acknowledgments as sites of potential disruption, they can be transformative acts that to some extent undo Indigenous erasure. I believe this is true as long as these acknowledgments discomfit both those speaking and hearing the words. The fact of Indigenous presence should force non-Indigenous peoples to confront their own place on these lands.” 

As Vowel remarks, the fact that some people find land acknowledgments to feel “awkward” isn’t necessarily a bad sign, since it means folks are being prompted to confront their own relationship to settler colonialism, which is a challenging topic to process. These moments of self-reflection, however brief they may be, are critical toward starting more meaningful conversations about how we live in and steward Indigenous lands. As the saying goes, you first need to recognize a problem - in this case our discomfort with how we relate to Indigenous lands and uphold colonial systems of oppression - before you can go about “fixing” it!