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Which Indigenous People's Territory Are You Squatting On?

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Which Indigenous People's Territory Are You Squatting On?

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Inform yourself to begin crafting your land acknowledgement using this interactive map. You will see a geographic view where you can search your region, as well as a western-style territory map that lets you correlate the Indigenous territories with western government enforced borders.

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/10/1127837659/native-land-map-ancestral-tribal-lands-worldwide

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Mapping

We strive to map Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages across the world in a way that goes beyond colonial ways of thinking in order to better represent how Indigenous people want to see themselves.

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Native Land is a resource to learn more about Indigenous territories, languages, lands, and ways of life. We welcome you to our site.

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The Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.

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The Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.

Founded in 1989 by Bryan Stevenson, a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer and bestselling author of Just Mercy, EJI is a private, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to people who have been illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons. We challenge the death penalty and excessive punishment and we provide re-entry assistance to formerly incarcerated people.

EJI works with communities that have been marginalized by poverty and discouraged by unequal treatment. We are committed to changing the narrative about race in America. EJI produces groundbreaking reports, an award-winning calendar, and short films that explore our nation's history of racial injustice. And in 2018, we opened the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice as part of our national effort to create new spaces, markers, and memorials that address the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation, which shapes many issues today.

EJI provides research and recommendations to assist advocates and policymakers in the critically important work of criminal justice reform. We publish reports, discussion guides, and other educational materials, and our staff conduct educational tours and presentations for thousands of students, teachers, faith leaders, professional associations, community groups, and international visitors every year.

Visit EJI's Legacy Sites in Montgomery

Our Team

We are highly motivated, hardworking professionals committed to serving our clients, engaging with communities, and advocating for justice and equality. Since EJI's founding 30 years ago, our staff has grown to over 150 people.

Support EJI

EJI is one of the nation's most effective legal advocacy organizations, earning a perfect score from Charity Navigator.

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EJI works to end mass incarceration, excessive punishment, and racial inequality.

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A Guide to A Memorial Field - official brochure 

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A Guide to A Memorial Field - official brochure 

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"A Memorial Field is intended to memorialize.... and to intentionally provoke a change in consciousness and conscience around the persistent, targeted violence against innocent Black people.”
—Dr. Shenell D. Evans & Shawndel N. Fraser, M.A. Co-conspirators for creative healing & social change

This brochure was designed, created, and shared with the permission of the exhibition artist, Ren Davidson Seward.

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Talking About Race: Resource from the National Museum of African American History and Culture

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Talking About Race: Resource from the National Museum of African American History and Culture

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Information to support one's efforts in becoming anti-racist in all parts of your life. Information is provided about types of racism and how and where they are perpetuated. Easily integrated tools are provided for managing ones responses, personal accountability, communication tools and more.

Sample quotes:

"To create an equal society, we must commit to making unbiased choices and being antiracist in all aspects of our lives... Being antiracist is fighting against racism. Racism takes several forms and works most often in tandem with at least one other form to reinforce racist ideas, behavior, and policy."

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National Museum of African American History and Culture

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Race does not biologically exist, yet how we identify with race is so powerful, it influences our experiences and shapes our lives. In a society that privileges white people and whiteness, racist ideas are considered normal throughout our media, culture, social systems, and institutions. Historically, racist views justified the unfair treatment and oppression of people of color (including enslavement, segregation, internment, etc.). We can be led to believe that racism is only about individual mindsets and actions, yet racist policies also contribute to our polarization. While individual choices are damaging, racist ideas in policy have a wide-spread impact by threatening the equity of our systems and the fairness of our institutions. To create an equal society, we must commit to making unbiased choices and being antiracist in all aspects of our lives.

Being antiracist is fighting against racism. Racism takes several forms and works most often in tandem with at least one other form to reinforce racist ideas, behavior, and policy. Types of racism are:

Individual racism​ refers to the beliefs, attitudes, and actions of individuals that support or perpetuate racism in conscious and unconscious ways. The U.S. cultural narrative about racism typically focuses on individual racism and fails to recognize systemic racism.
Examples include believing in the superiority of white people, not hiring a person of color because "something doesn't feel right," or telling a racist joke.

Interpersonal racism​ occurs between individuals. These are public expressions of racism, often involving slurs, biases, or hateful words or actions.

Institutional racism​ occurs in an organization. These are discriminatory treatments, unfair policies, or biased practices based on race that result in inequitable outcomes for whites over people of color and extend considerably beyond prejudice. These institutional policies often never mention any racial group, but the intent is to create advantages.
Example: A school system where students of color are more frequently distributed into the most crowded classrooms and underfunded schools and out of the higher-resourced schools.

Structural racism​ is the overarching system of racial bias across institutions and society. These systems give privileges to white people resulting in disadvantages to people of color.
Example: Stereotypes of people of color as criminals in mainstream movies and media. ​

No one is born racist or antiracist; these result from the choices we make. Being antiracist results from a conscious decision to make frequent, consistent, equitable choices daily. These choices require ongoing self-awareness and self-reflection as we move through life. In the absence of making antiracist choices, we (un)consciously uphold aspects of white supremacy, white-dominant culture, and unequal institutions and society. Being racist or antiracist is not about who you are; it is about what you do.

To be antiracist is a radical choice in the face of history, requiring a radical reorientation of our consciousness. Ibram Kendi "How to be an Antiracist"

The quality or state of being aware especially of something within oneself.

Being Antiracist at the Individual and Interpersonal Level
When we choose to be antiracist, we become actively conscious about race and racism and take actions to end racial inequities in our daily lives. Being antiracist is believing that racism is everyone's problem, and we all have a role to play in stopping it. In " The Racial Healing Handbook," Dr. Anneliese A. Singh reminds us of the importance of being purposeful: "You need the intentional mindset of Yep, this racism thing is everyone's problem-including mine, and I'm going to do something about it."

Being antiracist is different for white people than it is for people of color. For white people, being antiracist evolves with their racial identity development. They must acknowledge and understand their privilege, work to change their internalized racism, and interrupt racism when they see it. For people of color, it means recognizing how race and racism have been internalized, and whether it has been applied to other people of color.

All racial groups struggle under white supremacy. People of color groups are not always united in solidarity. People of color can act by challenging internalized white supremacy and interrupting patterns of prejudice against other racial groups. For everyone, it is an ongoing practice and process.
As a White Person or a Person of Color, Read More About Becoming Antiracist

Stop and Think!

Why do you want to be antiracist? Considering the breadth and depth of racism, committing to being antiracist may feel overwhelming yet small choices made daily can add up to big changes. Reflect on choices you make in your daily life (i.e., who you build relationships with, what media you follow, where you shop). How do these choices reflect being antiracist?

A Questioning Frame of Mind
A commitment to being antiracist manifests in our choices. When we encounter interpersonal racism, whether obvious or covert, there are ways to respond and interrupt it. Asking questions is a powerful tool to seek clarity or offer a new perspective. Below are some suggestions to use in conversations when racist behavior occurs:

Seek clarity: "Tell me more about __________."

Offer an alternative perspective: "Have you ever considered __________."

Speak your truth: "I don't see it the way you do. I see it as __________."

Find common ground: "We don't agree on __________ but we can agree on __________."

Give yourself the time and space you need: "Could we revisit the conversation about __________ tomorrow."

Set boundaries. "Please do not say __________ again to me or around me.

A trigger is something that causes an emotional and or physical reaction which impacts how you respond and or interact with another person or group of people.

As you practice, take note of your responses and ask: How am I processing the experience? What body sensations do I have? What is my emotional reaction? Notice what triggers your response and how it manifests in your body.

Another practical step is to uncover your own bias. In the video below, Verna Myers talks about acknowledging your biases in her Ted Talk:

Being antiracist on the individual and interpersonal levels is only part of the work. To end racism, we must also work to dismantle racist policies at the structural and institutional levels.

Example of Being Antiracist at the Institutional Level
Institutional racism is the policies and practices within institutions that benefit white people to the disadvantage of people of color. An example of institutional racism is how children of color are treated within the U.S. education system. On average, children of color are disciplined more harshly than their white peers. They are also less likely to be identified as gifted and have less access to quality teachers. Racism in schools can and does have severe consequences for students and our future.

When I say antiracist education, I am talking about equipping students, parents, and teachers with the tools needed to combat racism and ethnic discrimination, and to find ways to build a society that includes all people on an equal footing.

Antiracist education is a theory of learning and action to help us do the important work of dismantling racism in schools. It explicitly highlights, critiques, and challenges institutional racism. It addresses how racist beliefs and ideologies structure one-on-one interactions and personal relationships. It also examines and challenges how institutions support and maintain disadvantages and advantages along racial lines.

Antiracist education, while considering class, race, and gender inequity, places race at the center of its analysis. Focusing on race exposes direct links to unequal power, a system of oppression and privilege, and institutional practices.

One of the early formulations of antiracist education was developed by social science researchers, Carol Tator and Frances Henry, in Canada. It lists nine key traits.

Developing routines to make antiracist choices is a daily commitment that must be carried out with intention. The continued efforts of each of us individually can add up to a lasting change in our society. Since racism operates at multiple levels, we have to make antiracist choices at the various levels - individual, interpersonal, and institutional - to eradicate racism from the structures and fabric of our society. In "How to Be an Antiracist," Dr. Ibram Kendi writes, "[We must] believe in the possibility that we can strive to be antiracist from this day forward. Believe in the possibility that we can transform our societies to be antiracist from this day forward. Racist power is not godly. Racist policies are not indestructible. Racial inequities are not inevitable. Racist ideas are not natural to the human mind."

Let's Think

How have racist ideas impacted your daily life? Reflect and process - you may choose to sit in quiet reflection or write in your journal.

EDUCATORS: Read "The Urgent Need for Anti-Racist Education," by Christina Torres. She writes that antiracist education has an important role to play in fighting against hatred and violence. What benefits do you think could result from having discussions with young people about current events involving race and racism?

Let's Talk

The Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University contends that racist policies fuel racist beliefs and behaviors and keep us divided in society.

By yourself, divide two pieces of paper into 4 sections. Write the following categories, one in each section, on the page: Education, Healthcare Treatment, Neighborhoods/Housing, Criminal Justice. Do this for both pages.

On the first sheet, jot down 2-3 racial groups of people you think get the best service/experience/outcomes in America for each category. You can repeat groups.

On the second sheet, jot down 2-3 racial groups of people you think get the worst service/experience/outcomes in America for each category. You can repeat groups.

Now, with a partner discuss what old and newer, you believe might account for these groups' experiences.

With your partner, return to each racial group you've listed, one at a time. Search the internet, look up the racial group, one of the four categories, and the word "policy" (limit your search to U.S. policies and seek out fact-based sources). Browse through the results for things that strike you.

Discuss with your partner:

Was it easy or difficult to find useful information on policies in these categories having to do with race? Why do you think that was?

For those racial groups that you thought had the best service/experience/outcomes, were you able to identify specific policies that helped them? Why yes? Or why not?

How do you think policies can be hidden or difficult to see in operation?

What did you discover that was new to you?

Were you wrong about anything you thought? How did you find out?

Was there anything uncomfortable about this exercise? Why yes? Or why not?

How can our learning about policies, racial groups, and outcomes help support anti-racism efforts?

Let's Act

Watch these two videos on Implicit Bias:

How can you hang out authentically with folks of some common interest, across racial lines?

EDUCATORS: Consider your current classroom or academic space. What one small shift can you do to strive to be more antiracist?

Visit the "Antiracism and America" web series developed by American University's Antiracist Research and Policy Center and The Guardian news outlet.

Pick a story to read. As you reflect on the story, think about what you learned that was new, how the story made you feel, how race shaped the experience of the storyteller and your response. You may choose to process this mentally, with a friend or in writing.

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No one is born racist or antiracist; these result from the choices we make. Being antiracist results from a conscious decision to make frequent, consistent, equitable choices daily. These choices require ongoing self-awareness and self-reflection as we move through life.

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Our personal photos of A Memorial Field and more at John Brown's Farm

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Our personal photos of A Memorial Field and more at John Brown's Farm

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Informal documentation shared to provide a sense of place for the conversations, and an idea of other activities and exhibits located at this Historic Site in Lake Placid, NY; Photos taken over the of Summers 2022 and 2023.

Bonus images: exterior images of the church and municipal buildings in Essex County where John Brown's body was prepared after Mary Brown brought his remains back from VA. Images of the buildings where people held vigil, and paid their last respects before he was interred at the Farm in Lake Placid.

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Implicit bias, also known as implicit prejudice or implicit attitude, is a negative attitude, of which one is not consciously aware, against a specific social group.

Implicit bias is thought to be shaped by experience and based on learned associations between particular qualities and social categories, including race and/or gender. Individuals' perceptions and behaviors can be influenced by the implicit biases they hold, even if they are unaware they hold such biases. Implicit bias is an aspect of implicit social cognition: the phenomenon that perceptions, attitudes, and stereotypes can operate prior to conscious intention or endorsement.

Adapted from the APA Dictionary of Psychology and Wikipedia

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Implicit bias, also known as implicit prejudice or implicit attitude, is a negative attitude, of which one is not consciously aware, against a specific social group.

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Native Governance Center co-hosted an Indigenous land acknowledgment event with the Lower Phalen Creek Project on Indigenous Peoples' Day 2019 (October 14). The event featured the following talented panelists: Dr. Kate Beane (Flandreau Santee Dakota and Muskogee Creek), Mary Lyons (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe), Rose Whipple (Isanti Dakota and Ho-Chunk), Rhiana Yazzie (Diné), and Cantemaza (Neil) McKay (Spirit Lake Dakota). We've created this handy guide to Indigenous land acknowledgment based on our panelists' responses.

Why is Indigenous Land Acknowledgment Important?

"It is important to understand the longstanding history 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."
- Northwestern University

"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."
- Mary Lyons (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe)

Tips for Creating an Indigenous Land Acknowledgment Statement

Key components:

Start with self-reflection. Before starting work on your land acknowledgment statement, reflect on the process:

Why am I doing this land acknowledgment? (If you're hoping to inspire others to take action to support Indigenous communities, you're on the right track. If you're delivering a land acknowledgment out of guilt or because everyone else is doing it, more self-reflection is in order.)

What is my end goal? (What do you hope listeners will do after hearing the acknowledgment?)

When will I have the largest impact? (Think about your timing and audience, specifically.)

Do your homework. Put in the time necessary to research the following topics:

The Indigenous people to whom the land belongs.

The history of the land and any related treaties.

Names of living Indigenous people from these communities. If you're presenting on behalf of your work in a certain field, highlight Indigenous people who currently work in that field.
Indigenous place names and language.

Correct pronunciation for the names of the Tribes, places, and individuals that you're including.

Use appropriate language. Don't sugarcoat the past. Use terms like genocide, ethnic cleansing, stolen land, and forced removal to reflect actions taken by colonizers.

Use past, present, and future tenses. Indigenous people are still here, and they're thriving. Don't treat them as a relic of the past.

Land acknowledgments shouldn't be grim. They should function as living celebrations of Indigenous communities. Ask yourself, "How am I leaving Indigenous people in a stronger, more empowered place because of this land acknowledgment?" Focus on the positivity of who Indigenous people are today.

Additional factors to consider:

Don't ask an Indigenous person to deliver a "welcome" statement for your organization. Cantemaza McKay (Spirit Lake Nation) explains this very clearly. Check out our land acknowledgment event livestream, and hear his comments at the 27-minute mark.

Build real, authentic relationships with Indigenous people. In addition to normal employment and family obligations, Indigenous people are working to heal their traumas, learn their languages, and support their nations. If you reach out for help, lead the conversation by asking an Indigenous person what you can do for them. Chances are, they're likely overworked and could use your help.

Compensate Indigenous people for their emotional labor. If you do plan to reach out to an Indigenous person or community for help, compensate them fairly. Too often, Indigenous people are asked to perform emotional labor for free.

Understand displacement and how that plays into land acknowledgment. Land acknowledgment is complicated. Remember that the United States government displaced many Tribes from land before treaties were signed.

There are many types of land acknowledgments. Don't expect to find a specific formula or template. Land acknowledgments that come from Indigenous people vs. non-Indigenous people look different, too.

Take action:

Land acknowledgment alone is not enough. It's merely a starting point. Ask yourself: how do I plan to take action to support Indigenous communities? Some examples of ways to take action:

Support Indigenous organizations by donating your time and/or money.

Support Indigenous-led grassroots change movements and campaigns. Encourage others to do so.

Commit to returning land. Local, state, and federal governments around the world are currently returning land to Indigenous people. Individuals are returning their land, too. Research your options to return your land.

At the end of the day, remember:

Starting somewhere is better than not trying at all. We need to share in Indigenous peoples' discomfort. They've been uncomfortable for a long time. Dr. Kate Beane (Flandreau Santee Dakota and Muskogee Creek) says, "We have to try. Starting out with good intentions and a good heart is what matters most."

Visit our resources page for more helpful land acknowledgment tools! And read our own land acknowledgment statement: The Land We're On.

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A guide to Indigenous land acknowledgment

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After hosting an Indigenous land acknowledgment event, we put together this written guide to based on our panelists' responses.

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TED Talk by Verna Myers: How to Overcome Our Biases

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TED Talk by Verna Myers: How to Overcome Our Biases

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This was pulled from the National Museum Resource page linked above. Get into it!

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Verna Myers: How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them

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Move beyond land acknowledgment & into ACTION

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Move beyond land acknowledgment & into ACTION

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Native Governance Center held an event on moving beyond land acknowledgment on August 25, 2021. The event featured Nikki Pitre (Center for Native American Youth), Joye Braun (Indigenous Environmental Network), President Robert Larsen (Lower Sioux Community), and Michelle Vassel and David Cobb (Wiyot Honor Tax). This guide is based on content contributed during our event; we are grateful to our presenters for sharing their wisdom with us.

WHAT IS INDIGENOUS LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT?

Indigenous land acknowledgment is an effort to recognize the Indigenous past, present, and future of a particular location and to understand our own place within that relationship. Usually, land acknowledgments take the form of written and/or verbal statements. It's becoming more and more common to see land acknowledgments delivered at conferences, community gatherings, places of worship, concerts and festivals, etc.

Our organization previously released a guide to Indigenous land acknowledgment. We recommend that land acknowledgments include certain components, such as research on Indigenous place names and concrete action steps for supporting Indigenous people. Check out our guide for more on how to craft a land acknowledgment statement.

Why Can Land Acknowledgment Be Problematic?

Sometimes, when crafting land acknowledgment statements, nonIndigenous folks ask Indigenous people and communities to do free emotional labor. When we feel unsure and anxious about something, it's easy to impulsively reach out for help before doing our own research. Anxiety happens: we've all been there. But, it's important to put those anxious thoughts aside and do your homework. Spend the time that's required to craft a thoughtful statement.

Emotional labor is the "invisible and often undervalued work involved in keeping other people comfortable and happy." (Source: The New York Times)

Emotional labor is problematic because it's time consuming and can place additional stress on Indigenous people. In addition to normal employment and family obligations, Indigenous people are working to heal their traumas, learn their languages, and support their nations.

They don't want to spend their free time working as unpaid land acknowledgment consultants. If you've done all you can on your own and decide to ask for help on a land acknowledgment, offer fair compensation up front. And, be prepared to be told "no."

Aside from the emotional labor piece, land acknowledgments can have unintended negative consequences. Our organization has received hundreds of inquiries from folks wanting help with their land acknowledgment statements. Almost all of these inquiries have focused on land acknowledgment verbiage, rather than the all-important action steps for supporting Indigenous communities. Every moment spent agonizing over land acknowledgment wording is time that could be used to actually support Indigenous people.

It's easy for land acknowledgments to become yet another form of optical allyship. They often lack a call to action and next steps. Without these components, land acknowledgments are just empty words. They become an excuse for folks to feel good and move on with their lives without actually contributing anything to the community. As President Robert Larsen of the Lower Sioux Indian Community puts it, "An apology or an acknowledgment is one thing, but what are you going to do next?"

What Does It Mean To Go Beyond Land Acknowledgment?

Instead of spending time on a land acknowledgment statement, we recommend creating an action plan highlighting the concrete steps you plan to take to support Indigenous communities into the future. Similar to a land acknowledgment, your plan will include information and research on the land you occupy, but it will primarily focus on action. Is it wrong to write a land acknowledgment statement? No. But if you do, your statement should highlight a strong call to action and action steps; it should encourage your audience to create their own steps, too.

When writing your action plan, it's still important to look into the Indigenous past, present, and future of the land you occupy. Writing an action plan instead of a land acknowledgment statement does not mean you're off the hook for doing your own research. In fact, you'll likely conduct just as much or more research to create an action plan that's specific, accurate, and impactful.

What Steps Should I Take To Create My Action Plan?

Do a self-assessment. Before creating an action plan to support Indigenous people and nations, it's important to analyze what you're already doing. Are any of your current behaviors causing harm to Indian Country? If so, it's possible to change your habits to prevent future damage. Read our self-assessment guide on our website for more. Hold yourself accountable for changing your habits in your action plan.

Do a resource assessment. What resources can you personally provide to support Indigenous people and nations? Don't be afraid to get creative here.

Can you set aside money each month for a recurring donation to an Indigenous organization? Do you have time to show up to an Indigenous-led protest or help create a voluntary land tax program in your area?

Do you have land that you want to return to Indigenous people, either now or in the future?

If you're creating a plan on behalf of an organization or educational institution, do you have tickets, admission, tuition, or entry fees that you can give away to Indigenous people?

Do your research. We recommend investigating the following questions to inform your plan. These questions will help you better understand what's happening in your area and how you can help. (This is not an exhaustive list: create your own research questions, too!)

What is the Indigenous history of the land I occupy? Can I find any Indigenous place names for
locations or landmarks in my area?

What are the names of some prominent Indigenous people who currently live in my community?

What Native nation is located closest to me? How do I pronounce the nation's name? What projects
is the nation working on? Who are their elected leaders? What are their goals for the future?

What Native-led organizations and nonprofits operate in my area?

Do any voluntary land tax programs already exist in my community?

Are there groups of non-Native folks currently convening in my area to hold each other accountable
on taking action?

What is my city doing to support Indigenous communities? Is my place of worship, club, gym, etc.
doing anything to take action?

Are there Native-led demonstrations happening near me to protest Treaty Rights violations or
projects threatening Native lands and lifeways?

Outline concrete plan steps with specific, measurable actions. Look for points of alignment between your resource assessment and your research. For example, you might have indicated during your resource assessment that you have time to show up to an Indigenous-led protest movement.

And during your research, you might have discovered that community members are currently convening to protest the installation of a new pipeline on Indigenous land. Use this alignment to create an action step. For example, "I will attend the upcoming Line 3 pipeline demonstration at the Minnesota State Capitol and attend at least three other related events per year." Your steps should make it immediately clear how and when you plan to take action. Sample action steps could look like the following:

I will set up a monthly recurring donation of $25 to X Native-led organization in my area starting on
X date.

I will follow five new Indigenous-led pipeline resistance organizations on social media and commit
to attending at least one demonstration before the end of the year.

I will challenge my local park system to offer free season passes to Indigenous people and reach out
to my park board member to start the conversation within the next month.

I will stop buying jewelry from culturally appropriative brands immediately and instead support
Native-owned businesses.

Go public. Don't keep your plan to yourself. Share your action steps with your friends, family, and neighbors. Put them on Instagram. Tell your community that you are committed to supporting Indigenous people, and challenge people in your life to create their own plan.

Keep your action plan somewhere handy. Your action plan doesn't belong in a drawer. Print it out and put it on your fridge. Store it in the notes section of your phone. Put it somewhere that will help you see it regularly.

Reflect on your progress. Your action plan is an ongoing commitment. Our lives constantly change, and so will your relevant actions. Reflect on your progress from time to time. How many of your action steps have you actually completed? What have been the biggest barriers to carrying out your plan? Are you making any life changes that will make it difficult to continue executing your plan as written? If so, restart your self-assessment and resource assessment, and outline new steps that work for you.

Stay humble. This work is ongoing; your learning does not stop at your action plan. Know that all of us have room to grow and more to learn. If someone calls you in (or out) on your plan, accept their words gracefully and use the moment as a learning opportunity.

Can You Explain Some Specific Action Step Types In More Detail?

In the above guidelines, we mentioned voluntary land taxes, Indigenous land return, and showing up to Indigenous-led protest movements as potential action steps. Below, we'll share some best practices and next steps for implementing these steps.

Voluntary Land Taxes

Voluntary land taxes, otherwise referred to as honor taxes, function similarly to paying rent or a home mortgage. Our rent and mortgage payments give us access to living space; voluntary land taxes recognize our access to stolen Indigenous land. Each month (or on a set time interval), land tax participants pay an amount that goes directly to Native nations and/or organizations in their area. Some land tax programs are run by non-Indigenous residents working in partnership with Native nations and organizations; others are operated by Native-led nonprofits working toward Indigenous land return. Land taxes are not required and are entirely voluntary: it's up to program participants to determine how much and how often they'd like to contribute.

Voluntary land taxes are important because they support Tribal sovereignty. Michelle Vassel, Wiyot Tribal Administrator, explains the importance of the Wiyot Honor Tax: "[The Wiyot Tribe] is a government, just like your municipal government, just like your state government, just like the federal government. We do all of the same functions. But, we don't have the taxation base to be able to carry them out. We have no casino or other form of economic development. Everything that we do is based on writing grants. And whatever is popular in the grant world, on any given day, is what gets funded. That doesn't affirm our sovereignty. We often don't have choices when our money comes from people who tell us what the best way is. By contributing to the Wiyot Honor Tax, you're honoring our sovereignty and ability to make choices on our own to do the best things. No strings attached." (Read our article to learn more about why voluntary land taxes are important and the programs that already exist.)

If you're thinking of setting up a voluntary land tax program in your area, we recommend doing the
following:

Determine if a program already exists: There's no sense in duplicating efforts. Check to make sure a program doesn't already exist in your area before starting your own. If one does exist, focus on what you can do to amplify the program. For example, ask your friends and family to join you in contributing. Challenge your company to publicly commit to paying a portion of its gross income each year to the land tax program.

Get Consent: The most important thing to consider when starting a voluntary land tax program in your area is consent. Before you launch your program, discuss your plans with the Native nations or organizations to whom you intend to donate the tax proceeds. Request their official permission, and come to the conversation with a clear outline for how your program will work. Don't ask Native people for help with the initial time investment required to build a program. It's very possible that a Native nation or organization will not want to participate in a voluntary land tax program: that's ok! Respect their wishes.

Know who to contact: If you want to partner with a Native nation, for example, go directly to their Tribal council leaders. Elected Tribal council leaders make laws for and govern their sovereign nations. They're in the best position to consent to receiving donations for their nation. Follow the nation's guidelines for contacting Tribal council members. Some nations request that all meeting requests go through the Tribal council's executive assistant. You can usually find this information on a nation's website.

Be transparent: When advertising your program, be transparent by mentioning that you've received permission from your chosen beneficiaries. It'll set an example for others looking to start similar efforts and give your program participants confidence that their voluntary taxes will be put to good use. The Honor Tax Project recommends donating all proceeds and avoiding using proceeds to fund the program itself. If you're not using the voluntary tax proceeds to support Native people, you've defeated the purpose of your program.

Indigenous Land Return

More and more local governments, organizations, and individuals are returning land to Native nations. For example, the Minnesota Historical Society recently returned 115 acres of land back to the Lower Sioux Indian Community. The Lower Sioux Indian Community fought for many years to make this land transfer a reality.

Are you considering returning land but don't know where to start? Here are a few tips:

Do your research: Determine which Native nation is located in closest proximity to the land you occupy. Learn more about this nation; don't assume it's similar to other Native nations. You may consider looking into successful land transfers involving this nation, if applicable. Who was involved? What steps did they take to return land?

Learn about your options: Land return can be complicated. Learn as much as you can about your options, and seek advice from trained professionals. This guide from the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) is a good starting point. (It encourages interested parties to seek individualized tax, legal, and estate planning advice before proceeding.)

Reach out respectfully: Once you've done your research and learned about your options, try reaching out to the nation's Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO) to start the conversation around land return. (Try searching for "THPO" and the name of the nation to which you'd like to donate to find contact information.) Respectfully seek consent from a particular nation on your land return proposal. It's ultimately up to them to decide whether they'd like to receive your land.

Showing Up To Protests

Joye Braun, national pipelines campaign organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network, notes, "Wherever you live in the so-called United States, within 200 miles, you're going to find a water fight. Think about that. Whether it's a pipeline or uranium minimum or mountain top removal-you are going to find a water fight."

How do you respectfully show up to support Indigenous people fighting for their land and their future? Joye offers the following tips:

Remember that it's not about you: "We're not there to tell your story," Joye explains. "You're there to tell our story. You're there to lift up frontline voices." You may feel tempted to share your own ideas about a particular struggle, but when you attend an Indigenous-led protest, it's best to put your personal narratives aside. Find the Indigenous voices at the frontlines, listen to them, and amplify them.

Don't leave your trash behind: "I'm not just talking about physical trash. I'm talking about emotional and mental trash. I'm talking about showing up at a place and not causing a lot of chaos and drama," Joye notes. This work is stressful. Bringing your own emotional conflicts to a protest only makes the situation harder for organizers.

Don't be a savior: Joye explains, "A lot of times, people will show up, and they'll say, I've got all of these ideas, and we're going to do it this way. Being a savior is not what we need. We need you to show up and take that arrest." Indigenous folks do not need saving. Instead, they need you to put your body on the line for their struggle.

Do your own learning about the issues at hand: "We go to countless hearings," Joye says. "We have to learn so much about the Army Corps of engineers and various permits, for example. Learn a little bit." We've said it before, and we'll say it again: do your homework!

Do what's asked of you: Joye tells us, "Find the Indigenous or BIPOC voices speaking from the frontlines, and look for what they're asking you to do. If they're asking you to send an email to the Army Corps of Engineers, do it. If they want you to do solidarity actions in your hometown, even if that means showing up by yourself and holding up a sign, do it." It's simple: frontline groups know best what they need. Focus on their specific requests.

What Are Some Other Action Step Ideas Besides Voluntary Land Taxes, Land Return, and Showing Up To Protests?

For colleges and universities: make tuition free for Native students.

For organizations and corporations: hire Native people for high-level leadership positions.

For vacation home owners: donate a multi-night stay at your home to a frontline Indigenous organizer in need of rest and recovery.

Set up a recurring donation to a Native-led organization.

Support Native-led efforts to remove harmful mascots, place names, and statues.

Purchase products and services from Native-owned businesses.

Donate to individual Native people via mutual aid groups.

Can You Show Me A Sample Action Plan?
This is a sample action plan written by a fictitious person living in St. Paul, Minnesota:
I live in St. Paul near Wakpá Tháŋka (the Mississippi river), not far from Bdoté, the place where the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers meet. Bdoté, along with Bde Wakan (present-day Lake Mille Lacs), are central to Dakota creation stories. There are many other sacred Dakota sites near St. Paul, including Taku Wakan Tipi (Carver's Cave) and Eháŋna Wičháhapi (Indian Mounds Park burial mounds).

Mni Sota Makoce (Minnesota) is the homeland of the Dakota people. The Dakota have lived here for many thousands of years. Anishinaabe people reside here, too, and reached their current homelands after following the megis shell to the food that grows on water (manoomin, or wild rice). Indigenous people from other Native nations also reside in Minnesota and have made innumerable contributions to our region.

I'm committed to supporting Indigenous people and nations in my home state and beyond. To do this, I've outlined several ways I plan to take action on an ongoing basis:

Starting now, I will make a recurring monthly donation of $25 to Native Governance Center, a Native-led organization working to strengthen sovereignty in Mni Sota Makoce, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

I will attend at least five educational events per year hosted by Native-led organizations. I will continue to educate myself about important issues in Indian Country.

I will attend an upcoming Line 3 demonstration hosted by an Indigenous-led organization and show up in a good way. I will research other water fights in my area impacting Indigenous communities and attend demonstrations.

I own a lake home in northern Minnesota. I will reach out to a frontline Indigenous organization and offer to donate a three-night stay to an organizer in need of rest and recovery.

I will frequently revise, improve, and strengthen this action plan as I continue to conduct research and receive feedback from people in my community. I will share this action plan with my family, friends, colleagues, and online networks and encourage others to create their own.
Planning to share your action plan on social media? Give us a shout-out (@nativegov), and we'll repost it!

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Native Governance Center held an event on moving beyond land acknowledgment on August 25, 2021. The event featured Nikki Pitre (Center for Native American Youth), Joye Braun (Indigenous Environmental Network), President Robert Larsen (Lower Sioux Community), and Michelle Vassel and David Cobb (Wiyot Honor Tax). This guide is based on...

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A Memorial Field is sponsored in part by the John Brown Lives! non-profit located in North Elba's Essex County, NY. The exhibition has continued to evolve over the past three years as the discussion about, instances of police murdering unarmed Black people continues in the United States. A Memorial Field is a once a heart rending ode to unarmed Black people who were murdered by police, and provocative launch point for candid conversation about state sanctioned anti-blackness, and the unchecked power that police have over black bodies across this country.

A Memorial Field is an important contemporary intervention placed at the Historic Site of John Brown's Farm in North Elba, NY. It is his family's former homestead, and the current resting place for him, and symbolically, the 19 raiders that fought alongside him at Harper's Ferry.

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Rededication of the Memorial Field for Black Lives Remarks

by Artist Ren Davidson Seward
June 18, 2021 (edited June 20, 2021)
John Brown Farm State Historic Site

Grave challenges confront us. What looms in our future? America's widespread civil unrest is uneasy. Dashed promises of equality.... after the Civil War.... after Emancipation... after we learn that the evidence of the Tulsa massacre was burned in 1921 and the truth hidden for 100 years... after the civil rights movement of the 1960s... after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was overturned... after Congress failed to pass federal anti-lynching bills in spite of hundreds of requests for action from seven presidents. After a 2005 Senate apology to African-Americans declared that "protection from lynching was the minimum and most basic of federal responsibilities" toward its citizens. That apology is gutted every time there is unchecked police violence.

According to the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, more than 4,400 racially motivated lynchings took place in the U.S. between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and 1950. Mobs-most commonly in the South, but also in the North-played judge, jury, and executioner. Law enforcement carries on this practice in every state in our nation. Killed for turning away in terror. Killed for prospering. Killed to cover up crimes committed by Whites. Killed for a traffic violation. Killed on a hunch.

In March of 1892, Ida B. Wells wrote an article entitled, "Crusade for Justice." In it she described her beloved friend, Thomas Moss, "A finer, cleaner man than he never walked the streets of Memphis. He was well liked, a favorite with everybody; yet he was murdered with no more consideration than if he had been a dog...."

Wells explained what happened, "Tommie co-owned People's Grocery with Will Stewart and Calvin McDowell. Their business was in a mixed race neighborhood called the Curve... Across the street was another grocery owned by a white man, William Barrett. His store was closed by court order for whiskey and gambling. Barret found cause to blame his rivals for his misfortune and trumped up rumors which sent a large group of armed white men into People's Grocery. Gunshots led to injuries and the three black grocers, all family men, were arrested and jailed.

Three days later, at 3 a.m., the jailer slept while a mob of 75 ... rushed through the downtown jail corridors ... accessed keys to the cell of Stewart, Moss and McDowell, bound them, dragged them out and took them a half mile to a deserted field near the Chesapeake and Ohio rail yards. The three fought for their lives before being shot and left under a pile of brush.

Wells admitted, "The colored people feel that every white man in Memphis who consented in [Thomas Moss's] death is as guilty as those who fired the guns which took his life. ...with the aid of the city and county authorities and the daily papers, that white grocer had indeed put an end to his rival Negro grocer as well as to his business."

For this, her newspaper office was torched while she was out of town and her life threatened. Wells moved on and founded the NAACP in New York.

2015, the mass murder at the historic Emmanuel ME Church, in Charleston, South Carolina. Reverend Sharon Risher lost 3 family members that day. Afterward she described herself as an 'accidental activist.' "The need to lift ourselves out of grief so we don't get bogged down carrying that ache in our hearts. . . I have better stuff to do," she said.

We each have better stuff to do. Yet we are called for duty because, as Wells acknowledged over 100 years ago, we can't carry this kind of weight on our spirit.

Another man in the Memorial Field was accused of injuring a switchman on an Illinois Central Railroad train in Jackson, Tennessee in 1891. He was jailed until an angry mob of masked Americans took the law into their own hands. His name happened to be John Brown.

I don't know whether or not his namesake was the John Brown who lies buried here at his farm in Lake Placid. I don't know if he was dragged off that train because his name was John Brown.

In society, we commemorate through remembrances.

We name our children.

We say their names.

We erect statues (and tear some down).

We plant gravestones.

We make land acknowledgements to the Haudenoshaunee, the indigenous inhabitants of the Adirondacks, to show the respect due to their sovereignty that has historically been invalidated.

We lobby for ten years for historical markers as did the great-granddaughter of Alex Holley, one of the first killed in the Slocum Texas Massacre in 1910.

We perform ceremonies of liberations for our ancestors.

We gather for violin vigils for the Elijah McClains of the world who are killed for dancing in the streets.

We make commitments to protect and preserve places like John Brown's Farm as New York State did 125 years ago.

Not every historic site can move our country closer to racial justice, but this one can.

When I am here at John and Mary Brown's farm, I don't dwell on John's controversial warring tactics, even though they were tinder for the entire United States Army to take up his cause only 5 years after John Brown was the first person in our nation's history to be executed on the charges of treason, murder, and insurrection.

What I think about is who we become when we retell the story of how John Brown's fervent belief in equality spurred him to make the ultimate sacrifice over a practice so unholy. At his farm, I imagine how the Brown family discussed what actions would be required to shake America out of its complacency, its blindness, its economic model of raising up one by keeping down another... about what actions were warranted to spark the slave liberation movement.

On a visit to two Civil War battlefields last week in Tennessee, the historian at the Carter House Museum brought the fury of the bitter frontal assault at Franklin to life with words. The battle took place on November 30, 1864. The crack of canonballs, the pop of guns, the snap of bones... wave after wave of counter assaults... the visceral reality of hand to hand combat as chaos intensified. Under a moonless sky, air thick with gunpowder smoke, the dark, mud-covered uniforms of the United States Army and the Confederate States Army were rendered indistinguishable from one another. Not until face to face, bayonets down in hand-to-hand combat, were the soldiers able to make out that they were killing some of their own in the minutes and hours of one of the bloodiest battles that turned the tide of the Civil War toward justice for all Americans.

Like John Brown, thousands of soldiers who died at the battle of Franklin believed that our Union is indestructible if we do the right thing.

I am indebted to Martha Swan, Tiffany Rea-Fisher and her dancers, Archie the Activist, Daniel McKay, Yolanda Bostic Williams, Lavada Nahon, Alane Ball Chinian, Commissioner Kulleseid and all at the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation who endorsed the installation of the Memorial Field for Black Lives at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site for a second year in a row.

I dedicate the Memorial Field for Black Lives to Ida B. Wells whose words from 1892 Inspire me to this work. "...A contribution to truth, an array of facts, the perusal of which it is hoped will stimulate this great American Republic to demand that justice be done... though the heavens fall."

In turn, Frederick Douglass wrote to Wells, "You have dealt with the facts with cool, painstaking fidelity and left those naked and uncontradicted facts to speak for themselves."

No epitaph on a memorial can match the injustice of these deaths, but for me, words carry weight. When raw facts are confronted unflinchingly, they get inside us, and something happens.

Please join in a moment of silence for all who have unjustly fallen in this uncivil war.

_____________________________________
ADDITIONAL NOTES:

Ida B. Wells, Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (1892) and her article, "AROUSE OUR CONSCIENCE."

Born a slave, verbalized her position against lynching in her Memphis newspaper, The Free Speech. She moved to New York where she founded the NAACP.

Thomas Moss was asked if he had any final words. "Tell my people to go west. There is no justice for them here."

Alex Holley, Slocum Massacre, Anderson County, Texas July 29, 1910.
Born a slave, eventually owned a dairy, a granary, a general store, and 700 acres of land-land that was taken over by white residents after his survivors scattered, never to return.
His great-granddaughter, Constance Hollie-Jawaid said, "Every year, family members return to Slocum to perform a ceremony of liberations for their ancestors." It took her nearly ten years, but in 2015 the importance of her family's place became honored by a historical marker.

Lessie Benningfield Randle, the 106-year-old survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre said recently, "Justice in America is always so slow, or not possible for Black people. And we are made to feel crazy just for asking for things to be made right."
https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/law/crime-and-law-enforcement/lynching

"It wasn't right then and it isn't right now." said Cindy Boyles, another memorial maker. https://apnews.com/article/d6a6c7eef727a71a0377cf47bcdff400 ]

The historian at Carter House didn't parse which side lost more soldiers. He made meaning by tallying all lost that day and calling all of them one thing... Americans.

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What is "A Memorial Field?" A Memorial Field mourns the violence that permeates the Black experience in America. It sheds light on criminal justice failures. Ren Davidson Seward, the artist and author, writes factual epitaphs to commemorate

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High in New York State's Adirondack Mountains is the home and grave of abolitionist John Brown. Many Americans know the song "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave," but most do not associate the words with this simple farm at North Elba, New York.

On the night of October 16, 1859, Brown and his followers assaulted the U.S. Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, planning to use the captured arms in an extensive campaign for the liberation of the slaves in the South. Brown was captured on October 18, 1859, imprisoned at Charlestown, Virginia, tried by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and hanged on December 2, 1859. His body was returned to North Elba and was buried in front of his home on December 8, 1859. The remains of several of Brown's followers, who fought and died at Harper's Ferry, were moved to this small graveyard in 1899.

Brown's final prophesy--"I, John Brown, am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done,"--was soon to be realized in the Civil War.

Hours of Operation

Tours/Special Events/Programs: 5/1 - 10/31 - Weekdays and Sat/Sun: 10 am - 5 pm. Closed Tuesdays. Tours will be given on the hour, the last tour is at 4 PM. Contact Historic Site Office for information.

May thru Oct. Open 10 AM to 5PM Weekdays and Saturday and Sunday
Closed on Tuesday
Grounds open all year
Also open Independence Day.

Fees & Rates

Most New York State Parks charge a vehicle use fee to enter the facility. Fees vary by location and season. A list of entry fees and other park use fees is available below. For fees not listed or to verify information, please contact the park directly.

The easy-to-use Empire Pass card is $80- and your key to all-season enjoyment with unlimited day-use entry at most facilities operated by State Parks and the State Dept. of Environmental Conservation including forests, beaches, trails and more. Purchase online or contact your favorite park for more information. Learn more about our Admission Programs including the Empire Pass.

Admission

Admission to the historic house is free.

$75.00 fee for tour buses.

Maps

New! Download this park's digital map to your iOS Apple and Android device.

The Old Mountain Road: John Brown's Route to his Adirondack Home
Saturday, November 18, 2023 11:00 AM - 02:00 PM
John Brown Farm State Historic Site

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In the Adirondack Mountains, the home and grave of abolitionist John Brown. Special programs of civil war encampments & musical guests available.

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John Brown - National Park Service description

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John Brown - National Park Service description

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John Brown (1800--1859) considered this farm, a National Historic Landmark and New York State Historic Site, his home during the ten years leading up to the infamous 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry where he was captured. Shorter after capture, Brown was tried and sentenced to death. He requested to be buried at this farm, which soon after his death became a "pilgrimage" site for free African Americans and white abolitionists. In 1849, John Brown moved from Springfield, Massachusetts, where he owned a wool brokerage business and was an active conductor on the Underground Railroad, to Lake Placid, New York. Increasingly impatient with the stalemated public debate on the issue of slavery, Brown appears to have concluded that more decisive action was needed. He heard of wealthy businessman Gerrit Smith's plan to give parcels of land in upstate New York to free African Americans. Purchasing a lot from Smith, Brown moved his family to the upstate wilderness area where he acted as a leader and teacher to the black families who were developing their own farms. Brown and his followers had a difficult time farming the barren land around Lake Placid and a few of the homesteaders gave up and moved away. This may have been the deciding factor in John Brown's 1855 move to Kansas where two of his sons were leading an armed struggle against proslavery forces.

After 1855, John Brown returned to his farm for only six brief visits to see his wife and some of his children. After his death in 1859, his family and the remaining black settlers were left in a declining community that ultimately did not survive the harsh climate and isolated economy. John Brown's family moved to California at the onset of the Civil War, and in 1870 the John Brown Association was organized and purchased the site of the farm and grave. The property was transferred to the State of New York in 1896, but the John Brown Association still organized pilgrimages to the site. With money collected from private donations, the Association erected a statue of John Brown and a young African American boy in 1935 that stands near the gravesite. This historic property commemorates the man who took on the forces of slave interests in an armed struggle that created one of the most enduring legends in the Nation's history.

The John Brown Farm and Gravesite are located on John Brown Road, just south of the intersection with Old Military Road in Lake Placid, New York. It is open to the public.

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Aboard the Underground Railroad-- John Brown Farm and Gravesite

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LAND REPARATIONS & INDIGENOUS SOLIDARITY TOOLKIT

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LAND REPARATIONS & INDIGENOUS SOLIDARITY TOOLKIT

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This is a brief guide for Resource Generation members and other folks with access to land to support in education and resource sharing around land reparations. We hope these resources can support us in taking collective action towards land repatriation to Indigenous people in the ongoing struggle against colonization. This is not a comprehensive guide, but rather a starting point. This guide was compiled by the RG Land Reparations Group in 2018.

There is no blueprint for how to work towards land reparations and land returns to the Indigenous people of this land. Every region, location, and tribe is different in the history of colonization, and in the political landscapes of Indigenous struggle and organizing. This brief guide is a compilation of some educational resources on colonialism, decolonization and solidarity, and links to some inspiring case studies and examples of settler descendants who have returned land to Indigenous people, as well as some initial questions/best practices to consider when beginning to think about working towards land repatriation to Indigenous people.

Wealth is based in finite resources. Wealth, even what's based in the stock market, is ultimately tied concretely to land. "Land" here means all the world's resources and ecosystems that keep us alive and well - water, vegetation, food, minerals, buildings, and more. The life-blood that flows from land is finite, tangible, vital. It is currently, especially in the U.S., almost exclusively privately controlled by individuals or corporations whose ownership the law is designed to protect. Land is controlled this way because of European colonization. The historic and ongoing theft and control of land, real estate, and resources has led to the extreme concentration of wealth among a small group of people that exists today.

In Resource Generation's mission - to be working toward the equitable distribution of wealth, land, and power - we name the "equitable distribution of land." This is a tactic and a specific outcome that young people with wealth are well positioned to influence. As an economic justice organization, focusing on this reparation of resources is one fundamental way we can contribute to and strengthen the holistic project of decolonization - but it must be in concert with other aspects of anti-colonial practices and principles, which are determined and led by Indigenous people. Decolonization and "the equitable distribution of land" is simultaneously about Native sovereignty, self-determination, and rights; and about the Earth and its resources being sustained, cared for, and lived with symbiotically. Colonization disrupted the communal responsibility to land inherent in Indigenous nationhood, and turned land into a private commodity for wealth extraction and accumulation. Therefore, a decolonial lens of returning land to Indigenous nations, not just individuals, is necessary to avoid reproducing those dynamics. To talk about true "redistribution of land" with a decolonial lens is seeking to address the question, "what would it look like to truly tend to the harm of wealth extraction done by colonizers [US-focus in RG but this is worldwide]?" Another way of putting this is - we are trying to get to the root causes of injustice .

Colonialism is both a root and result of racism and capitalism. A primary cause of the racial wealth divide is colonialism: white Europeans' theft of land, resources, human bodies and their labor. In order to end racial capitalism, we must disrupt and end colonization.

Colonialism is a root cause of many other "isms" and injustices.

Colonization by white Europeans brought indentured servitude; targeting poor people from Europe, Asia, the Caribbean and elsewhere that laid the groundwork for ongoing exploitation of the working class.

Colonization is at the root of racism. White Europeans justified land theft and genocide by asserting that they were a scientifically superior class of human beings.

Colonization by white Europeans introduced a strict Christianity-backed patriarchy that created and enforces gender roles and binary with the use of sexual violence, transphobia, and homophobia.

Colonization by white Europeans imported and amplified a culture of greed and an economy of capitalism that led to the enslavement of Africans and seeded our current penal system.

U.S. colonialism and imperialism has shaped the history and present lives of Black, Latinx, Asian, and Arab people in the U.S. and abroad. Non-Native people of color have a different relationship to settler colonialism than descendants of White Europeans. Be it from forced migration through slavery, economic migration due to U.S. extraction of resources in South America, U.S backed imperialist land grabs, refugee resettlement due to U.S. wars abroad, non-Native people of color in the U.S have suffered from colonialism and imperialism, and have also been brought into the settler-colonial project that is the United States. As a community that is vastly majority settlers, we have a responsibility to center and work in solidarity with Native folks.

This new guide is designed to support members in partnership with movement leaders to support Indigenous and Black land access in the continued exploration of ways to distribute land, wealth and power.

Educational articles around colonialism and decolonization:

Some questions and best practices to consider:

1. What is the history of any land you indirectly/directly have access to? What Indigenous people historically or currently inhabit that land, and what is the history of how it was stolen? (Get started by checking out this decolonization homework from the Catalyst Project and this map of Native land)

2. Who are the Native people/communities where you live or where the land you have access to? What is the political landscape of both recognized and unrecognized tribes where you live? Are there any local efforts that are led by Indigenous people?

3. Start the slow process of building relationships with Native people where you live. Be patient. This work is relational and because of colonization Indigenous people and struggles are often less visible/invisible. Are there local events or cultural centers you can show up to? Are there individuals you are connected to that you can build relationship with?

4. What are the visions and struggles of Indigenous people/tribes in the area you live or have access to land in? Show up and support the visions and struggles that are ongoing. This might be fundraising for land or other resources, or inviting local tribes to utilize land that you have access to. De-commodifying land in the long term and returning lands to disenfranchised and Native people is ideal, and we must be working within the visions and struggles of Indigenous people/tribes.

5. What does informed consent look like in the offer for donation or transfer of land? Acknowledging that land transfers/land repatriation can be complex, can you consider and discuss how there can be a choice on behalf of the donation recipient of whether to accept the offer, and how to support the entire process and success ongoingly if so.

6. Learn about the specifics of what is possible as far as land transfers. Land can be transferred to individuals or cooperatives of individuals, collective ownership and control is important for maintaining long-term control of land, as private ownership is more vulnerable to dispossession. There are different ways donors can transfer land to land trusts- donation vs title transfer vs charitable sale. Learn about different options and discuss with partners. (See the guide below from the Sustainable Economies Law Center about different options for how to transfer land.)

Case studies/examples:

Below are several examples of current or recent land return efforts. This includes organized fundraisers for land return, as well as individuals who have returned land to Native communities.

Land returns
* Mashpee Wampanoag (Cape Cod) - Native Land Conservancy was founded in 2012 in Mashpee, Massachusetts, and is the first Native-run land conservation group east of the Mississippi, and this story about the first parcel of land donated to the Native Land Conservancy by an individual

* Maidu (Sacramento) - Land Stewardship Council returns ancestral California land

* Ponca (Nebraska) - Nebraska farmer signed a deed returning ancestral tribal land back to the Ponca Tribe

* Wabanaki (Maine) - First Light Learning Journey A collaboration of 25 non-Native conservationists controlling 2 million acres in Maine, and Wabanaki tribal members to build towards collective awareness of Native land left and move towards land resourcing sharing with Wabanaki people. Notes on process here Land taxes, cash & other returns

* Individual transfers $250K to Ute Tribe in Utah for stolen land Professor paying reparations for great-grandfathers' profiteering

* Sogorea Te : land tax in Bay Area, traditional Ohlone land, for non Indigenous people to pay into the Shuumi Land tax to acknowledge the history of colonization, land theft and the Ohlone community.
* Non-Profit Making a Land Return towards Sogorea Te Land Trust
* There are currently many Indigenous-led, land-based anti-pipeline camps seeking on the ground support, supplies and legal support, such as The L'eau Est La Vie Camp .

Legal Reference Resource:

This guide covers different land transfer mechanisms, including full value sale, charitable (bargain) sale, full donation, donation of a remainder interest, revocable transfer on death, donation by bequest, and sale or donation of easement.
Sustainable Economies Law Center's resource on different ways to transfer land Legal Note: While Sustainable Economies Law Center made every effort to reference and confirm the information in this guide, tax and real estate law are complex areas of law that change frequently and vary depending on context. As a result, you should not rely on this guide as a substitute for legal advice from a lawyer familiar with your particular circumstances.
TAKE ACTION

Donate to any of the ongoing land tax/ land returns struggles.

Host a fundraiser and direct money towards supporting Indigenous organizing.

If you have access to land and are interested in land repatriation to Indigenous people, begin building relationships with people and see if there is interest in local land returns.

This is not available for everyone who has access to land, so another way to move towards land repatriation is to sell acres of land and give the proceeds to support ongoing Indigenous-led organizing or land return struggles.

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Land Reparations & Indigenous Solidarity Toolkit

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A brief guide for Resource Generation members and other folks with access to land to support in education and resource sharing around land reparations.

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EGPS Conference Session (Pre-workshop Survey)

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We will advise you when it is time to complete this survey. Please do not start before we invite you to begin.

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Please share your experiences BEFORE we delve into the workshop content.

Presenters: Shenell Evans, PhD, Resilience Psychological Services, PLLC & Shawndel Fraser, M.A., The Blue Dome Creative Healing Arts

Abstract: Visiting emotionally charged historic sites and monuments can be challenging without tools to support contextualized understanding and meaningful communication. We will share a framework that promotes socially healing conversations, utilized after tours of John Brown's Farm and "A Memorial Field" in upstate New York. Group leaders will learn to: 1) foster conversations that contextualize historic sites and events; 2) craft questions that help participants identify and comprehend the hidden mechanisms of inequality and social control; 3) create safer spaces for reflection, expression, embodiment, and growth. This Workshop is Open to All Levels of Experience Experiential - Group Process - Sharing of Experience - Didactic

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Please share your experiences BEFORE we delve into the workshop content. Title: Tear Gas, Whole Milk, and Chocolate Friends: How to Get Invited to the Cookout (D31) Presenters: Shenell Evans, PhD, Resilience Psychological Services, PLLC & Shawndel Fraser, M.A., The Blue Dome Creative Healing Arts Abstract: Visiting emotionally charged historic sites and monuments can be challenging without tools to support contextualized understanding and meaningful communication.

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We will advise you when it is time to complete this survey. It is important that this be completed at the end of the workshop at the appointed time. Thank you for your patience and your support!

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Please share your experiences now that we’ve completed the workshop. Title: Tear Gas, Whole Milk, and Chocolate Friends: How to Get Invited to the Cookout (D31)
Presenters: Shenell Evans, PhD, Resilience Psychological Services, PLLC & Shawndel Fraser, M.A., The Blue Dome Creative Healing Arts
Abs…

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Native Lands Timeline-Path to Self-Determination

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Native Lands Timeline-Path to Self-Determination

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Native Lands Timeline-Path to Self-Determination - Native Land Information System

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We Claim The Right to Look - Mini Exercise

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We Claim The Right to Look - Mini Exercise

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Please do not open or start this exercise until we invite you to do so. Thank you for your patience and engagement!

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TED Talk: The Urgency of Intersectionality

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TED Talk: The Urgency of Intersectionality

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The unseen police violence against Black Women. Offers ways of framing an issue, why some victims are excluded from social justice discourse and political movements.

Transcripts are available in 18 languages if you follow the link.

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Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our Privacy Policy

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Kimberlé Crenshaw: The urgency of intersectionality

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Now more than ever, it's important to look boldly at the reality of race and gender bias -- and understand how the two can combine to create even more harm. Kimberlé Crenshaw uses the term "intersectionality" to describe this phenomenon; as she says, if you're standing in the path of multiple forms of exclusion, you're likely to get hit by both.

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Slavery is still legal: The Thirteenth Amendment

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Slavery is still legal: The Thirteenth Amendment

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Voter's Rights, the Thirteenth Amendment, the Emancipation Proclamation, the School to Prison Pipeline, War on Drugs, No Knock Warrants, War on Poverty, Stop and Frisk, Truancy Police, and other tools to put black bodies in the system, off the voter rolls, and stigmatization upon release... just some of the tools of terror of a pro-slavery republic.

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Emancipation on the Ballot: Why Slavery is Still Legal in America - And How Voters Can Take Action

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The prison labor system enables modern slavery in America. 19 state constitutions explicitly permit either slavery, involuntary servitude, or both as punishment for a crime. Ballot initiatives give voters a chance to change that.

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Conversation between Jon Stewart and Founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Bryan Stevenson.

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America Needs To Admit How Racist It Is | The Problem With Jon Stewart Podcast with Bryan Stevenson

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"Something got ahold a me" Story shared by Bryan Stevenson talking with Jon Stewart

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"Something got ahold a me" Story shared by Bryan Stevenson talking with Jon Stewart

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A moving account of a person collecting material in the field, for an exhibition at the Legacy Museum, as shared second-hand by Bryan Stevenson to us and Jon Stewart on his talkshow, "The Problem With..."

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"Something got a hold of me" -  Bryan Stevenson and Jon Stewart

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Because his willingness to stand by his morals in such a powerful and bold manner, sparked the first national debate and conversation about the morality of slavery as an institution and in daily life. He firmly knew and espoused through words, commitments, and actions, that the enslavement of Black people was incontrovertibly morally wrong, counter to truly Christian ethics, and a damnable offense on the nation.

His raid on Harpers Ferry, with his fellow Raiders, some 20 men total, was a devastating loss for Virginia, but a win for strategy, tactics, and bringing the cause to a national awareness. John Brown's subsequent capture made the headlines of the day for the month while he awaited trial, and his words, reported by those who visited him while incarcerated, became the incendiary spark that started the nation toward the civil war just a couple of years later.

He was ultimately lynched by the then Governor of Virginia, ostensibly the president of the slaveholding states. he did not understand that his show of force would create a martyr, that continues to inspire us today, despite the propaganda spread about him then and through the years hence. John Brown, his Wife Mary and their family, all the raiders and silent supporters bravely started us marching toward the reckoning that we continue to wrestle with and prepare for today almost two hundred years laters.

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"Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I say, let it be done."
--John Brown, statement at his sentencing on Nov. 2, 1859

"[John Brown is] that new saint, than whom none purer or more brave was ever led by love of men into conflict and death,--the new saint awaiting his martyrdom, and who, if he shall suffer, will make the gallows glorious like the cross."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson, from his lecture "Courage," delivered in Boston on Nov. 8, 1859

The arrest, trial, and execution of John Brown in the fall of 1859 came at a critical moment in United State history. According to historian David S. Reynolds in his recent biography, John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights (2005), Brown's actions and statements following his failed attempt to begin a slave insurrection near Harper's Ferry, Virginia so polarized northern and southern opinion on the slavery issue as to ensure Abraham Lincoln's election and cause the Civil War to occur perhaps two decades earlier than it might have otherwise. Reynolds is quick to point out that not only was Brown "right" on slavery and other racial issues of his day, but that his conduct--in causing the Civil War to begin in 1861 rather than, say, 1881--potentially saved hundreds of thousands of lives that could have been lost in a war fought in a time of much greater population and more deadly weaponry and, at the same time, might well have spared an entire generation of African-Americans the humiliating experience of human bondage...." Continued

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Welcome to Famous Trials, the Web's largest and most visited collection of original essays, trial transcripts and exhibits, maps, images, and other materials relating to the greatest trials in world history. "Famous Trials" first appeared on the Web in 1995, making this site older than about 99.97% of all websites.

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Brief bio sheet containing information about co-facilitators Shawndel Fraser, M.A and Dr. Shenell Evans (2023)

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NIH Implicit Bias - Full Course

This is a 3-module course designed to help users learn what bias is, how to recognize it, and how to minimize its impact. It expands on the original 2-module course "NIH Implicit Bias" by providing users with knowledge and strategies to create psychological safety and enhance employee engagement to foster an inclusive workplace culture.
Access the Full Course
NIH Implicit Bias - Refresher Course

This course is designed to provide users with knowledge and strategies to create psychological safety and enhance employee engagement to foster an inclusive workplace culture. It builds upon and is intended for staff who have already completed the original 2-module course "NIH Implicit Bias" or "NIH Implicit Bias - Full Course."
Access the Refresher Course PLEASE NOTE:

If you take the course using the public links on this page, you cannot register your completion of the course or obtain other proof of completion. The final screen indicates course completion; you may capture a screenshot of this screen if acceptable for your purpose.

For the best experience, we recommend launching the courses using Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Safari.

Related Resources
*508-compliant files are forthcoming

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office of the director scientific workforce diversity

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The Scientific Workforce Diversity (SWD) Office leads NIH's effort to diversify the national scientific workforce and expand recruitment and retention. We invite you on this journey to establish NIH as the national scientific workforce diversity leader by widening and deepening our ways of thinking and practice.

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We use these songs to invoke and evoke sentiments related to social conscience and consciousness and the call for justice and compassionate action.

We use this playlist throughout our conversations, and offer it in case you'd like to support the artists directly with a purchase, well as to give you the chance to encounter and appreciate new music that may be of interest.

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Socially conscious music across a number of genres and cultures

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Discerning Factors from Fiction: Developing Critical Thinking and Safe Discussion Skills

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Discerning Factors from Fiction: Developing Critical Thinking and Safe Discussion Skills

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Developing Critical Querying and Critical Thinking Skills to support understanding the factors of major social issues, and facilitating group discussion rooted in facts, not polemics and subjective

opinions

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The title is about Rich people, but there is a racial / cultural correlate.

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The sound of gentrification is silence.

Editor's Note: This story is part of a collection of work by Xochitl Gonzalez that was the finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

Sign up for Xochitl Gonzalez's newsletter, Brooklyn, Everywhere, here. This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here.
New York in the summer is a noisy place, especially if you don't have money. The rich run off to the Hamptons or Maine. The bourgeoisie are safely shielded by the hum of their central air, their petite cousins by the roar of their window units. But for the broke-the have-littles and have-nots-summer means an open window, through which the clatter of the city becomes the soundtrack to life: motorcycles revving, buses braking, couples squabbling, children summoning one another out to play, and music. Ceaseless music.

I remember, the summer before I left for college, lying close to my bedroom box fan, taking it all in. Thanks to a partial scholarship (and a ton of loans), I was on my way to an Ivy League college. I was counting down the days, eager to ditch the concrete sidewalks and my family's cramped railroad apartment and to start living life on my own terms, against a backdrop of lush, manicured lawns and stately architecture.

I didn't yet know that you don't live on an Ivy League campus. You reside on one. Living is loud and messy, but residing? Residing is quiet business.

I first arrived on campus for the minority-student orientation. The welcome event had the feel of a block party, Blahzay Blahzay blasting on a boom box. (It was the '90s.) We spent those first few nights convening in one another's rooms, gossiping and dancing until late. We were learning to find some comfort in this new place, and with one another.

Then the other students arrived-the white students. The first day of classes was marked by such gloriously WASPy pomp that it made my young, aspirational heart leap. Professors in academic regalia gave speeches about centuries-old traditions and how wonderful and unique we were-"the best class yet." Kids sang a cappella and paraded with a marching band. I'd spent my high-school years sneaking out at night to drink 40s on the beach and scheming my way into clubs. I understood that what was happening around me wasn't exactly cool, but it was special. And I was a part of it.

I just hadn't counted on everything that followed being so quiet. The hush crept up on me at first. I would be hanging out with my friends from orientation when one of our new roommates would start ostentatiously readying themselves for bed at a surprisingly early hour. Hints would be taken, eyes would be rolled, and we'd call it a night. One day, when I accidentally sat down to study in the library's Absolutely Quiet Room, fellow students Shhh- ed me into shame for putting on my Discman. With rare exceptions-like Saturday nights during rush-silence blanketed the campus.

I soon realized that silence was more than the absence of noise; it was an aesthetic to be revered. Yet it was an aesthetic at odds with who I was. Who a lot of us were.

Within a few weeks, the comfort that I and many of my fellow minority students had felt during those early cacophonous days had been eroded, one chastisement at a time. The passive-aggressive signals to wind our gatherings down were replaced by point-blank requests to make less noise, have less fun, do our living somewhere else, even though these rooms belonged to us, too. A boisterous conversation would lead to a classmate knocking on the door with a "Please quiet down." A laugh that went a bit too loud or long in a computer cluster would be met with an admonishment.

In those moments, I felt hot with shame and anger, yet unable to articulate why. It took me years to understand that, in demanding my friends and I quiet down, these students were implying that their comfort superseded our joy. And in acquiescing, I accepted that.

I had taken the sounds of home for granted. My grandmother's bellows from across the apartment, my friends screaming my name from the street below my window. The garbage trucks, the car alarms, the fireworks set off nowhere near the Fourth of July. The music. I had thought these were the sounds of poverty, of being trapped. I realized, in their absence, that they were the sounds of my identity, turned up to 11.

I loved the learning that I did in college-academic and cultural. And I managed to have a lot of fun, in the spaces that the students of color claimed as our own. We had our own dormitories, our own hangouts; we even co-opted a room in the computer center where we could work the way we preferred, with Víctor Manuelle or Selena playing in the background. Some white students resented that we self-segregated. What they didn't understand was that we just wanted to be around people in places where nobody told us to shush.

When I moved back to Brooklyn after college, I found that the place had changed. Neighborhoods that had been Polish and Puerto Rican and Black were suddenly peppered with people who looked better-suited to my college campus than to my working-class home turf. Many of them needed the affordable rents because they had opted into glamorous but poorly paying white-collar jobs. Alas, these newcomers hadn't moved here to live alongside us; they'd come to reside.

The first time it happened was the night before Thanksgiving. Three or four of us-all people of color-were eating takeout in my best friend's studio apartment. The radio was playing, and we were debating, as we often did, who was the best rapper alive. There was a knock at the door and when we opened it, my friend's neighbor, a 20-something woman new to Brooklyn, was standing there, exasperated. "Did your mothers not teach you the difference between inside voice and outside voice?"

The next time it happened was at brunch in Fort Greene, the time after that in a newly opened hotel bar in Williamsburg. After a while, I stopped keeping track. The people complaining clearly thought they were trying to enforce a sonic landscape that they deemed superior, but what they were really doing was using shame to exert control. Over the restaurant, the building, the borough. Us.

For generations, immigrants and racial minorities were relegated to the outer boroughs and city fringes. Far, but free. No one else much cared about what happened there. When I went to college, it was clear to me that I was a visitor in a foreign land, and I did my best to respect its customs. But now the foreigners had come to my shores, with no intention of leaving. And they were demanding that the rest of us change to make them more comfortable.

The Society for the Suppression of Unnecessary Noise was founded by a physician named Julia Barnett Rice in 1906. Rice believed noise was unhealthy, and enlisted New York City's gentry ( including Mark Twain) to lobby for things like rules governing steamboat whistles, and silence pledges from children who played near hospitals.

The group met in posh spaces like the St. Regis hotel, but Rice insisted that she was not solely interested in protecting New York's upper class. "This movement is not for the relief of the rich," she wrote in The New York Times, "for the poor will benefit by it fully as much as, if not more than, those who can leave the city whenever they wish." In 1909, the organization celebrated the passage of an ordinance that prohibited street vendors (many of them immigrants) from shouting, whistling, or ringing bells to promote their wares. (The ban applied only to Manhattan, though the city had fully incorporated as the five boroughs a decade earlier.)

Attempts to regulate the sounds of the city (car horns, ice-cream-truck jingles) continued throughout the 20th century, but they took a turn for the personal in the '90s. The city started going after boom boxes, car stereos, and nightclubs. These were certainly noisy, but were they nuisances? Not to the people who enjoyed them.
As my grandmother used to say, "I'm not yelling, this is just how I tawk!"
In 1991, the NYPD launched Operation Soundtrap, a campaign in which cops would trawl streets-often in majority-Black-and-brown communities-hunting for and confiscating cars with enhanced stereo systems. ("If they don't turn down the volume, we'll turn off their ignition," the chief of the police department vowed.) When Rudy Giuliani became mayor in 1994, he used a cabaret-license law to force clubs out of gentrifying neighborhoods like the Lower East Side and Chelsea. The battle against nightlife continued during the Bloomberg years. New York was effectively codifying an elite sonic aesthetic: the systemic elevation of quiet over noise.

In the years that followed, many of New York's nightclubs migrated to Brooklyn, which remains loud and proud. An analysis of 2019 data ranked it as the loudest borough in New York. It earned this distinction by racking up the most noise complaints to 311-the city complaint hotline. Which raises the question: Was it the noisiest borough? Or was it just home to the densest mix of loud people and people who wanted to control those loud people?

I find many city noises nerve-racking and annoying: jackhammers doing street maintenance, the beeping of reversing trucks, cars honking for no good reason. Yet these noises account for a small minority of all noise complaints. Nearly 60 percent of recent grievances center on what I'd consider lifestyle choices: music and parties and people talking loudly. But one person's loud is another person's expression of joy. As my grandmother used to say, "I'm not yelling, this is just how I tawk!"

The Upper East Side of Manhattan, which runs from 59th Street to 96th Street, is one of the borough's quietest neighborhoods. Save for trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I didn't spend a lot of time there growing up. In fact, my first real foray uptown came that summer before college. The woman who'd endowed my scholarship wanted to meet me. I stepped out of the elevator of her Fifth Avenue apartment building in my Sunday best, and was promptly greeted by a maid-another Latina. I waited, very quietly, for my benefactor-a pleasant older woman in a Chanel suit-to join me for tea. For an hour I pretended to be a meek, muted version of myself. No one had told me to do this. I instinctively understood that, in this unfamiliar environment, the proper way to express my gratitude was to hush myself.

That day recently returned to me when I realized that the same luxurious stretch of Fifth Avenue is also home to the National Puerto Rican Day Parade. Puerto Ricans have been coming to New York since the United States seized the island as a colony after the Spanish-American War, but the great wave of migration occurred in the 1950s and '60s. Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans moved to the Lower East Side, Spanish Harlem, parts of the Bronx, Bushwick, and Sunset Park, where I grew up. In the late 1950s, community leaders wanted to show their children-many of whom had never been to la matria -pride in their identity by coming out of the margins and marching through the heart of Manhattan. Over the years, the parade has grown and grown.

It is a loud affair, and I take pride in saying that we are a loud people. (Is it a coincidence that one of J.Lo's biggest hits was " Let's Get Loud"? I think not.) We love our music. We love to dance. We love being Puerto Rican. And perhaps this is why the parade inspires such discomfort. In the '90s, Upper East Siders implored the city permit office to move the parade to the Bronx, to "their neighborhood." A 2003 New York Times story reported that "one day a year the Upper East Side takes a deep breath and prepares itself." Only after Michael Bloomberg, then the city's mayor, made a public appeal did retailers and property owners along the route stop boarding up their windows as if a hurricane were barreling down on the city. Some restaurants and coffee shops still close for the day.

In June, after a two-year COVID hiatus, the 65th Annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade marched up Fifth Avenue. I had the honor of being an ambassador for arts and culture, which meant I got to ride in the back of a red convertible. The event is a big party, or more accurately, a thousand different parties all celebrating the same thing: being Puerto Rican in the greatest city in the world. Every float, every car, every delegation was playing reggaeton, salsa, merengue, boleros, and Bad Bunny. Everywhere you went you heard Bad Bunny. People were dancing bomba and plena and bachata. There were chants of "Puerto Rico!" and " ¡No se vende! " I waved at all the beautiful people, and when we passed the apartment building where my former benefactor lived all those years ago, I shouted out an extra-loud " ¡Wepa!  "

For 35 blocks, we were as loud as we wanted to be, and nobody could tell us nothing. And then we got to the end of the route. The crowd thinned out and the blockades ended, and we were met with a giant traffic sign illuminated with the words Quiet Please.
This article appears in the September 2022 print edition with the headline "Let Brooklyn Be Loud."

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Exemplary Land Acknowledgement with Resources and “Call to Action”

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Exemplary Land Acknowledgement with Resources and “Call to Action”

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An Example of a Good Land Acknowledgement

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Foundation House respectfully acknowledges that it resides on the land of the Siwanoy peoples. They have lived harmoniously with these lands and waters for countless generations before the onslaught of colonization. Like Indigenous Peoples across the Americas (and most of the world), they experienced genocide, ethnic cleansing, theft of their land and waters, and forced removal. Our ability to live, work and enjoy this land is connected to their deep loss. At Foundation House we strive to respect the history of the land and ask that all those who come to Foundation House do the same. Part of the mission of Foundation House is to create an environment where shedding light on issues of social justice is encouraged. To that end, Foundation House has provided reading materials for those who would like to learn more about the history of the land below.

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Land Ackowledgement & History | Foundation House

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You can learn more about the history of the state of Connecticut, the town of Greenwich, and Foundation House below: