Living Land Acknowledgment

Living Land Acknowledgment

In the spirit of healing, growth, and hope—with gratitude and humility—Peoples, Land, agriCultures, Ecologies [PLaCE] acknowledges that we are learning, speaking, and living on the unceded homelands of the Muh-he-con-ne-ok or Mohican people, the Peoples of the Waters that Are Never Still, who are the Indigenous peoples of the Hudson Valley from Lake Champlain to the Roe Jan Creek watershed. We acknowledge that the Mohican people, along with many Indigenous nations, were subject to genocide, coerced into assimilation, and forcibly removed from their homelands so that settlers and their descendants might live here without them. Despite these tremendous hardships and repeated forced removals, today the Mohican Nation is part of a federally-recognized, sovereign nation known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community that resides in Wisconsin. We pay honor and respect to their ancestors past and present, as well as to future generations, and we celebrate their continuing presence throughout the Mohican diaspora and here in their homelands.

PLaCE understands that land acknowledgements are just the beginning—not the end—of an ongoing process. These words are merely a call to greater awareness of the wrongs committed against the Stockbridge-Munsee Community and other Indigenous nations and a call to greater awareness of the contemporary relationships with the Stockbridge-Munsee that we have inherited. PLaCE seeks greater understanding of how our actions today are capable of either contributing to or helping to heal these wrongs, and we have adopted this acknowledgement because it gives us the opportunity, as individuals, as a community, and as an organization, to bring our relationships into greater alignment with our principles and values.

With these words we seek to pay honor and respect to Stockbridge-Munsee ancestors past, present, and future as we commit to building a more inclusive and equitable space for all.