Action Proposals

When a university or institution publishes an Indigenous land acknowledgement statement, this should not be considered a final output. As said by Summer Wilkie, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and the University of Arkansas’ student coordinator for indigenous people, “something tangible is required to begin the reconciliation process.” This notion is not only powerful, but it is considered the new status-quo for what were once empty and performative university land acknowledgement statements. Just as land is not a stagnant, inanimate object, land acknowledgement statements should not be either. Connections and opportunities were stolen from indigenous tribes when the land was stolen and sold by the Morrill Land-Grant Acts. It is the responsibility of land-grant universities to help restore these connections, provide these once-lost opportunities, and foster new relationships with indigenous students and tribes if true reconciliation is the institution’s goal.