What is Land Acknowledgement?
The National Museum of the American Indian provides important resources on the history of indigenous cultures and an informative definition of land acknowledgement.
“Land Acknowledgement is a traditional custom that dates back centuries in many Native nations and communities. Today, land acknowledgements are used by Native Peoples and non-Natives to recognize Indigenous Peoples who are the original stewards of the lands on which we now live…
After millennia of Native history, and centuries of displacement and dispossession, acknowledging original Indigenous inhabitants is complex. Many places in the Americas have been home to different Native Nations over time, and many Indigenous people no longer live on lands to which they have ancestral ties. Even so, Native Nations, communities, families, and individuals today sustain their sense of belonging to ancestral homelands and protect these connections through Indigenous languages, oral traditions, ceremonies, and other forms of cultural expression.”
Pueblo Community College has physical campuses in three regions of the state. The Pueblo Campus includes eight buildings on 33 acres located in central Pueblo and the Center for Teaching and Learning within St. Mary Corwin Hospital in the historic Bessemer neighborhood of Pueblo. The Fremont Campus is situated in the foothills of Cañon City. Both Pueblo and Canon City straddle the Arkansas River in Colorado. In the Southwestern corner of Colorado, the Southwest Campus is comprised of the Mancos Campus, situated across from Mesa Verde National Park, and the Durango Site in the city of Durango. The Southwestern Campus is within proximity of several natural landmarks sacred to Indigenous cultures, historic Indigenous dwellings, and contemporary Indigenous populations.
Although Pueblo Community College recognizes that Land Acknowledgement is complicated and controversial, our Land Acknowledgement is used publicly as an important reminder of our responsibility to serve Indigenous students within our regions. Pueblo Community College’s original Land Acknowledgement research and statement were developed by Maria de la Cruz, who has a legacy of advocating for Indigenous peoples throughout her life, and we are grateful for the work that she initiated. In practice, the Land Acknowledgment must be read or published unaltered, in its entirety. However, the statement is a living work that has evolved and will continue to change as our college is guided by our Indigenous communities.
