Public Resources for Land Acknowledgement Learning

Compiled by Melissa Horner (Manitoba Métis Federation/Turtle Mountain Anishinaabe), PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, University of Missouri (2019 – present)

Public Talk: Recording of a talk titled: "Exploring the Land Acknowledgement: Intentionality in Acknowledging Indigenous Lands and Places" by Horner (2021).

  • The land acknowledgement portion of the presentation begins at ~36:00 and it's related to land acknowledgements and intentionality, some history, the speaker’s own process, and things to consider if people are wanting to write/do land acknowledgements and/or moving directly to considering #landback options.

Scholarly Article: “Beyond Land Acknowledgment in Settler Institutions” by Theresa Stewart-Ambo and K. Wayne Yang (2021) link

For consideration (from article):

  • No Acknowledgment (Yet) = Start Conversations.
  • A place that “has a lot of work to do in terms of acknowledging Indigenous presence (and Indigenous students)” compared to other universities.
  • For Acknowledgment = Get in Relation.
  • “build relationships with the peoples whom you are acknowledging.”
  • With Acknowledgment = Learn Your Responsibilities.
  • “How can you be in good relationship with Indigenous peoples, with non-human beings, with the land and water?”
  • “We’re on the territory of the Anishinaabek and the Haudenosaunee and here’s what that compels me to do.”
  • Beyond Acknowledgment = Build Institutional Accountability.
  • “I want to see the provost of the university or the president of the academic conference or the premier of Ontario saying, ‘This is the land that we’re on and this is what we’re going to do to breathe life into our obligations to those communities and those treaties.’”
  • Those with greater institutional power have greater obligations.

Online Platform: "How to Come Correct" by Sogorea Te' Land Trust Led by Indigenous Women link

Online Platform: “Land Acknowledgement Guide” by IllumiNative link

Scholarly Article: “Performance or Progress? The Physical and Rhetorical Removal of Indigenous Peoples in Settler Land Acknowledgments at Land-Grab Universities” by Theresa Ambo and Theresa Rocha Beardall (2022) link

Public Article: "Land Acknowledgments Meant to Honor Indigenous People too Often do the Opposite—Erasing American Indians and Sanitizing History Instead" by Sobo and Lambert (2021) link

Public Article: "Indigenous Land Acknowledgement" by Native Governance Center link

Blogpost: "Are you Planning to do a Land Acknowledgement" by Reese (2019) link

Public Research Article: “Land-Grab Universities” by Lee and Ahtone (2020) link

Online Platform: “LandBack University” by NDN Collective link

Public Article: “How a Civil War-era Law turned Native American Land into University Endowments: The University of Missouri, and Many others, Benefit from the Dispossession of Native Americans through Land Grants” by Lovell (2020) link

Public Talk: “Indigenous Land Grab: Exploring University of Missouri as a Land-Grant Institution” link

  • This talk was hosted by Native American Heritage Month at Mizzou in 2020. Moderator: Melissa Horner. Speakers: Bobby Lee and Tristan Ahtone (Kiowa).