Land Acknowledgment Statement

On Land Acknowledgments

Land acknowledgments (sometimes called territorial acknowledgments) are formal, public statements that recognize the Indigenous peoples who have lived on and continue to care for the land where a building, institution, or activity is located. The statements often name the specific tribes or nations with ancestral ties to the surrounding region, affirming their history and enduring connections to a given place.

They are typically read aloud at the beginning of public events, printed in institutional publications, listed on websites, or included in email signatures. Land acknowledgments also take physical form, appearing on plaques, signs, and art installations.

Land acknowledgments can serve several purposes. They are meant to raise awareness of historical processes—including colonization, dispossession, and forced displacement—as well as their ongoing impacts on Indigenous communities today. They may also educate audiences about Indigenous peoples and the histories of the lands Indigenous communities have traditionally occupied and continue to steward. An effective land acknowledgment can prompt reflection on the institution’s relationships and responsibilities to Indigenous communities, encouraging awareness of historical legacies, including difficult and painful histories, and present-day responsibilities.

In the United States, as well as other counties such as Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, land acknowledgments are typically written in English, and often accompanied by a translation in an Indigenous language. Several acknowledgments in use at U-M include translations in Anishinaabemowin, the language of the Anishinaabeg (Chippewa/Ojibwe, Odawa/Ottawa, and Potawatomi/Bodéwadmi). Bilingual signage affirms the distinctiveness and perseverance of Indigenous cultures and reflects ongoing efforts by Indigenous communities to revitalize their languages and culture.

However, critics say that land acknowledgments are empty gestures if not accompanied by more meaningful action, such as the return of land to Indigenous communities or Indigenous-specific institutional support (e.g., cultural spaces, dedicated support staff, scholarships, mentorship) for Native American students. Simply naming Indigenous nations or identifying their traditional homelands without meaningfully supporting their communities risks reducing the acknowledgment to mere performance. Additionally, land acknowledgments are critiqued for being overtly political statements that force a certain viewpoint on those that read or hear them. They are also critiqued for being idealistic and assuming outcomes that rarely materialize.

The IHP’s Work to Better Acknowledge Article 16 & the 1817 Treaty of Fort Meigs

The Inclusive History Project does not have the authority to produce or mandate a university-wide land acknowledgment statement. However, in alignment with the recommendations of Native American students and community members, the IHP’s 1817 Project: Land, Culture, Memory, and Repair is working to better acknowledge that the 1817 Treaty of Fort Meigs is a foundational moment in the history of the University of Michigan and that all three U-M campuses are located on Anishinaabe homelands.

To learn more about Article 16 of the 1817 Treaty of Fort Meigs and its role in U-M’s early development, please see the following educational resources produced by the 1817 Project:

• Visualizing the History of the University of Michigan’s Early Land Possessions 
• Article 16, Indigenous Land, and the University of Michigan: How Indigenous Land Became University Property

Additionally, we invite you to read Article 16 in full below. What does it reveal to you about the relationship between the University of Michigan (whose predecessor was the “college at Detroit”) and the Anishinaabeg signatories?

Some of the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomy tribes, being attached to the Catholic religion, and believing they may wish some of their children hereafter educated, do grant to the rector of the Catholic church of St. Anne of Detroit, for the use of the said church, and to the corporation of the college at Detroit, for the use of the said college, to be retained or sold, as the said rector and corporation may judge expedient, each, one half of three sections of land, to contain six hundred and forty acres, on the river Raisin, at a place called Macon and three sections of land not yet located, which tracts were reserved, for the use of the said Indians, by the treaty of Detroit, in one thousand eight hundred and seven; and the superintendent of Indian affairs, in the territory of Michigan, is authorized, on the part of the said Indians, to select the said tracts of land. — Article 16, 1817 Treaty of Fort Meigs (also known as the Treaty of the Rapids)

We also encourage you to reflect on the University of Michigan’s land acknowledgment practices by viewing a curated set of statements used by different campus units. Observe the differences in language across the statements, including the use of Anishinaabemowin, references to the Treaty of Fort Meigs, and gestures to U-M’s present-day responsibilities toward Indigenous communities.

• U-M Library Territorial Acknowledgment
• UM-Ann Arbor School for Environment and Sustainability Land Acknowledgment
• U-M Vice President for Communications Boilerplate Statement on the Anishinaabe Land Transfer
• UM-Dearborn Office of Community-Engaged Learning Land Acknowledgment

Further Reading

Many resources exist for learning more about land acknowledgments and their uses.

For guidance from Indigenous organizations on creating land acknowledgments, as well as critiques and debates about their significance, see:

• Jacobs, Dean M. and Lytwyn, Victor P. “Naagan ge bezhig emkwaan: A Dish with One Spoon Reconsidered.” Ontario History 112, no. 2 (2020) : 191–210. https://doi.org/10.7202/1072237ar.
• National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers. Creating a Land Acknowledgement. https://www.nathpo.org/creating-a-land-acknowledgement/.
• Native Governance Center. Native Governance Center. A Guide to Indigenous Land Acknowledgment. October 22, 2019. https://nativegov.org/news/a-guide-to-indigenous-land-acknowledgment/.
• Robinson, Dylan, Kanonhsyonne Janice C. Hill, Armand Garnet Ruffo, Selena Couture, and Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen. “Rethinking the Practice and Performance of Indigenous Land Acknowledgement.” https://muse.jhu.edu/article/716610.
• Wark, Joe. “Land Acknowledgements in the Academy: Refusing the Settler Myth.” Curriculum Inquiry 51, no. 2 (April 2021): 191-209. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2021.1889924.

For a book-length study of the university’s early history, its ties to the Treaty of Fort Meigs and the Anishinaabeg people of Michigan, and the creation of the Treaty of Fort Meigs acknowledgment plaque, see:

• Herscher, Andrew. Under the Campus: The Land, Anishinaabe Futuring, Colonial Non-Memory, and the Origin of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2025). https://press.umich.edu/Books/U/Under-the-Campus-the-Land.