Land Acknowledgments

A land acknowledgment is a formal statement that is intended to recognize Indigenous or Native peoples as the original inhabitants/stewards of the land a school district, staff, and students occupy.

A labor acknowledgment is a formal statement intended to recognize past contributions, primarily in the form of forced or exploited labor and slavery, mainly by people of color, which significantly contributed to the economic development of that region.

While often well intentioned, land acknowledgments act as a form of virtue signaling by institutions and leadership. Furthermore, these statements seed the idea in young students’ heads that they are occupying “stolen land” from Indigenous tribes. It also acts as a subversive action to undermine the idea of private property rights protected under the Fourth Amendment.

Land acknowledgments can also serve as a propaganda tool to advance a specific set of ideas, such as “Palestine” being “stolen land.”