This illustration is of a Woman standing strong with the medicines ancestors prayed with, a Two Spirit youth holding the drum and songs of ancestors and wearing red for our MMIP (Murdred and Missing Indigenous Peoples), and of an elder, who has carried the knowledge of ancestors to carry into future generations.

ACLU of Northern California Land Acknowledgment

We acknowledge that the ACLU of Northern California exists on the occupied territory of over 100 tribes. This land has been stewarded by Indigenous people since time immemorial.

We acknowledge the critical importance of the land and water to the Indigenous peoples of California today, and that the existence of tribal communities and preservation of traditional Indigenous ways of life depend on secure and permanent land bases and the right of self-determination.

We recognize the painful history upon which the state of California was created, and how policies, systems, and structures continue to oppress and erase Indigenous peoples today.

Beginning with the brutal Mission system during the Spanish colonial period, this history continued through genocide sanctioned and funded by the new state government as California entered the union. Laws and policies sought to erase Indigenous peoples altogether. These included the malignant 1850 “Act for the Governance and Protection of Indians,” termination and continued non-recognition of California tribes and tribal governments, and prohibition of traditional and cultural practices. For the past two centuries, tribal communities have been displaced from and dispossessed of their ancestral lands, sacred sites have been destroyed, and families and communities have been torn apart through residential boarding schools and relocation programs.

We further recognize the diverse Native American diaspora of California, including thousands who were brought here from other parts of the United States without their consent or through false promises of opportunity. These policies had a purpose: to permanently remove Indigenous communities from their ancestral lands, force their assimilation, and erase their culture and identity.

Our shared history compels us to grapple with this legacy, taking action to interrupt the continued harm of colonialism and genocide and to redress the erasure of Indigenous peoples.

The ACLU of Northern California is committed to working alongside Indigenous peoples—and following their lead—as they work to uphold their sovereignty, dignity, and identities.

We support and defend the rights of all Indigenous peoples to retain their specific cultural and religious traditions and practices. We strive to honor Indigenous cultures and traditions and, when possible and appropriate, integrate Indigenous worldviews and values into our approaches and strategies.

By committing ourselves to Indigenous justice, building authentic, mutual, and lasting relationships with tribes and Indigenous communities, we honor all Indigenous people who work tirelessly towards justice and healing.

About the Artist

Jackie Fawn is a Yurok/Washoe/Filipino artist who currently resides in Mohawk territory, Akwesasne. She uses her art to address social and environmental issues in Native American communities.

"This art is how I see the vast beauty and rich culture of Native California. From the ancient redwood giants to the concrete towers of the city, California (as the rest of the country) will always be Native Land. It is important to honor and recognize the land we stand upon.

This illustration is of a woman standing strong with the medicines our ancestors prayed with, a Two Spirit youth holding the drum and songs of our ancestors and wearing red for our MMIP (Murdered and Missing Indigenous Peoples), and of an elder, who has carried the knowledge of our ancestors for us to carry into future generations."

Download the ACLU of NorCal Land Acknowledgment poster by Jackie Fawn.

A land acknowledgement can be a simple, powerful gesture to honor Indigenous peoples and lands and recognize our shared history. A land acknowledgement is only a beginning, and if done respectfully and intentionally, can lead to greater public awareness and understanding of Indigenous Justice. It can help us and our audiences further narratives that honor and recognize our collective history and the current struggles and strengths of Indigenous peoples. Combatting erasure is a first step towards greater cultural awareness, necessary as a foundation to work towards justice. And for many, land acknowledgements can serve as a first and important introductory step into Indigenous Justice.

We do not imagine land acknowledgements as the work, or the goal – land acknowledgements only hold meaning in as much as we approach them with humility and a real desire to confront our own complicity in genocide, and then act towards truth, healing and reconciliation.

Land acknowledgements, when done carelessly, can do harm. When done without intention or thought, land acknowledgements can be reductive and performative; offering land acknowledgements without grappling with the meaning behind them can make us feel absolved of our collective responsibility towards Indigenous peoples without taking real steps towards justice.

How to create a land acknowledgement: Do your homework! Identify the Indigenous lands you occupy, learn about the history of the land and about the Indigenous peoples who stewarded the land, and find out what the current struggles and triumphs of those peoples are. Reflect on how you and your organization are complicit in settler-colonialism.
Articulate why it is important – to the gathering, the speaker, the institution – to offer a land acknowledgment, considering who the audience is and what additional information they might need. Make it personal, to you and to your audience!
Deliver the acknowledgment and invite your audience to join you, not only in acknowledging the land they occupy, but in committing to Indigenous Justice today.
Understand that by acknowledging our shared history of settler colonialism and current reality of occupying land, we commit (individually and organizationally) to Indigenous justice work.

Do's	Don'ts
Make it personal. Connect your land acknowledgement to the event your are opening, current events in your community or country, or your own lived experienced. Write your own statement, even if it is short! Engage in the practice and continue learning. Research! There is a vast body of information – books, podcasts, videos – to draw from to learn about the history, culture and tradition, and current-day struggles of the Indigenous people in your area. Offer an honorarium if you invite a Tribal elder, Councilmember, or leader to provide an opening prayer or land acknowledgement at your event. Consider what the land your occupy means to you – and how that might be different than what the land signifies to Indigenous peoples Speak in the past, present and future tenses! Indigenous people are still here. Have cultural humility and be willing to learn and grow.	Read a pre-written statement written by someone else. Offer a land acknowledgement in a way that relegates Indigenous peoples to the past, alone. Native Americans are not a historical relic. Give a land acknowledgement without learning something about the people whose land you occupy Rely on Indigenous people to educate you or write your land acknowledgement – there is so much information out there you can use to educate yourself, first! Imagine that giving a land acknowledgement absolves you of the requirement to do the work Suggest to participants or attendees that clicking on a link to find out whose land they occupy is their homework. Is it an important step that people become aware that they are occupying lands long stewarded by Indigenous peoples? YES. And, it is only one, first step – it is not sufficient without action.

Do's

Don'ts

Make it personal. Connect your land acknowledgement to the event your are opening, current events in your community or country, or your own lived experienced.
Write your own statement, even if it is short!
Engage in the practice and continue learning.
Research! There is a vast body of information – books, podcasts, videos – to draw from to learn about the history, culture and tradition, and current-day struggles of the Indigenous people in your area.
Offer an honorarium if you invite a Tribal elder, Councilmember, or leader to provide an opening prayer or land acknowledgement at your event.
Consider what the land your occupy means to you – and how that might be different than what the land signifies to Indigenous peoples
Speak in the past, present and future tenses! Indigenous people are still here.
Have cultural humility and be willing to learn and grow.

Read a pre-written statement written by someone else.
Offer a land acknowledgement in a way that relegates Indigenous peoples to the past, alone. Native Americans are not a historical relic.
Give a land acknowledgement without learning something about the people whose land you occupy
Rely on Indigenous people to educate you or write your land acknowledgement – there is so much information out there you can use to educate yourself, first!
Imagine that giving a land acknowledgement absolves you of the requirement to do the work
Suggest to participants or attendees that clicking on a link to find out whose land they occupy is their homework.
Is it an important step that people become aware that they are occupying lands long stewarded by Indigenous peoples? YES. And, it is only one, first step – it is not sufficient without action.

The most basic acknowledgment can be very simple:
"We would like to begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather is the occupied/seized/stolen ancestral/traditional land/territory of the _______ People."

It can name the common history that is so often ignored:
"We are gathered today on the ancestral and seized land of the _______ People. We recognize them, the legacy of violence, settlement, and displacement these people suffered and survived, and we recognize the important of reverting this common history, of which we are all a part, by engaging in meaningful indigenous justice work today."

And it can both name colonialism and its harms, and name what that commits us to doing (and even, invite others to join):
"We would like to begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather is the occupied/seized ancestral land/territory of the _______ People. We recognize that these people cared for and stewarded this land for generations prior to our arrival. And we call attention to the history of the US and the state of California towards these peoples, through state-sanctioned and state-funded genocide, residential boarding schools, and laws and courts that sought to erase indigenous peoples altogether. We recognize how these systems and structures continue to impact indigenous peoples today. This history compels us to take action to interrupt the legacies of colonialism and genocide, and calls us to take meaningful action, building authentic and mutual relationships with Tribes and indigenous communities towards justice and sovereignty."

The process to reach our land acknowledgement statement – and engage across our organization in this ongoing practice to recognize the Indigenous peoples who came before us and who continue to fight today – has been critical to the creation of the statement itself.

Working with an internal committee, made up of staff and Board members that identify as Indigenous and of people connected to our Indigenous Justice work; based on research and guidance on land acknowledgements; and in consultation with tribal leaders in our region, we drafted an institutional land acknowledgement statement.

We worked with a California Indian artist, Jackie Fawn, to create a visual to accompany our statement – and paid her for her work. We then sent the draft statement to more than a dozen tribal councils throughout our region with whom we have existing and sometimes long-standing relationships, along with tribally-affiliated and Native-led organizations in Northern California, to seek their input.

When possible, we presented the land acknowledgement to Tribal Councils and entered into dialogue about what the land acknowledgement means for the ACLU NorCal. We organized a training for our staff, inviting Tribal Chairman Val Lopez of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, to speak about the importance and limitations of land acknowledgements, what they mean and require of us, and how to thoughtfully create one. We created an internal guidance document for staff interested in cultivating their own land acknowledgement practice.

We will continue to engage our allies, members, donors, staff, and the broader community to join us in this ongoing, reflective process of acknowledging the land we are on and the Indigenous peoples who belonged to the land, and in deepening our commitment to Indigenous Justice.

The institutional statement is not intended as a script to be read from at public events.

Check out this interactive resource mapping Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages across the world.
US Department of Arts and Culture’s Honor Native Land Toolkit provides a great overview of why land acknowledgements matter and how to approach them.
Native Governance Center Guide, a Native-led nonprofit organization that support Native leaders as they work to strengthen and rebuild their nations, has created this guide to Indigenous Land Acknowledgment.
The National Congress of American Indians, the oldest, largest and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization serving the broad interests of tribal governments and communities, has created a Guide to Understanding Tribal Governance and an overview of "Tribal Nations and the United States."
The California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center at CSU San Marcos’ “Land Acknowledgment: You’re on California Indian Land, Now What? Acknowledging Relationships to Space and Place.”
The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust is an urban Indigenous women-led land trust that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people. They also have an amazing and comprehensive "Recommended Reading List."
“Indigenous Land Acknowledgement, Explained.” TeenVogue breaks it down.
Listen to this 15-minute conversation with Hayden King, Anishinaabe writer and educator, and Director of the Yellowhead Institute, about “territorial acknowledgements,” what they can and should mean, and how we can engage to improve them.

ACLU of Northern California Land Acknowledgment

About the Artist

What is a Land Acknowledgment?

Sample Land Acknowledgment Language

ACLU NorCal's Land Acknowledgment Process

Additional Resources

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