The Rhetoric of Health and Medicine Symposium is being held on the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus, which is located on traditional, ancestral, and contemporary lands of Indigenous people. It is essential that we acknowledge the history of the land and its original stewards from whom the land was stolen. Additionally, we want to provide resources for further learning and to center present-day Native communities. The following statement is adapted from the University of Minnesota’s Institute for Advanced Studies.
The University resides on Dakota land ceded in the Treaties of 1837 and 1851. We acknowledge this place has a complex and layered history. This land acknowledgment is one of the ways in which we work to educate the campus and community about this land and our relationships with it and each other. We encourage you to learn more:
- The TRUTH project — “A collaboration between the 11 recognized Tribal Governments of Minnesota, the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council (MIAC), and the Office of American Indian and Tribal Nations Relations at the University of Minnesota (UMN), The Towards Recognition and University-Tribal Healing—TRUTH—project is a Native-organized, Native-led, community-driven research movement that offers multiple recommendations on how the University community can be in better relation with Indigenous peoples.”
- Local Dakota Land Map — downloadable visual and audio Dakota land maps of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and surrounding areas by local artist Marlena Myles
- Why Treaties Matter — a comprehensive and thoughtful exploration of treaties and land theft in Minnesota. For our area, we recommend you begin by reading about the 1837 land cession treaties with the Ojibwe and Dakota, and the 1851 Dakota land cession treaties
- Where We Stand: The University of Minnesota and Dakhóta Treaty Lands — a discussion on land acknowledgments by Čhaŋtémaza (Neil McKay) and Monica Siems McKay, published in Open Rivers
- The On Being Project Land Acknowledgment Resources — a whole host of resources dedicated to Native American culture and history in Minnesota, as well as on the practice of land acknowledgment
- Developing Land Acknowledgments — “You need to be able to do the work. Otherwise, I don’t know if there’s meaning behind it”: Indigenous leaders from the University of Alberta share their thoughts on Acknowledgments