{"id":24668,"date":"2022-05-25T13:23:54","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T17:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=24668"},"modified":"2022-05-25T13:23:55","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T17:23:55","slug":"brown-university-adopts-land-acknowledgment-with-pledge-to-do-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/05\/25\/brown-university-adopts-land-acknowledgment-with-pledge-to-do-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Brown University adopts land acknowledgment with pledge to do more"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Brown<\/a>
Built in 1770, University Hall is the first and oldest building at Brown University in Rhode Island. Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
Brown University adopts land acknowledgment with pledge to do more<\/div>\r\n
Wednesday, May 25, 2022<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nBrown University<\/a> in Rhode Island has adopted a land acknowledgement following consultation with leaders and citizens of the Narragansett Tribe<\/a>.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nBrown President Christina H. Paxson<\/a> announced the acknowledgment on Tuesday, according to a news release<\/a>. It reads:\r\n

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\r\n\u201cBrown University is located in Providence, Rhode Island, on lands that are within the ancestral homelands of the Narragansett Indian Tribe. We acknowledge that beginning with colonization and continuing for centuries the Narragansett Indian Tribe have been dispossessed of most of their ancestral lands in Rhode Island by the actions of individuals and institutions. We acknowledge our responsibility to understand and respond to those actions. The Narragansett Indian Tribe, whose ancestors stewarded these lands with great care, continues as a sovereign nation today. We commit to working together to honor our past and build our future with truth.\u201d\r\n<\/div>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nEfforts on the land acknowledgment<\/a> began in March 2021, according to the release. A working group established by Paxson included Sherent\u00e9 Harris<\/a>, a Narragansett citizen who arrived at Brown as a new student in 2018.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cIf land acknowledgments were to be given here at Brown, it was important to me that they be based on historical fact,\u201d said Harris (they\/them\/their<\/em>). \u201cColonial documents acknowledge that the Narragansett are the Indigenous people of Rhode Island. Our oral history speaks to stories of us in this place since time immemorial. And yet we\u2019re often left out of the historical record. Being seen once more in our homelands is crucial \u2014 it is what will allow us to uphold our rights as a sovereign nation, to break free from intergenerational trauma and from the oppressive systems that hold us down.\u201d \r\n

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Brown University has established an official land acknowledgment that recognizes and honors its location within the ancestral homelands of the Narragansett Indian Tribe. https:\/\/t.co\/OddyUJiD3i<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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<\/P>\r\nThe working group was led by Rae Gould<\/a>, who serves as executive director of Brown\u2019s Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative<\/a>. She said it was important that the university take additional steps beyond recognizing the historical realities of the campus being Narragansett territory.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cI think this work enabled all of us to think more deeply about what \u2018land acknowledgment\u2019 can really mean,\u201d said Gould, who hails from the Nipmuc Tribe, based in neighboring Massachusetts. \u201cIt needs to be more than a performative statement recited before an event or gathering. It needs to have meaning and depth. It needs to help respond to the history of dispossession in some way \u2014 and we can’t determine what that might mean in a few months or even a year. Figuring that out takes time, patience and layers of conversations.\u201d\r\n

<\/p>\r\nAs part of those efforts, Brown has committed to developing and supporting research into the origins of the university and its relations with Native people and to work more closely with the Narragansett Tribe, especially on expanding opportunities for Native youth throughout New England. More support is also being promised to Gould’s group and to the Native Americans at Brown student group.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cCommitting to a set of actions to educate our community and support broader engagement with the tribe and other Indigenous peoples of the region is critical to understanding our shared history and developing strong relationships,\u201d Paxson said in an announcement on Tuesday, according to the news release.\r\n

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