Land Acknowledgment

 FED: Food Expo & Discussion Land Acknowledgment 

We acknowledge that the land we are on today at County Line Orchard is the ancestral territory of the Potawatomi, Miami and Sauk people, who have been known to live here for thousands of years.  We acknowledge the history of dispossession of this land from these inhabitants today. Colonialism is a current ongoing process and not limited to the confines of history; and we need to build our mindfulness of our present participation. 

NW Indiana is the original homelands of the Council of the Three Fires, the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa as well as the Miami and Sauk nations.  Long before steel mills, refineries and suburban landscapes spread across our region, these Indigenous Nations have been in relationship with the land. For thousands of years, these Native peoples have stewarded the land, the water and all its bountiful resources with deeply held principles of respect, harmony and reciprocity. 

By the end of the 18th century, Potawatomi tribal villages were being displaced by white settlements, ultimately ushering in the American treaty era. Through a series of treaties, beginning in 1789, the Potawatomi tribal estate totaling more than 89 million acres in the Great Lakes Region was gradually reduced. The federal government continued reducing Potawatomi landholdings by removing them to smaller reserves in Iowa, Missouri and finally Kansas. Between 1818 and 1837, many bands of the Potawatomi were coerced to cede their lands in Indiana to the federal government.   In 1838, the remaining Potawatomi were forced by military removal to reservations in Kansas in what is known as the The Potawatomi Trail of Death. During the journey of approximately 660 miles over 2 months, more than 40 persons died, most of them children. It marked the single largest Indian removal in Indiana history. (“The Trail of Death.” Citizen Potawatomi Nation)

Today, Indigenous peoples continue to protect and remain in relationship with this land and will do so for all eternity. It is vital to honor these beginnings and recognize the ongoing dedication and importance of Indigenous culture within our communities and within the land that we gather, live, learn and work on. 

The NWI Food Council is committed to ongoing partnerships to engage in lifting up and supporting the work of Indigenous organizations.  Our land acknowledgment is intended to be a small part of a larger commitment to bring awareness to and atone for a history of trauma and abuse to Black, Indigenous and People of Color in our community and beyond. Today, we are grateful to gather as visitors on this land and promise to use our time together to intentionally build power through partnerships, and respect for sovereignty and self-determination.