For your consideration on Indigenous Peoples Day: “Land acknowledgments meant to honor Indigenous people too often do the opposite – erasing American Indians and sanitizing history instead”

“Take, for instance, the evocation in many acknowledgments of a time when Indigenous peoples acted as “stewards” or “custodians” of the land now occupied. This and related references – for example, to “ancestral homelands” – relegate Indigenous peoples to a mythic past and fails to acknowledge that they owned the land. Even if unintentionally, such assertions tacitly affirm the putative right of non-Indigenous people to now claim title. This is also implied in what goes unsaid: After acknowledging that an institution sits on another’s land, there is no follow-up. Plans are almost never articulated to give the land back. The implication is: “What was once yours is now ours.”

What do you think? Check out the complete article, led by the amazing anthropologist Elisa Sobo, at this link.