University focuses on its history to honor Indigenous roots
By Kalleen Rose Ozanic
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Don Sawyer, a descendant of the Shinnecock Nation and vice president for equity, inclusion and leadership development at Quinnipiac University, said that the school’s land acknowledgment is currently “on pause.”
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Instead, the university is currently focusing on its own name. Sawyer said that learning an “accurate history” in the naming of Quinnipiac University is important.
“It's one thing to be on Indigenous land, and it's another thing to have the name of an Indigenous people as the name of the institution,” Sawyer said.
By looking at the history of the school’s name, Sawyer said the university will uncover what it means to take on the Quinnipiac name.
“Having a land acknowledgment statement and not doing anything else would be performative,” he said.
Avoiding a performative land acknowledgment is crucial, according to Dr. Tarren Andrews,
incoming assistant professor in ethnicity, race and immigration of Native Americans and
Indigenous studies at Yale University.
She is a Bitterroot Salish documented descendant within the Confederated Salish and
Kootenai Tribes in Montana.
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Andrews said that “when they're being done right, [land acknowledgments] take a long time
and they require commitments.”
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In its 10-Point Plan, the university commits to a partnership with the Akomawt Educational
Initiative to develop a land acknowledgment.
Chris Newell is a co-founder and director of education for the initiative and an enrolled member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe of Indian Township, Maine. Newell also advocates for concrete commitments to support a land acknowledgment.
Newell said that learning about history is another important step that comes before crafting a land acknowledgment.
“Do your own history about whose lands you're on and go through the process of actually writing these words down yourself,” he said.
Andrews and Newell, two experts within Indigenous studies, said there are important considerations to be made before crafting a land acknowledgment.
Dr. Tarren Andrews (above) said that land acknowledgments can be a lengthy process.
Newell said that commitments are crucial.
“One of the primary questions we ask is, ‘What are you going to do beyond this?’” he said.
Beyond the land acknowledgment, the 10-Point Plan’s efforts toward Indigenous recognition include an annual Indigeneity Initiative Teach-In, started in 2021, and an “Indigenous Student Focused Scholarship,” to be developed with the office of financial aid. The scholarship is “still in the works,” per Sawyer.
Andrews said that the University of Colorado Boulder’s land acknowledgment is a good example of one that combines Indigenous recognition and commitments.
The University of Colorado Boulder land acknowledgment identifies the homelands of Indigenous peoples and makes forward-looking commitments.
In addition to reparative efforts and commitments to an Indigenous community, these experts said a land acknowledgment must be unsettling.
“A land acknowledgement that doesn't shock you is not doing any good to anybody,” Andrews said.
Being unsettled and shocked can be a learning experience, she said. This is especially important given the history of Indigenous erasure in education in the United States. Newell said his children are neglected in the educational system, and they feel the history they learn in school is “actively erasing them.”
“The amount of unsettling that is experienced [from a land acknowledgment] is actually very minor compared to the Native experience in the education system here,” he said.
Encouraging discomfort from an audience and taking appropriate considerations can lead to a successful land acknowledgment, according to Andrews. Without these steps, a land acknowledgment becomes “lip service.”
This is what Quinnipiac University wants to avoid, according to Sawyer.
“For some it could be seen as symbolic,” he said. “But I think if you have actions that are behind it, it moves from just being a symbolic gesture.”