Ben & Jerry's call to 'return' land to Native Americans echoes university signaling

Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream caused a stir on Twitter with a July tweet that read, “This 4th of July, it’s high time we recognize that the U.S. exists on stolen Indigenous land and commit to returning it.” The message was accompanied by a link to the ice cream giant’s website calling for the “return” of Mount Rushmore to Native tribes.

As noted by The Washington Post, many Native Americans activists insist that America should issue reparations such as ceding land that is now being used by university campuses.

Eleven tribes that allegedly owned and sold acres of land to originally develop the University of Minnesota are now calling for additional reimbursements. In response, the school established the TRUTH Project in 2020, which provides “participatory research designed to give Tribes the opportunity to tell, in their words, the history of relations between their Tribal Nation and the University of Minnesota.”

Earlier this year, the university indicated that it was willing to move forward with a plan to relinquish 3,400 acres of land that houses its Cloquet Forestry Center.

[RELATED: Christopher Columbus murals covered with Native American tapestries at Notre Dame]

Campus Reform has been covering the national trend of university land acknowledgements for years. 

As previously reported by Campus Reform, many prominent universities have published statements that recognize tribes that used to reside on their campuses.

MIT has issued a statement that claims “the land on which we sit is the traditional unceded territory of the Wampanoag Nation” and “[w]e acknowledge the painful history of genocide and forced occupation of their territory.”

[RELATED: University implements plan to pay tuition for Native American students]

The University of Connecticut encourages students and staff to read the official Land Acknowledgement Statement before any campus event. It reads:

“We would like to begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather is the territory of the Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Nipmuc, and Lenape Peoples, who have stewarded this land throughout the generations. We thank them for their strength and resilience in protecting this land, and aspire to uphold our responsibilities according to their example.”

Princeton University considers its land acknowledgment to be a part of its commitment to diversity and inclusion. According to the statement, “In 1756 the College of New Jersey moved from Newark and erected Nassau Hall on this land with no recorded consultation with the Lenni-Lenape peoples and now Princeton University sits on land considered part of the ancient homelands of the Lenni-Lenape peoples.

Campus Reform reached out to all relevant parties. This article will be updated accordingly. 

Follow Emily Fowler on Twitter.