‘EMPTY AND THOUGHTLESS RHETORIC’: UNL has several ‘land acknowledgments’ apologizing for American history
UNL’s statement asks readers to ‘take a moment to consider the legacies of more than 150 years of displacement, violence, settlement, and survival that bring us together here today.’
Critics of land acknowledgments have called them ‘empty and thoughtless rhetoric’ and noted that schools that issue such statements rarely, if ever, actually give their land over to Native American tribes.
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s (UNL) website features several “land acknowledgments” and other statements apologizing for American history.
The Native American Coalition, which is supported by UNL’s Tribal Extension Office, features a land acknowledgment statement that claims that UNL has “campuses and programs on the past, present, and future homelands of the Pawnee, Ponca, Oto-Missouria, Omaha, Dakota, Lakota, Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Kaw Peoples, as well as the relocated Ho-Chunk, Iowa, and Sac and Fox Peoples.”
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The statement continues, asking the reader to “take a moment to consider the legacies of more than 150 years of displacement, violence, settlement, and survival that bring us together here today.”
The UNL College of Education and Human Sciences also has a land acknowledgment paragraph containing the same tribes mentioned above. The statement also adds that “[l]and acknowledgements are not substitutes for relationships with Indigenous Peoples, but represent an important first step.”
The same land acknowledgment is also found on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) section of the website.
The DEI page also advertises several resources, including a website called “LandGrabU,” which attacks land-grant universities as being founded upon a “bloody history.”
Another link leads to an October 2021 article titled, “Want to reach out to an Indigenous scholar? Awesome! But first, here are 10 things to consider.” The article alleges that “colonial forces have prioritized some world views and knowledge systems over others,” and asks that those who approach “indigenous scholars” consider “compensat[ing] us for our time.”
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Land acknowledgments are not just limited to UNL’s website, with the same statement mentioned above featuring in a syllabus for a summer, 2024 English class.
Some critics have called land acknowledgments “empty and thoughtless rhetoric,” noting that the universities that make such statements rarely, if ever, actually give their land to the Native American tribes who used to occupy the lands in question.
Campus Reform has reached out to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
