Land Acknowledgment
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sits on Turtle Island, on the land that is called Amá̡:inausí̡ka: [Ah-mahn-ee-now-shinck-ah] in the Tutelo Saponi language. As historians, it is our responsibility to educate ourselves and teach the histories of the land we live on, and to acknowledge the land, sovereignty, presence, and survivance of Native Americans and Indigenous peoples at our university, our communities, the state of North Carolina, Turtle Island, and the world.1 Our university sits on the lands of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation and the Shakori, Eno, Sissipahaw, and Occaneechi peoples. The state of North Carolina recognizes eight Native Nations: the Coharie, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the Haliwa-Saponi, the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, the Meherrin, the Sappony, the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation and the Waccamaw Siouan. True acknowledgement takes many different forms, but through our work as historians, we can begin this work by including the histories and current land struggles of Indigenous peoples in our teaching, research, and public engagement.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
1 These terms and their application are highly contextual, varying across time and place. Struggles for sovereignty, for instance, often refer to the North American context. For more information on Native North American lands and their current occupation, visit https://native-land.ca/.
