Acknowledgement of Land

The Penn State University campuses are located on the original homelands of the Erie; Haudenosaunee (Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, Seneca, and Tuscarora); Lenape (Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe, and Stockbridge-Munsee); Shawnee (Absentee, Eastern, and Oklahoma); Susquehannock; and Wahzhazhe (Osage) Nations.

As a land grant institution, we acknowledge and honor the traditional caretakers of these lands and strive to understand and model their responsible stewardship. We also acknowledge the longer history of these lands and our place in that history.

Written by PSU Educational Equity in collaboration with the Indigenous Peoples Student Association and the Indigenous Faculty and Staff Alliance.

Why do we make an acknowledgement?

The Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State gathers people together to foster communities, learn from our unique differences, and participate in civic engagement through the arts. We leverage the act of acknowledging the land to spark curiosity and conversation about our nation’s past, present, and future. This ongoing process can change our learning and healing journey as individuals and as a nation, and it is not meant to be resolved. We are not checking a box; we are living in the questions and the possibilities.

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Pennsylvania has a unique and violent history that includes the displacement of Indigenous people and the Carlisle Indian boarding school. Indigenous people carry a heavy, collective grief. From an Indigenous perspective, being a “Good Relative” is listening to Indigenous peoples, listening to the land, and acting in solidarity with Indigenous peoples to eliminate harmful conditions. Learning to open our hearts to generosity, humility, respect, belonging, connectedness, and honor are all aspects of being a good relative.