At Ecotrust, instead of a land acknowledgement when commencing events, we've started naming powerful actions to take in allyship with Native communities.
While land acknowledgements are intended to be respectful, they oversimplify complex tribal histories and
fail to recognize the ongoing impacts of colonization that tribal communities continue to live with to this day.
In place of a land acknowledgement, Ecotrust staff—and especially the Native staff—are asking you to
support Indigenous communities by taking action. We ask that you:
1. Give land back to Indigenous communities.
2. Protect the environment and salmon. Tribal cultures depend on them.
3. Insist that the United States respect tribal sovereignty and uphold its trust responsibility to tribes, which includes appropriate levels of federal funding to support tribal needs.
Many promises to tribes still need to be kept.
4. Elect officials and judges that understand tribal governments, relationships, and law.
5. Invest in tribal economies
6. Challenge and reject all stereotypes about Indigenous people.
7. Insist that your children and grandchildren are taught accurate information about the histories, cultures, and contemporary lives of Indigenous peoples in your school system.
8. Inform yourself about issues impacting Indigenous communities and speak up.
The sovereignty, well-being, cultures, and languages of Indigenous peoples are borne of their homelands and that makes these lands and waters precious to Native communities.
All of us have the responsibility to treat them with the respect and care they deserve, and to steward them carefully for the next generations. Please do your part. Thank you.
1) Forestland in the Siuslaw River Basin. Photo credit: Morgan Heim; 2) Salmon from a fishing trip with Keex' Kwaan Community Forest Partnership crew members and Organized Village of Kake Natural Resource staff. Photo credit: Bethany Sonsini Goodrich; 3) A stream washing over bedrock in the Siuslaw River Basin. Photo credit: Morgan Heim; 4) Maidenhair fern. Photo credit: Bethany Sonsini Goodrich. 5) Common Raven. Photo credit: Roland Dahwen; 6) Various types of kelp and algae. Photo credit: Bethany Sonsini Goodrich; 7) The Milky Way seen above the town of Hoopa in Humboldt County, Calif. Photo credit: Sean Gutierrez.
