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Land Acknowledgement

By Marilee Poe Tangen, Racial Justice Ministry Team Member

You may have noticed the short land acknowledgement now found in our worship bulletin: We are on Dakota and Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) land. We give thanks for their presence here since time immemorial and honor all our Indigenous siblings who have and continue to call this land their home.

Or perhaps the longer version found on our web site: Trinity Lutheran Church is located on the original and ancestral homelands of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ Dakhóta people, specifically the Wahpekute Nation. We are on Dakota and Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) land. This land holds spiritual and ongoing importance for its original stewards, the Native nations and all Indigenous peoples of the St. Croix Valley region. We give thanks for their presence here since time immemorial. We also wish to recognize and honor all our Indigenous siblings who have and continue to call this land their home.

Trinity has begun the practice of land acknowledgement as an important point of awareness to telling the full history of the land which we occupy. This is especially poignant as we have just celebrated 150 years as a congregation and we begin our next 150 years with a journey toward truth and healing.

This practice is also a commitment made by our larger church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). In the document “A Declaration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to American Indian and Alaska Native People” the church confesses its sins toward Indigenous peoples and identifies action items for moving forward.

One commitment is to formally acknowledge the original inhabitants of North America. The declaration states, “We commit to begin the practice of land acknowledgments at all expressions of the church.”

The resources provided by Vance Blackfox, Director for Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations with the ELCA, were instrumental in crafting Trinity’s land acknowledgement. Read more at: https://www.elca.org/Our-Work/Congregations-and-Synods/Ethnic-Specific-and-Multicultural-Ministries/American-Indian-and-Alaska-Native.

From the Duwamish Tribe: For non-Indigenous communities, land acknowledgement is a powerful way of showing respect and honoring the Indigenous Peoples of the land on which we work and live. Acknowledgement is a simple way of resisting the erasure of Indigenous histories and working towards honoring and inviting the truth.
(https://www.duwamishtribe.org/land-acknowledgement)

Stay tuned as the Racial Justice Ministry Team works to bring greater awareness through: education on past and present Native culture and experiences; stories of the Native Peoples who lived on this land long before us; Indigenous land acknowledgement; and inspiration for action and relationship-building as we go. Read more at: https://trinitylc.org/welcome/who-we-are/racial-justice/.

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