LAND acknowledgement
What is a Land acknowledgement?
A Land Acknowledgment is a formal statement that recognizes the unique and enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories. The practice of formal welcome and acknowledgment of land is not new and has long been practiced within Indigenous communities.
our acknowledgement
The Patachou Foundation acknowledges and honors the Indigenous communities native to our region, and recognize that our farm, kitchen headquarters, coffee shop, and our partner schools occupy Myaamia (Miami) and Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo) homelands. This land is deeply connected to the Indigenous communities it was stolen from, and despite hundreds of years of forced removal and ethnic cleansing, this land is still indigenous.
This land acknowledgment is a small step in our ongoing responsibility to the land we occupy and we recognize that we are its caretakers, not its sole owners.
Our city is named for the State of Indiana, which means ‘Land of the Indians’. Through takings and “treaties,” the Miami, Kickapoo, and other Nations were removed from their homelands.
After 1794, large areas of land began to be stolen from Indigenous communities; opening up said land for the settlement of colonizers. The United States Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830. As a result, removals of Indigenous people in Indiana became part of a larger national effort carried out under President Andrew Jackson's administration. Most Indigenous people were forced to migrate westward to other lands.
The Kickapoo are an Algonquian-language people who likely migrated to or developed as a people in a large territory along the Wabash River in the area of modern Terre Haute, Indiana. During President Monroe’s term (1817 to 1825), the Kickapoo signed a treaty with the U.S., which was deceitful in its language, and to this day remains a topic of debate between the Kickapoo and the federal government. This document released 13 million acres of land between the Illinois and Wabash rivers, and did not make the Kickapoo protected citizens of the U.S., thus disabling them from acquiring funding for land.
By 1846, most of the Miami had been forcefully displaced to “Indian Territory” (now part of Oklahoma). The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma is the only federally recognized tribe of Miami Indians in the United States. The Miami Nation of Indiana is an unrecognized tribe.
We are dedicated to amplifying Indigenous voices and perspectives, improving community relationships, and correcting the narrative.
relationship and action
This acknowledgment does not stand in for relationship and action, but can begin to point toward deeper possibilities for decolonizing relationships with people and place. We commit to share this Land Acknowledgment aloud at all our public events, deepen our relationship with Native groups in our region, and to continue learning the Indigenous history, cuisine, and growing practices of the land we occupy.