Delta College Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that Delta College occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of the Anishinaabeg, the Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples. Our institution resides on land ceded by the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe in the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw. We recognize the harm colonialism has done and continues to do. We affirm and support the sovereignty of Michigan’s tribal nations, for historic Indigenous communities in Michigan, for Indigenous individuals and communities who live here now, and for those who were forcibly removed from their homelands. We commit to naming and contextualizing the violence that undergirds the places that our institution calls home, and we will work to address the experiences of Indigenous people in our culture and pedagogy.

Land acknowledgments become meaningful when partnered with a genuine effort to establish relationships. As we offer this acknowledgment, we recognize that this statement needs to serve as an initial step toward greater healing, action, and reconciliation. We welcome collaboration and dialogue with Indigenous people who are part of the Delta community.