TOCG Land Acknowledgement

Our team is distributed across the world—in New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Wisconsin, DC Metro area, Massachusetts and Oregon in the United States, as well as in Sydney, Australia. We honor the fact that all of our respective workplaces are located on occupied and unceded land belonging to several indigenous groups.

We have begun to share with you below about each of these histories and peoples, but it is our shared belief that land acknowledgments alone are insufficient. We hope you will join us in providing financial support to the suggested causes and funds below or to your own local causes, as well as continue to educate yourself and your loved ones about the violent history on which our modern culture is built so that we can collectively continue the work of reparation and justice.

We offer a land acknowledgement as an expression of gratitude and appreciation to those who have stewarded this land from time immemorial. Land acknowledgments do not exist in a past tense, or historical context: Colonialism is a current, ongoing process, and we seek to build an understanding of our present participation.

New York, New York

Our New York City headquarters are located on the island of Mannahatta. Our New York employees work from offices that occupy the unceded, ancestral land of the Munsee Lenape and Wappinger people and many other indigenous groups.

We encourage you to donate to the Manna-hatta fund, which directly supports the American Indian Community House in New York City, and also to look into the Reclaiming Native Truth project, which aims to dispel the myths and misconceptions about Indigenous Americans in the dominant narratives of our culture.

Brooklyn, New York

Our Brooklyn offices are located on the dispossessed lands of the Canarsie people, part of the greater Munsee Lenape (Delaware) peoples, who inhabited part of southeastern New York, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, northern Delaware, and a small section of southwestern Connecticut. We acknowledge the historical consequences of the displacement of indigenous people through settler colonialism and are committed to executing anti-colonialist and anti-racist practices.

The Lenape diaspora now includes five federally-recognized nations in Oklahoma (Delaware Nation), Wisconsin (Stockbridge-Munsee Community), and Ontario, and four state-recognized communities in Delaware and New Jersey. 

To learn more about these tribes, their culture, and their efforts toward greater recognition, we encourage you to visit these websites: Delaware Nation; Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians; Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania; Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware ; The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation. We also encourage you to follow the work of the Lenape Center in New York.

Jersey City, NJ

Our satellite office in Jersey City, NJ stands on the unceded, ancestral territory of the Lenni-Lenape People. We recognize that the land now known as New Jersey has been home to the Lenape for over 14,000 years. The removal and forced displacement of Indigenous communities by European colonizers resulted in a historic diaspora. We pay respect to Indigenous people throughout the Lenape diaspora – past, present, and future – and honor those who have been historically and systemically disenfranchised.

To learn more about the Lenape tribes of New Jersey, we encourage to visit this website: Finally Home.

Atlanta, Georgia

Our satellite office in Atlanta is located on the unceded, ancestral land of the S’atsoyaha (Yuchi) and Tsalaguwetiyi (Eastern Band Cherokee) peoples.

We encourage you to donate to the Yuchi Language Project, which aims to support the Yuchi community in maintaining its distinctive identity, cultural and social institutions, through the Yuchi language. Please also consider the many ways you may contribute to the Cherokee Nation be it financial, a gift of land, or anything else.

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

We would like to acknowledge that we in Sheboygan County occupy the traditional homelands of the Ho-Chunk, Potawatomi, Menominee, Oneida and Ojibwe people along the southwest shores of Michigami. This area holds tremendous value to these Tribes and their cultural history. Let this acknowledgement remind us all that this land was taken from the Native people. Let these words increase public awareness as we honor, respect, and support the Indigenous peoples who are still connected to the land on which we live.

Prepared by the SDEIBI Historic Preservation and Land Acknowledgement Committee Lisa Vihos, Travis Gross, Annalise Flynn, Rebecca Clarke, Mary Burkey, and Deb Sabol-Williams in partnership with Nate Sayas-Porter (Ningaabi-ahnung Gaabo), White Earth Ojibwe/Chiricahua Apache/Tarahumara/Aztec. 

To learn more about these tribes and their work, please visit their websites Ho-Chunk Nation, Potawatomi Nation, The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, Oneida Nation, and St. Coix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin.

Washington D.C.

The lands of Washington, D.C. and Maryland, have been cared for by First Nations People since as early as 9,500 BCE. Today these unceded territories are primarily associated with the Nacotchtank Tribe. The Nacotchtank peoples were part of a larger, loose confederation of tribes known as the Piscataway Chiefdom. On January 9, 2012, both the Piscataway Conoy Tribe and the Piscataway Tribe were recognized by the State of Maryland via executive order. To learn more about these tribes and their work please visit their websites Piscataway Conoy Tribe and Cedarville Band Of Piscataway Indians.

To play an active role in educating the public and changing the way people think about Native Americans, please consider making a gift to the National Museum of the American Indian. To support the ongoing work of protecting Native American rights, resources, and lifeways, stand strong through a contribution to the Native American Rights Fund.

Portland, Oregon

The Portland metropolitan area is vast and includes modern day cities such as Portland, Vancouver, WA, and many others. In this broad area, there were numerous tribes, people, and villages that honored the abundance that the lands offered. In the metropolitan area, the tribes are the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and many other tribes who made their homes along the Columbia and Willamette Rivers.

We wish to acknowledge the robust present-day federally recognized tribes of this area; the Grande Ronde, Siletz, and Cowlitz. In addition, we would like to acknowledge the Chinook Nation, which has been seeking federal recognition for many years.

The Native American community in the Portland metropolitan area is made up of tribal diversity that originates from around the country, representing at least 380 tribes. This community has a vivid history, made up of people whose journeys have brought them to Portland by ways of stolen land, forced displacement, or seeking more opportunities. 

Learn more about Portland’s native communities at the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) and the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. 

Boston, Massachusetts

Our satellite office in the Greater Boston area is situated on the traditional and ancestral land of the Massachusett, the original inhabitants of what is now known as Boston and Cambridge. We extend our respect to the people of the Massachusett Tribe, acknowledging both their historical and contemporary presence. We also honor the land itself, which holds sacred significance to the Massachusett People. They have been dedicated stewards of this land for countless generations, and we acknowledge the historical appropriation of their name by this Commonwealth.

To delve deeper into the rich history of the Massachusett tribe, we encourage you to visit this website: https://massachusetttribe.org/

Sydney, Australia

We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation as the traditional custodians of this place we now call Sydney and pay respects to Elders, past, present and emerging. We extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders and peoples across the continent, acknowledging their sovereignty was never ceded.

We encourage you to support Reconciliation Australia an independent not-for-profit organization which promotes and facilitates reconciliation by building relationships, respect and trust between the wider Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

To encourage a shift from empty words to action we encourage you to  

●      Support Indigenous organizations by donating your time and/or money.

●      Support Indigenous-led grassroots change movements and campaigns. Encourage others to do so.

●      Commit to returning land. Local, state, and federal governments around the world are currently returning land to Indigenous people. Individuals are returning their land, too. 

●      To learn how you can honor native land and acknowledge traditional owners, visit the US Department of Arts and Culture, by clicking here, or the National Indigenous Australians Agency, by clicking here here.

●      To learn about the land you currently occupy, please visit Native Land’s interactive map, by clicking here, or visit The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies website here.