Land Acknowledgement

“I know that if our Indigenous kids know the creation story of the place that they are, they're 80% less likely to want to commit suicide. So there's something very powerful and profound [in] teaching our creation stories ... And so that means that all of us, no matter where we're from, have a responsibility to learn the creation story and language of the place that we're occupying, whether we're Indigenous or not.” - Matika Wilbur, 2019

I heard this quote from Matika Wilbur, a Swinomish and Tulalip photographer, on the episode “Can Our Ancestors Hear Us?” of her podcast hosted with Adrienne Keene, “All My Relations” in 2022. It changed the way I think about land acknowledgments and how they can go beyond the performative by reminding us of our responsibilities to indigenous people and communities. We are not powerless, and there are ways we can and must resist the erasure of colonization. I felt compelled to begin my project with retelling the creation story of the land I am writing about, and writing from.

New York University is on Lenapehoking, which is the unceded land of the Lenni Lenape (lun·NAH·pay) people. The word Lenape means “the people” in their language hə̀lə̆ni·xsəwá·kan (called Munsee in English) which is a part of the Algonquian language family. Their English name was Delaware.

The Lenni Lenape creation story begins with a tortoise lying in an earth that is all water. As the tortoise raised itself higher, the water ran off its round back, and the earth became dry. A tree grew in the middle of the earth, and as its roots sprouted, the first male grew out of the earth. The man was alone until the tree bent over until its top touched the earth, and another sprout grew from a root. A woman grew from that sprout, and all people were produced from that first man and woman.

Map of Lenape languages and Tribes-Image from Wikimedia Commons

References

Danckaerts, J. (1913). Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, 1679-1680. C. Scribner's Sons.  https://doi.org/10.5479/sil.260094.39088006302053

Nanticoke and Lenape Confederation. (2017). Nanticoke and Lenape Creation Stories.  Nanticoke and Lenape Confederation Learning Center and Museum. https://nanticokelenapemuseum.org/news/1380/creation-stories/

Native Land Digital. (2021). https://native-land.ca/

Keene, A., Small-Rodriguez, D., & Wilbur, M (Hosts). (2019, July 2). Can Our Ancestors Hear Us? [Audio podcast episode]. In All My Relations. https://www.allmyrelationspodcast.com/podcast/episode/491847a3/can-our-ancestors-hear-us

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. (2010). Manahatta to Manhattan:

Native Americans in Lower Manhattan.

https://ospi.k12.wa.us/sites/default/files/2023-10/manahatta_to_manhattan.pdf