Land Acknowledgement

Committee on Land Acknowledgement
Program in Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS)
The University of Texas at Austin

Rationale
As the flagship institution in our state university system, it is important that The University of Texas at Austin demonstrate respect for the historic and contemporary presence of Indigenous Peoples in Texas and, particularly, in the greater Austin area. To that end, it is incumbent upon The University of Texas at Austin to recognize that our campus resides on what were historically traditional Native territories. A Land Acknowledgement is an expression of gratitude and appreciation to the Native American tribes and/or Indigenous Peoples, the traditional caretakers of the land, for the use of their lands on which we work, study, and learn. In this spirit, a Land Acknowledgement is a tool to foster good relations and a sense of trust and reciprocity between the university and tribal communities, facilitating the research work and pedagogic endeavors of the faculty and students in tribal and Indigenous territories or spaces. 
We encourage all the faculty, staff, students, and guests of The University of Texas at Austin to open public events and gatherings with the following Land Acknowledgement, and/or to include this statement in printed materials associated with your events: 

Land Acknowledgement
(I) We would like to acknowledge that we are meeting on the Indigenous lands of Turtle Island, the ancestral name for what now is called North America.
Moreover, (I) We would like to acknowledge the Alabama-Coushatta, Caddo, Carrizo/Comecrudo, Coahuiltecan, Comanche, Kickapoo, Lipan Apache, Tonkawa and Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo, and all the American Indian and Indigenous Peoples and communities who have been or have become a part of these lands and territories in Texas.
 
Land Engagements and/or Committments
In recognition of the ongoing and cumulative challenges faced by American Indian and/or Indigenous Peoples in Central Texas and globally, we call upon The University of Texas at Austin: 
To repatriate the ancestral remains held by the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory to their Indigenous descendant communities and Native lands.  
To support the transition of the Program in Native American and Indigenous Studies into a Center. 
To establish a protocol of research and study on Tribal or Native lands, and to foster an ethics and practice of engaged scholarship, with and for Indigenous peoples and communities, locally and internationally.