UVM Board of Trustees Adopts Land Acknowledgement

From the webpage of the University of Vermont’s Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, this announcement was posted yesterday - October 29, 2022 - following the Board’s regular meeting. We welcome this step toward building and affirming community relationships here in this landscape, led by the Division’s Amer Ahmed and Sherwood Smith and the Office of Provost Patricia Prelock. Link to original posting here.

On Saturday, October 29, 2022, the University of Vermont’s Board of Trustees approved a resolution adopting an official land acknowledgment statement:

The campus of the University of Vermont sits within a place of gathering and exchange, shaped by water and stewarded by ongoing generations of Indigenous peoples, in particular the Western Abenaki.

Acknowledging the relations between water, land, and people is in harmony with the mission of the university. Acknowledging the serious and significant impacts of our histories on Indigenous peoples and their homelands is a part of the university’s ongoing work of teaching, research, and engagement and an essential reminder of our past and our interconnected futures for the many of us gathered on this land.

UVM respects the Indigenous knowledge interwoven in this place and commits to uplifting the Indigenous peoples and cultures present on this land and within our community.

Land acknowledgments are a valued practice within Indigenous cultures and serve an important role in raising awareness of Indigenous people and their enduring relationship as stewards of these traditional territories. Recognizing the land is an expression of gratitude and a way of honoring Indigenous people—past, present, and future—who inhabit this land together with the University of Vermont.

UVM’s land acknowledgment was crafted with thoughtful input from the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs. Official approval of this statement is an important step in a broader, ongoing process to address the history of marginalization and strengthen cross-cultural relations. Members of the university community will use this acknowledgment to inform, engage, and educate.