Walking on this land, in a time of so-called peace, is normally a thoughtless act. There are no landmines on the path but violence shadows the path’s past. This land is called Massachusetts and it used to be Nipmuc land. It was the site of battles many histories ignore, from battles with indigenous peoples to violence against enslaved peoples. The United States of America is a settler colony—where colonizers stole land from its Indigenous people and where they continue to steal land today (see here for reporting on the current Supreme Court cases on Cherokee sovereignty in Oklahoma). This land is the site of an attempted genocide by the British colonizers that has flowed into US policies and laws today.

Land acknowledgments are ways that walkers of this land can disrupt the contemporary erasures of violence. Dr. Hayden King, an indigenous scholar in Ontario, recommends that non-Indigenous peoples “recognize the fact that they are on Indigenous land, and to provoke action among them.” The non-governmental organization, USDAC, offers several free downloadable posters to acknowledge these lands on public places and to disrupt ideas about seemingly un-contaminated spaces.

In addition, the United American Indians of New England hold a National Day of Mourning on Coles Hill in Plymouth, Ma every Thanksgiving. It is open to non-Native people to listen to to the Indigenous speakers and to remember the ancestors of the Natives who were murdered on this land. People have gathered there to mourn there every year since 1970.

These landmines acknowledge histories.

How can you act?

How can you honor the indigenous peoples of this land?

How can walking become a thoughtful act?

Works cited

Dolan, Jess. “Words matter: How do we begin to acknowledge Brattleboro, Vermont as an Indigenous place?” in Peoples, Places, and the History of Words in Brattleboro, VT. http://brattleborowords.org/project/research_contribution_jessica_dolan/?fbclid=IwAR1pMZJ3j9gGcwzl63SQs4vmscX8DBxxYgwYTHXqg9PBI8l1ZWyyPQ3gYc4 2020