The Northwest Forest Plan Just Futures Symposium acknowledges that the 24.5 million acres of land included in the Northwest Forest Plan Amendment is, was, and will always be Indigenous land. The plan area includes more than 80 Tribal nations and many more Indigenous communities who have stewarded this land since time immemorial. We acknowledge that the 17 National Forests, 7 Bureau of Land Management districts, 6 National Parks, and the National Wildlife Refuges and Department of Defense lands across Washington, Oregon, and California included in the plan were established through the forced removal of Tribal nations and communities, enacted by the United States federal government in violation of Treaty Rights.

We furthermore acknowledge that Tribal nations and Indigenous communities today maintain their relationships with these lands and have been at the forefront of movements to change federal forest management to mitigate the impacts of climate change, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, and catastrophic wildfires through the (re)assertion of their cultural practices. It is through these ongoing Indigenous-led efforts that federal forest management has and will continue to change.

Finally, we recognize that land acknowledgements are but one small effort to affirm Indigenous presence and signal our commitment to Tribal sovereignty in forest management. Understanding that land acknowledgements are so often understood temporally, not spatially, which abstracts efforts to connect Indigenous presence with the physical lands in question, we appeal to those who share our commitment to Tribal sovereignty to remember this land acknowledgement as you live, work, and recreate in forests.

 

The Northwest Forest Plan Just Futures Symposium is hosted at the University of Oregon, on Kalapuya Ilihi.

 

 

 

Resources for Thinking Critically about Land Acknowledgements

Native Governance Center, “Beyond Land Acknowledgements: A Guide”

New York Times Opinion, “Enough with the Land Acknowledgements”

NPR, “So you began your event with an Indigenous land acknowledgement. Now what?”