Land Acknowledgement @ FCC

To develop a land acknowledgement statement, Frederick Community College consulted representatives and elders of tribes with historic and current relations to the land recognized today as Frederick County.

In recognition of the labor and value of indigenous knowledge, we partnered with other higher education and arts institutions from around the region as well as the Maryland State Arts Council to conduct these compensated consultations.

We wish to thank Chief Mark Tayac of the Piscataway Indian Nation; Rico Newman, Elder of the Choptico Band of Piscataway-Conoy Indians; Mario Harley, Piscataway; Jess McPherson, Elder of the Susquehanna Indians; and Ayanna Proctor, Susquehanna representative.

We are committed to maintaining these partnerships and to develop programming about local indigenous communities past and present.

This land acknowledgment is based on a statement written by a Susquehanna and Shawnee elder and was adapted by Frederick Community College with information shared by Piscataway and Susquehannock tribal consultants and the Maryland State Arts Council.

Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that the place known today as Frederick County exists as the result of duress. In 1652, Susquehannock leaders unwillingly transferred these and other lands to the English in an unsuccessful effort to stop settlers from encroaching up the Susquehanna River.

We acknowledge that these places and their Indigenous inhabitants exist without rigid political borders and boundaries maintained by settlers and settler governments. The State of Maryland formally recognized the Piscataway Indian Nation and the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, but this does not account for all Indigenous inhabitants of the region past and present.

We acknowledge the social, physical, spiritual, and kinship relationships this land continues to share with the Indigenous nations of the Susquehanna River, the Potomac River and its tributary the Monocacy River, and the Chesapeake Bay. We acknowledge that these relationships have been displaced, damaged, and dispelled by colonists’ drive for acquisition and domination. We acknowledge a place out of balance. We acknowledge our occupation of these lands as uninvited visitors. We acknowledge our responsibility to Indigenous nations to repair unhealthy relationships and to steward all life. We are committed to contributing to the conversation through continuous research.

To make this statement more meaningful, we invite you to learn more about the Susquehannock and Piscataway peoples on our Land Acknowledgement LibGuide, to consider donating or making institutional resources available to tribal peoples, and to reconsider in what ways you can improve your relationship with these lands.

Last modified 11.15.2022

• Land acknowledgements can be shared and distributed in a variety of ways. These may include delivery of the statement at the beginning of an event, publishing it online, or including it in printed materials such as a course syllabus.

• The person or persons responsible for delivering it must be knowledgeable of its contents. We ask that employees of the college participate in professional development to learn about land acknowledgements, the indigenous communities in this region, and the related and ongoing work at the college.

• The occasion for land acknowledgements need not be limited to expressly Native American topics and programming. However, we are aware of the tendency for these statements to devolve into performative gestures without substance. We ask that land acknowledgements be implemented purposefully with opportunity for reflection and discussion whenever possible.

• The delivery should be accompanied by a recognition of ongoing efforts at the college and provide the intended audience with rationale and resources to learn more.