LAND & WATER ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Land & Water Acknowledgement
Land is more than just dirt beneath your feet. It represents a grounding in our universe and a place you can call home. The land that the Minnesota Discovery Center sits upon today is the ancestral homeland of the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples. When you visit the Minnesota Discovery Center, the ground where you walk was, is, and will remain sacred for indigenous peoples.
However, land is not the only sacred resource in northern Minnesota. The connecting waters and the plentiful mahnonen (wild rice) are spiritually integral to the Ojibwe people, specifically our region’s Bois Forte Band. Guided by principles such as Nibi Bimaadiziwin (water gives life), it is believed within many indigenous communities that to harm or threaten water is to hurt yourself, your family, your people, and the land we all live upon.
As you walk the grounds of the Minnesota Discovery Center during your visit, understand the entire history of this area. The land and the water have always been here, and with our thoughtful care and stewardship of the land, it will be here for future generations, too.
As stewards of accurate history, museums are responsible for acknowledging previously hidden or ignored history. By doing the bare minimum and recognizing that we are on “stolen” land, we can help begin to heal the damage done by historical neglect.
Furthermore, land acknowledgments are a long-standing cultural practice in many Native nations and communities that go back centuries. As such, we want to recognize the land our museum (the Minnesota Discovery Center) sits upon, express our gratitude and appreciation for it, and remember the original caretakers of this land.
If you want to learn more about the history of the land we situate, we suggest studying the 1854 Treaty. This document ceded land to the United States by the Ojibwe. Its history is very complicated.
Feel free to explore the following links for additional insight: