AADL Land Acknowledgement

The Context

The Ann Arbor District Library is a public institution founded on the ancestral and contemporary lands of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi tribes that make up the Anishinaabe Council of Three Fires, as well as lands once inhabited by the Peoria, Sac and Fox, and Wyandot tribes. The land was seized through the 1807 Treaty of Detroit and the 1817 Treaty of Fort Meigs, and many Indigenous people were violently forced to leave as a result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

The Library stands upon land that was forcibly and dishonestly taken from the Indigenous peoples. These harms cannot be undone, but we can work towards reconciliation. The Anishinaabe and other Indigenous peoples are part of the community today, and maintain their relationships with the living lands.

The Acknowledgement

The Ann Arbor District Library acknowledges that it benefits from the colonization of Indigenous lands. The Library pledges to support Indigenous people and culture through partnership with, and recognition of, Anishinaabek artists, writers, teachers, and performers.

The Challenge

We recognize it is our responsibility to face the uncomfortable, and continue to educate ourselves, to understand what colonization and land dispossession mean. Please take a moment to reflect, what is your relationship with this land? What does it mean that this land was taken from its Indigenous inhabitants? Acknowledge is a verb, a doing word—what should we do now?

The AADL Land Acknowledgement is presented at the beginning of library events related to Indigenous Culture, History, or Peoples. The Library is beginning a project to have the Acknowledgement made into plaques by Indigenous artists to hang in the entries of AADL facilities. If you have any concerns or questions about this statement or process, please contact us. For more information about the treaties and history of Indigenous peoples in Michigan, please visit AADL's Treaty Page.