Land Acknowledgement

Official Land Acknowledgement Statement

In honor of our shared humanity and in recognition of colonial history that denies this truth, we acknowledge that Wilbur Wright College occupies and benefits from the ancestral traditional homelands of the people of the Council of Three Fires (Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa), Menominee, Miami, and Ho-Chunk nations.

Since its forming, the United States has repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, sought to forcibly remove and ethnically cleanse Indigenous people from their homelands. The Indigenous peoples of Chicago have contested and resisted the conquering regimes from the very outset. This sacred land was also a site of trade, travel, gathering, and healing for more than a dozen other Native tribes and is still home to over 100,000 tribal members in the State of Illinois.

Wright College acknowledges and teaches that colonialism is always violent and destructive and is never acceptable and never peaceful. This history of colonization informs our shared future of collaboration and innovation. These lands we stand on are stolen, not purchased, from people who sacrificed their lives and shed blood and tears protecting them. Federal, state, and local governments successfully enforced and continue to enforce policies and practices of displacement, forced assimilation, and disruption including current structural economic inequalities leading to Chicago becoming a major home for urban Indigenous peoples.

Today, Wright College respects and upholds the inherent sovereignty of these Indigenous tribes. Wright College commits to fully recognizing the painful history upon which the City of Chicago government was created, as well as the policies, systems, and structures that continue to oppress and erase Indigenous peoples today. Wright College commits to preserving and promulgating the history, culture, and stories of the Indigenous people who are the original caretakers of this land. Wright College commits as a public academic institution to share knowledge about Indigenous people with students, faculty, and staff. Wright College also commits to partner and advocate for our Indigenous neighbors as they remain stewards, caretakers, and advocates of these lands and its many resources.