Cottonwood School Land Acknowledgement

 

Indigenous LandWe recognize and offer thanks to the many Indigenous tribes and bands who have lived on and cared for the land we now know as Portland. These include the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlemet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin Kalapuya, Molalla, and many other tribes who have made their homes along the Columbia and Willamette rivers since Time Immemorial.

 

We acknowledge that this land was stolen from Native Peoples through United States federal policies such as the Land Donation Act and numerous broken treaties. We recognize that the Indigenous peoples of Oregon have faced decimation from plagues and disease, forced relocation, forced cultural assimilation, discrimination, tribal termination, and attempted genocide.

 

We also recognize that Native Peoples continue to live and thrive across the state and within the Portland region today, within the tribal lands of the nine federally recognized tribes and in the city of Portland which has one of the largest Urban Indian populations in the country. We offer deep gratitude for the many ways that Native peoples and tribes contribute to our collective well-being through offerings of knowledge, time commitment, physical effort, funds, and employment. Our intention is to support their work in on-going stewardship of this land we now share and to be willing learners of other ways of knowing.

 

As a center of learning, Cottonwood commits to building strong connections to Oregon’s Indigenous communities, both in and outside of our school. Our intention is to be in right relationship, and to ground our work in the awareness of place, presence, perspective, power, political nationhood, and partnerships. We call on everyone in our extended community to learn more and to join us in our journey to live intentionally on Indigenous land.

 

 

 

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