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How to Conduct a Land Acknowledgement

   By Joshua Arce

In recent years, land acknowledgements have become common at conferences, classrooms, and public gatherings. Their growing visibility raises an important question:

What does it really mean to acknowledge the land, and what responsibility comes with saying those words?

Land acknowledgements can be powerful. They can also be hollow. The difference lies in intention, knowledge, and action.

Recognition Is a Beginning, Not a Conclusion

At their core, land acknowledgements recognize the Indigenous peoples whose relationships to a place extend across generations and continue today through sovereign Tribal Nations. This matters because public narratives have long treated Native Americans as figures of the past rather than present-day Nations. Naming specific cultures rooted in a place challenge that erasure. It interrupts our assumptions that public spaces simply belong to those who occupy them now.

But recognition alone does not change material conditions. Naming history is meaningful, but it does not restore land, repair relationships, or address inequality. That tension is where both the promise and the criticism of land acknowledgements emerge.

The Problem With Empty Words

Critics warn that land acknowledgements can become routine, performative, or symbolic gestures that demand nothing further. Delivered quickly at the start of an event, they can function like a script— spoken, then forgotten. When detached from real engagement, acknowledgements risk recognizing dispossession without addressing what comes next.

Kevin Gover, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, has cautioned that acknowledgement without action can unintentionally reinforce the idea that Indigenous peoples belong only to history. If we speak only of past presence without present partnership, the message remains incomplete.

As a result, many institutions might rethink how and why they acknowledge land. The question is no longer “Should we acknowledge the land?” It is “What responsibility follows when we do?”

What Makes a Land Acknowledgement Meaningful

There is no universal script, but meaningful acknowledgements share several common features.

They are specific. A meaningful acknowledgement names the actual Nations connected to the land, using correct names and pronunciation. General references to “Indigenous peoples” are not enough. Take the time to research the history of your community.

They recognize continuity. Indigenous Nations are not historical artifacts. They maintain governance, culture, and community today. Acknowledgements that speak only in the past tense fail to recognize modern presence.

They take responsibility. Why are you acknowledging this land? What does your presence mean? What obligations follow from recognizing that history? Acknowledgement is just as much relational as it is descriptive. It defines how you understand your role and your responsibilities going forward.

A meaningful acknowledgement, in other words, is informed, intentional, and accountable.

Moving From Recognition to Relationship

If acknowledgement is the first step, relationship must be the next.

Across sectors, leaders are beginning to recognize that respecting Indigenous relationships to land requires partnership with Indigenous people themselves. That can include:

  • Consulting with Tribal Nations when developing programs or policies that affect their communities
  • Supporting Indigenous-led initiatives financially
  • Inviting Indigenous leadership into decision-making roles
  • Advocating policies that uphold treaty rights and sovereignty
  • Compensating communities for knowledge, consultation, and collaboration

These actions can make the difference between symbolism and transformative change.

Some institutions now pair their land acknowledgements with public commitments—scholarship programs, land stewardship agreements, revenue sharing, or ongoing partnerships. Others treat acknowledgement as an entry point for education, ensuring staff and participants understand local Tribal histories and modern issues.

Why This Moment Matters

As the United States marks 250 years since its establishment as a nation, we should reflect on the history that shaped this country. Land acknowledgements are a chance to open discussions about how that history evolved alongside Native Americans, and how Native peoples continue to shape development today.

Land acknowledgement is a way to confront that shared history honestly. But reflection alone is not enough. This milestone should also invite a chance to recognize history’s consequences.

Recognizing Indigenous land invites us to learn local histories, listen to Native voices, and support Native-led work in meaningful ways. It means building relationships grounded in respect, reciprocity, and accountability. It’s an opportunity to become NativeAware™.

Acknowledgement can open awareness.
Allyship begins when awareness leads to action.

A Land Acknowledgement from Partnership With Native Americans

At Partnership With Native Americans, we ground our work in the understanding that we operate on the traditional, ancestral, and present-day homelands of Indigenous peoples.

Our warehouse in Rapid City, South Dakota, operates in the lands of the Tséstho’e (Cheyenne) and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (the Great Sioux Nation, represented here by the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota peoples). These lands are imbued with their history, laws, and spirit.

Additionally, we root our work in Phoenix, Arizona, a city built on O’odham Jeweḍ, the ancestral and present-day land of the O’odham (Akimel and Tohono) and Piipaash (Maricopa) peoples. Their deep knowledge of desert life and water stewardship continues to shape this region.

Furthermore, we acknowledge that our office in Dallas, Texas, sits on the traditional lands of the Wichita, Caddo, and Comanche peoples, as well as other Tribal Nations who have cared for the Trinity River basin and surrounding prairies for centuries.

Our commitment to these lands and waters is not our own design, but is guided by the leadership, knowledge, and expressed needs of the Tribal Nations and reservation-based programs who are the original and ongoing stewards of this place. We act in service to their immediate care for community and their long-term visions for sovereignty and well-being.

In every delivery of supplies and in every partnership for capacity-building, we strive to walk respectfully, to listen deeply, and to uphold our responsibility to both the people and the land itself. This relationship grounds us and guides us in our mission to serve immediate needs and support long-term solutions.