Land Acknowledgment Statement

There is more to what is in front of us than what we see; history provides the context that enables us to understand ourselves, each other, and our shared environment.

The Duluth Family Medicine Clinic opened its doors in 1975 and has been training Family Medicine physicians to provide comprehensive care to their communities ever since, by training them to take care of the communities of Onigamiinsing “At the Little Portage” (Duluth), Gete-oodena “The Old Town” (Superior), and the larger North Shore of Gitchigami “The Great Water” (Lake Superior).

The land our clinic calls home is the traditional homeland of the Eastern Dakota “Friend” and Anishinaabeg “The First Peoples”. The Eastern Dakota people originally inhabited this land until they were eventually forced westward after a long series of battles that ended in the eighteenth century. 

In 1854, the Anishinaabeg inhabiting and stewarding this area signed The Second Treaty of La Pointe, in which they ceded this land along with other land of the Arrowhead Region of Northeastern Minnesota to the US Government in exchange for the establishment of reservations near their traditional homeland and to retain hunting, fishing and gathering rights in the land they were ceding. They entered into this agreement only after President Zachary Taylor ordered the forcible removal of the Anishinaabeg from their traditional homelands and forced them to travel far away to Sandy Lake to receive treaty payments. This resulted in the Sandy Lake Tragedy, where over 400 Anishinaabeg died during the winter of 1850, waiting for treaty payments that never came.

Despite those sacrifices and the tragedies that occurred as a result, the Anishinaabeg continue to reside here and maintain a commitment not only to their own people and culture but to the land and water that support them. For all its inhabitants, especially its Original Inhabitants, this land has long provided all things necessary for us to flourish.

We at the Duluth Family Medicine Clinic acknowledge the sacrifices of the Anishinaabeg and express gratitude for their ongoing care of this place. We strive to be in good relationship with our local Anishinaabeg community and to improve the health of not only their Nations but the other inhabitants of Gitchigami’s North Shore as well.