Starting in November 2025, we often sign up for the pubic comment period of City Council meetings to read a land acknowledgment to honor the Indigenous Peoples of this area. We hope to do this until City Councilors vote to include it in normal proceedings, as this failed to pass in 2022.
What exactly is a land acknowledgment and why is it important? Learn more.
We would like to acknowledge the Naumkeg People, as this was their ancestral land, until disease, war, slavery, and colonization displaced them from their homeland. The Naumkeag People were part of the Massachusett Alliance, and their descendents are now included in many tribal nations across the northeast. We recognize our obligations to this land and to the Indigenous People who care for it.
This meeting takes place on the unceded ancestral lands of the Naumkeag and Pawtucket bands of the Massachusett Tribe, from whom the Commonwealth of Massachusetts took its name. With deep respect and gratitude, we acknowledge the Indigenous caretakers of these lands and waters who have lived here for thousands of years—and who live here in diverse Indigenous communities today.