Land Acknowledgment 

Let us begin in gratitude for Mother Earth and Father Sky who sustain our lives. We also celebrate the entire web of life to which we are inseparably connected: animals and plants, mountains and waters, forests and deserts.

Truth and acknowledgment are essential to creating and nurturing life-giving communities. So, we recall the history of violence, displacement, migration, and settlement that bring us to this moment. We remember the indigenous peoples who lived here as caretakers of the land for thousands of years before people of European descent came to this territory. We particularly acknowledge the Chinook People on whose ancestral and unceded lands our homes and workplaces stand, as well as numerous other groups of First People who lived nearby, harvesting the abundance of creation: the Multnomah, Kathlament, Clackamas, Cowlitz, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla and many other Peoples. We pay respects to their elders, past and present. We acknowledge the Native peoples who live here now and continue to care for the Earth with us and with other current inhabitants. Together, we will continue honoring this sacred land for as long as we draw breath.

~ Tom McLaughlin