The Kellogg Biological Station Long Term Ecological Research Program acknowledges that Michigan State University occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary Lands of the Anishinaabeg – Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples. In particular, the University resides on Land ceded in the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw, and the Station resides on Land ceded in the 1821 Treaty of Chicago. We recognize, support, and advocate for the sovereignty of Michigan’s twelve federally-recognized Indian nations, for historic Indigenous communities in Michigan, for Indigenous individuals and communities who live here now, and for those who were forcibly removed from their Homelands. By offering this Land Acknowledgement, we affirm Indigenous sovereignty and will work to hold Michigan State University more accountable to the needs of American Indian and Indigenous peoples.
The KBS LTER is striving to go beyond the Land acknowledgement by making connections with the two Potawatomi Tribes who steward the Kalamazoo River watershed – the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi (NHBP) and the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi (Gun Lake Tribe). We are taking the first steps to build relationships – attending events and listening, while looking for areas of connection and shared goals that can result in meaningful action.
For more information on land acknowledgements, visit the MSU website.