LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Land acknowledgment statements where municipalities make statements declaring the land they occupy is not their own are a more recent trend in the state of Michigan.

For example, Western Michigan University made its first land acknowledgment statement in 2019.

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The City of Ann Arbor’s environmental commission has a land acknowledgment statement that declares the city “stands, like almost all property in the United States, on lands obtained, generally in unconscionable ways, from indigenous peoples.”

More organizations, such as Michigan State University and the Michigan Library Association are putting out their own land acknowledgments. Michigan State even offers a guide on how to craft a land acknowledgment statement.

MSU Libraries has suggested going beyond land acknowledges and promoted a form of reparations.

“When you give or hear a land acknowledgment from the stolen lands on which Michigan State University resides, consider making a donation to the American Indian & Indigenous Studies program. These funds will be used for Indigenous programming at MSU and within the local community,” MSU Libraries stated on its website.

Nationally, there have been calls by activists to include American Indians in a form of reparations.

University of Michigan law professor Matthew Fletcher has been a proponent of payments being made to what he described as “Indian Country.”

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Fletcher was quoted in The Daily Mail in 2019 as being supportive of U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s comments to include Native Americans in the discussion of reparations.

Some California activists and businesses created what it called an “honor tax” that is given to the Wiyat Tribe, who have agreed to accept the voluntary contribution. The Wiyat Tribe is located near Loleta, California.