Land Acknowledgement

UC Davis (land acknowledgement written by Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation and approved by three Patwin tribes in 2022.)

We should take a moment to acknowledge the land on which we are gathered. For thousands of years, this land has been the home of Patwin people. Today, there are three federally recognized Patwin tribes: Cachil DeHe Band of Wintun Indians of the Colusa Indian Community, Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation, and Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.

The Patwin people have remained committed to the stewardship of this land over many centuries. It has been cherished and protected, as elders have instructed the young through generations. We are honored and grateful to be here today on their traditional lands.

Stratton Island and the greater Saco Bay (land acknowledgement written by the Upper Saco Valley Land Trust in 2021.)

As a conservation organization with a mission to preserve land for community benefit, the Upper Saco Valley Land Trust has a responsibility to acknowledge that the portion of New Hampshire and Maine in which we operate is the unceded ancestral homeland of the Wabanaki (meaning “People of the Dawn”), including the Pequawket, Ossipee, and Abenaki. The sacred relationship of the Wabanaki to this land and these waters stretches beyond time immemorial, more than 12,000 years.

Over the past 500 years, white European colonists displaced, dispossessed, and killed many of this region’s Indigenous people through settlement, disease, conflict, and political mistreatment. Much of the Wabanaki’s rich history, culture, accumulated wisdom and environmental knowledge has been erased.

Not enough is known about how exactly the coastal Abenaki interacted with Maine’s many offshore islands. However, Georgiana Chase’s Stratton’s Islands of Saco Bay: An Interwoven History, 1605-1993 indicates that indigenous communities at least viewed Stratton Island as a trading post and stopover for marine commerce in the region.

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