Land Acknowledgement Statement

A land acknowledgement is a formal statement that recognizes the unique and enduring relationships that exist between Indigenous peoples and their ancestral territories from time immemorial. WVU, with its statewide institutional presence, resides on land that includes ancestral territories of the Shawnee, Lenape (or Delaware), Cherokee, Haudenosaunee (or Iroquois – the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, Tuscarora), and other Indigenous peoples. In acknowledging this, we recognize and appreciate those Indigenous nations whose territories we are living on and working in. We also recognize that colonialism is a current ongoing process, and as social workers seeking social, economic, and environmental justice, we need to be mindful of our present participation in this process. We thank those in the WVU Native American Studies Program for their leadership and consultation in the creation of this statement.