UT-Arlington Land Acknowledgment Statement
Background, Process, and Bibliography
Background
In the fall of 2020, a task force comprised of faculty, students, and staff interested in seeing a formal land acknowledgment adopted at UTA began convening. This committee included a core group that had previously discussed creating a commemorative site and land acknowledgment in 2018, as well as newly invited members. The impetus for the work of this task force was multifaceted—a desire to understand what had happened with our past proposal in 2018; continued student and community interest; broader discussions in academia around land acknowledgments; and institutional interest in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the wake of George Floyd’s killing and related protests. The Land Acknowledgement task force consists of: Les Riding In (Osage/Pawnee, Assistant Dean); Donna Akers (Choctaw, Associate Professor, College of Liberal Arts); Sampson Dewey (Paiute, President of Native American Students Association; Juan Albert Nungaray (Pueblo, History Ph.D. Candidate); Kenneth Roemer (Emeritus Professor, English); Ashley Lemke (Assistant Professor, Anthropology); Darryl Lauster (Professor, Art and Art History) Peggy Semingson (Associate Professor, College of Education); Paul Conrad (Associate Professor, History).
Process
The initial meeting of the Task Force took place in October 2020. At this meeting, the rationale and importance of land acknowledgment statements for recognizing the original stewards of the lands on which we now live were discussed. One task force member (Juan Albert Nungaray) had been a leader of a similar effort at a neighboring university, Texas Christian University: https://www.tcu.edu/native-american-indigenous-peoples/native-american-land-acknowledgment.php
The committee first created an initial draft acknowledgment statement that built upon Juan Albert Nungaray’s work at TCU (and TCU’s statement) and his consultation with the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. TCU’s statement highlighted the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes for particular mention while also acknowledging “all Native American peoples who have lived on this land.” While our committee had existing expertise (including of historians Dr. Donna Akers and Dr. Paul Conrad), Dr. Conrad also re-examined the peer-reviewed scholarship on Native American history and Native homelands in North Texas as we created our own draft statement and confirmed TCU’s past work. This review confirmed the particular importance of North Texas for groups enrolled within the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. While other tribal nations have traveled through or been present in the DFW area historically, the groups for whom the Arlington area had been most enduringly important are the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. In addition, groups associated with the Caddo nation, including the Keechi (who are now enrolled in Wichita and Affiliated Tribes) had also built a village in the area of what is now Arlington by the early-1840s. That history warrants special mention, which is why Caddo Nation is also named in the statement. Dr. Roemer also reached out to two Caddo nation citizens, including a former Tribal Council Member, for their feedback. Key scholarly works on the importance of Wichita and Caddo nations and their attachments to the Arlington area are also highlighted in the bibliography below.
In addition, because one critique of land acknowledgment statements is that they can have the unintended consequence of suggesting that Native peoples are “of the past,” we also took care in our statement to highlight the continued presence of Native Americans in Arlington and North Texas in the present. The history of the Indian relocation program, a federal policy to move Natives from reservations to cities after World War II, was especially important in shaping the contemporary DFW area Native community and we felt warranted a special mention. Relevant works on that history are included in the bibliography below.
The initial draft was discussed in-depth at subsequent meetings, including honing the tone and clarity of the statement. A statement was then brought to the Faculty Senate, which voted in favor on January 27, 2021. A slightly revised statement (based on further discussions and feedback from Senators) was then brought back to the Senate and passed on April 28, 2021. President Teik Lim formally approved the statement on December 1, 2021. The two versions of the statement as adopted are as follows:
University of Texas Arlington Land Acknowledgement Statement
UT Arlington respectfully acknowledges the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes upon whose historical homelands this university is located. Their ancestors resided here for generations before being forcibly displaced by U.S. settlers and soldiers in the mid-1800s. We recognize the historical presence of the Caddo Nation and other Tribal Nations in the region; the ongoing presence and achievements of many people who moved to the area due to the Indian Relocation program of the 1950s and 1960s; and the vital presence and accomplishments of our Native students, faculty, and staff.
Suggested Abridged Version for Email Signatures and Similar Uses
UT Arlington respectfully acknowledges the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes upon whose historical homelands this university is located. We recognize the historical presence of the Caddo Nation and other Tribal Nations in the region.
FAQs
Who does “Wichita and Affiliated Tribes” and “Caddo Nation” refer to, and why aren’t other tribes mentioned by name in the UTA Land Acknowledgement Statement?
The statement references contemporary tribal nations that have members that belonged to Native groups that viewed what is now Arlington and its vicinity as homeland at the time of white settlement and for generations before. The long history of colonialism deeply shaped who survived to form the tribal nations we know today. Many contemporary nations include people of diverse ancestries. The Wichita and Affiliated tribes have members of tribal groups that viewed this area as home at the time of white settlement (such as the Tawakoni, Waco). The Keechi, who were viewed historically as Caddo but are now enrolled in Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, also had a village in what is now Arlington. Other ancestors of the contemporary Caddo nation were also in the DFW area at the time of white settlement due especially to displacement by white settlement from East Texas. The focus on contemporary tribal nations is intentional, since part of the idea of these statements is to acknowledge the descendants of those who were removed/displaced.
It is true that other Native Americans have lived in or traveled through the Arlington area or North Texas over time, such as the Comanche. However, it was ancestors of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, and secondarily, the Caddo Nation, for whom this place was most important. The presence of other tribes like the Comanche is acknowledged, however, in the reference to the historical presence of “other Tribal nations” in the region.
Were the lands that UT-Arlington is on ceded voluntarily by tribes in treaty negotiations, such as the Bird’s Fort Treaty (signed in the Arlington area in 1843), which seems like a mutual treaty with respectful language?
Treaties were almost always “respectful“ in language, if not in outcome or power relations. To understand treaties we have to understand the reality (and threat) of violence that undergirded them and influenced Native people to sign them. Equally importantly, there is no cession language in the 1843 Bird’s Fort Treaty.
See https://www.tsl.texas.gov/treasures/indians/birds-01.html
Is it accurate to state that settlers and soldiers “forcibly displaced” Native Americans?
Yes, the forced displacement of Indigenous peoples from Texas, north Texas, and the Arlington area specifically, is well-supported in the historical record. Most specific to the area of UT-Arlington were the campaigns led by General Edward Tarrant, including an attack on a Keechi (present-day Wichita and Affiliated Tribes) village on the Three Forks of the Trinity River in 1841, which Task Force member Donna Akers has researched thoroughly. As she has found, this was led by General Edward Tarrant and his soldiers, who advocated taking no prisoners and killing every male over the age of 15, though some of the women and children escaped. Known as the ‘Battle of Village Creek,’ this took place near present-day Arlington. It was followed up by an expedition conducted by General James Smith, who killed refugees and other Indigenous people in the vicinity. John Neely Bryan, recognized today as the ‘founder’ of Dallas, and John B. Denton, for whom Denton County is named, both participated and were soon after able to lay claim to large areas of this now ‘vacant’ land after this violence. (See also Gary Clayton Anderson, The Conquest of Texas, 191-194).
Why does the statement mention 20th century history and the present-day?
One critique of land acknowledgment statements is that they can have the unintended consequence of suggesting that Native peoples are “of the past.” We felt it important to make this a living document and to highlight the fact that UT-Arlington and the DFW area more broadly has a vibrant Native community in the present. This is in part because of the history of the Indian relocation program, a federal policy to move Natives from reservations to cities after World War II, which was especially important in shaping the contemporary Native community of our area. The historical importance of this program is why it is mentioned specifically in the longer version of our statement.
Bibliography
On the importance of North Texas (and Arlington area specifically) to Wichita and Affiliated Tribes and Violent Displacement of Indigenous peoples from the DFW Area, North Texas, and Texas:
Gary Clayton Anderson, The Indian Southwest, 1580-1830: Ethnogenesis and Reinvention (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), especially 145-180.
Gary Clayton Anderson, The Conquest of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing in the Promised Land, 1820-1875 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005), especially 54-75.
Juliana Barr, Peace Came in the Form of a Woman: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007), especially 72-86 and 163-224.
F. Todd Smith, The Caddo Indians: Tribes at the Convergence of Empires, 1542-1854 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2000).
F. Todd Smith, The Wichita Indians: Traders of Texas and the Southern Plains, 1540-1845 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2000).
F. Todd Smith, From Dominance to Disappearance: The Indians of Texas and the Near Southwest, 1786-1859 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005).
On post-19th century of Indigenous presence in the DFW Area:
Douglas Miller, Indians on the Move: Native American Mobility and Urbanization in the Twentieth Century.
Farina King (Diné), “Voices of Indigenous Dallas-Fort Worth from Relocation to the Dakota Access Pipeline Controversy, Family & Community History 24, 2, p. 147-174.
‘A CALL TO ACTION’ [press release]
UTA issues Native American Land Acknowledgement
Click here for the original press release statement by Devynn Case of UTA Communications.
Task force members
- Les Riding In, Osage/Pawnee, assistant dean and director of graduate programs, College of Liberal Arts
- Donna Akers, Choctaw, associate professor, College of Liberal Arts
- Sampson Dewey, Paiute, president of UTA’s Native American Student Association
- Juan Albert Nungaray, Pueblo, history PhD candidate
- Kenneth Roemer, emeritus professor, Department of English
- Ashley Lemke, assistant professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
- Darryl Lauster, professor, Department of Art and Art History
- Peggy Semingson, associate professor, Department of Linguistics and TESOL
- Paul Conrad, associate professor, Department of History
- David Hopman, associate professor, College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs
- Morgan Chivers, associate librarian, UTA Libraries