Territorial Acknowledgements

Adoptee Literary and Art Archive was born out of the academy, at the University of Oregon on Kalapuya Ilihi, the traditional indigenous homeland of the Kalapuya people. This project seeks to uplift adoptee voices and environmentalisms; acknowledging the colonial history of the land University or Oregon occupies is essential to this work.

The National Indian Child Welfare Association found that “Native families are four times more likely to have their children removed and placed in foster care than their White counterparts,” and caseworkers’ compliance with U.S. federal law has been “uneven at best” (National Indian Child Welfare Association). Although digital, the archive occurs in both academic and non-academic spaces which occupy Native lands throughout the U.S and internationally. We express our respect for Indigenous and settler transracial adoptees within and beyond this archive and hope to contribute to ongoing conversations towards our collective liberation.

Territorial Acknowledgement from the University of Oregon

The University of Oregon is located on Kalapuya Ilihi, the traditional indigenous homeland of the Kalapuya people. Following treaties between 1851 and 1855, Kalapuya people were dispossessed of their indigenous homeland by the United States government and forcibly removed to the Coast Reservation in Western Oregon. Today, Kalapuya descendants are primarily citizens of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and they continue to make important contributions to their communities, to the UO, to Oregon, and to the world.

In following the Indigenous protocol of acknowledging the original people of the land we occupy, we also extend our respect to the nine federally recognized Indigenous Nations of Oregon: the Burns Paiute Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, the Coquille Indian Tribe, the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, and the Klamath Tribes. We express our respect to the many more tribes who have ancestral connections to this territory, as well as to all other displaced Indigenous peoples who call Oregon home. Hayu masi.

References

National Indian Child Welfare Association, “About ICWA.” National Indian Child Welfare Association, https://www.nicwa.org/about-icwa/, Accessed 31 May 2022.