Honoring Native Land
Acknowledging the First People at Glen Urquhart School
Last month, we shared the GUS land acknowledgment on Indigenous Peoples’ Day. As we head into the Thanksgiving Holiday break, and reflect on our promise to ask who writes the stories, who benefits from the stories, and who is missing from the stories, we want to take this opportunity to explain why we wrote a land acknowledgment, why it’s important, and where we plan to go next as we continue to recognize and honor those who came before us.
Why do we write a Land Acknowledgement?
A land acknowledgment honors the people who were on the land first. It recognizes indigenous peoples and their connection to the land. “Acknowledgment is a simple, powerful way of showing respect and a step toward correcting the stories and practices that erase Indigenous people’s history and culture and toward inviting and honoring the truth.” Twelve thousand years ago, human beings lived on the land we now call the Glen Urquhart School campus. They fished salmon from the waters, harvested the acorns from the oak trees, and the needles from the white pines. They grew corn, beans, and squash. They used wetland plants for both food and medicine. To write a land acknowledgment is the start of knowing the Abenaki, Penacook, and Wabanaki people, some who still live here, and some who don’t. It’s a way to start understanding what they gave, and what was taken from them. It’s a beginning for us to find out about what we can learn, and what we can do to help.
How did the GUS land acknowledgment come about?
Our land acknowledgment grew out of an ongoing journey. In sixth grade, when the theme is the people, the students explore the stone structures in Beverly Commons adjacent to the school, investigating whether those cultural stone landscapes were arranged by colonial settlers or by the indigenous people of this area. Over the years we have searched written records, studied maps, reached out to experts, connected with the United South and Eastern Tribes, invited researchers to GUS to speak to our students and answer their questions, and visited the ancient solar observatory on Pole Hill in Gloucester with the people who discovered it. But, when we wanted to acknowledge and thank the people for whom Indian Hill near GUS was named, who enjoyed the shellfish and seafood at West Beach, whose feet formed the road we now call Route 127, it was still hard to know how - records were written by people who didn’t understand the local way of life, and the cultural tradition was interrupted by disease, genocide, displacement, and assimilation. As we learned more about the people who lived their lives here for thousands of years, and came to understand all that colonization took from them, the more we realized we wanted to know and share their stories and acknowledge their history - and continued presence - here.
Over the summer, we (Elliott Buck, Emilie Cushing, Chris Doyle, and Christine Draper) began a faculty committee with the goal of incorporating more lessons about the indigenous people who inhabited the land here at GUS into our pre-k to grade eight curriculum. Their discussions eventually led to the need for a land acknowledgment. In order to properly recognize and honor the first people, they needed to learn more about them. Through discussion and research, including a trip to Strawberry Banke, where they were fortunate to meet with Paul and Denise Pouliot, Council Leaders of the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook Abenaki People, the GUS land acknowledgment was drafted. Soon after, it was approved by the board of trustees and formalized on the GUS website. It is now read by students at the beginning of every All School Meeting as a way to help spread awareness of the first people of our land.
What’s Next?
We are constantly thinking about what we can do as a community to go deeper - to learn more - and further - to take action - in our recognition of the indigenous peoples who were here before us. Over the last month, during partner time, students spent time writing and illustrating what they appreciate, honor, and respect about N’dakinna. This artwork is now displayed as a quilt of sorts in the Lower School. Additional grade-level activities, which may become school-wide, have included:
The Water Walker: Second and third grade students read The Water Walker by Joanne Robertson, in which they learned about an Ojibwe grandmother (nokomis) who walked around the Great Lakes to raise awareness of the need to protect and respect water (nibi) for future generations. Afterwards, they discussed ways we use and respect water, at home and on campus, and were inspired to go on a water walk to honor the water on our campus.
People of the White Pines: Second and seventh grade students harvested white pine needles on campus to make white pine tea. White pine, which is high in vitamin C, was and still is used by the Cowasuck band of the Abenaki people for medicinal purposes. They tasted the tea, toasted to the Cowasuck, or "people of the white pines," who were and are still connected to this land.
Corn Husk Dolls: Second and seventh graders learned about the legend of the doll with no face. Husk dolls are made without faces to show that it’s more important to consider others’ feelings rather than focusing on how we look. Before making their own corn husk dolls, students also learned about the three sister crops - corn, beans, and squash.
Land acknowledgment is only one small part of supporting Indigenous communities, and alone it is not enough. It’s merely a starting point. So, we continue to ask ourselves: what can we do to take action to support Native communities?
How can you take action? Support Native American organizations by donating time and/or money to Indigenous-led organizations and/or amplify the voices of Indigenous people leading grassroots change movements, like: