Acknowledgement for Events

“Today, I am joining you at this event in Texas. On behalf of myself as a TCEA staff member, I acknowledge and honor the ancestral lands of the past, present, and future people who are the original inhabitants. 

As such, I would like to acknowledge the many benefits I have of being in this place. It is a space all of us share with all living beings, human and non-human. It is an ancient space where others have lived before us. Learn more about the peoples who have lived on this land through this resource, this podcast, and Native Land Digital website.

I respectfully acknowledge all Native American peoples who have lived on this land since time immemorial."

Thank you, 

Miguel Guhlin

I acknowledge the Indigenous Peoples connected to this land: the Tonkawa, the Apache, the Ysleta del sur Pueblo, the Lipan Apache Tribe, the Texas Band of Yaqui Indians, the Coahuitlecan, the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, the Kickapoo Tribe of Texas, Carrizo & Comecrudo, Tigua Pueblo, Caddo, Comanche, Kiowa, Wichita, Chickasaw, and Waco peoples.

I acknowledge the San Antonio River as Yanaguana, (Spirit Waters in Pajalate) as the source of life for this city and commit to protecting her, all her tributaries and connected waters and this land called Texas as Somi Sek to the Esto’k Gna people who are called Carrizo-Comecrudo by the Spanish, today and for future generations.

I acknowledge this place known as San Antonio as the traditional homeland of many Native American peoples who are called Coahuiltecan by Spanish records. 200 tribes/bands/clans were documented in historical records and include the Payaya, Auteca Paguame, Jarame, Pompopa, and Borrado, as well as other aboriginal peoples such as the Carrizo-Comecrudo who continue to carry their traditional lifeways.

I acknowledge these Indigenous various communities as the traditional people of this land now called San Antonio, Texas.

I acknowledge this homeland that would later include Comanches and Lipan Apaches in the 1700's, as a place that is now home to nearly 30,000 Urban Indians spanning from tribes across the North, Central, and South America who continue to sustain their traditional languages and customs.

Adapted and excerpts from San Antonio College Land Acknowledgement 

The Wichita and Affiliated Tribes have lived for hundreds of years in a region stretching from what is now Kansas down to near Waco, Texas; including what eventually became the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The Wichita, or Kir ikir?i:s, consisted of several bands of Caddoan-speaking peoples, including the Wichita, Waco, Tawakoni, Kichai (Keechi), Iscani, Taovaya and others.

The Caddo confederacy resided for centuries in lands located in portions of what became the states of Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, with its western edges reaching into what would become the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

The Caddo included three large groups: the Cadohadacho (“Caddo” became a shortened form which was eventually applied to all three groups), the Natchitoches and the Hasinai (who inhabited east Texas).

Other tribes have come at different times to what is called north and east Texas, residing for varying periods. These include peoples of the Comanche, Kiowa, Cherokee, and Alabama-Coushatta nations, as well as many others.

After Texas worked with the United States for more than a century to expel Native Americans from its borders, the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex participated (along with other cities across the nation) in a federal effort to bring them back under the Indian Relocation Act of 1956, attempting to persuade Native Americans to assimilate into American society.

Today, tens of thousands of Native Americans live in the metroplex, representing over 200 tribal nations. 

Adapted and excerpts from Texas Christian University website