I split my time between two different locations in the so-called United States of America, one in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains, which is the contemporary and ancestral territory of the Monacan people, and one in the upper Midwest along a body of water that French colonizers referred to as “the strait,” which is the contemporary and ancestral territory of the three Anishinaabe nations of the Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Potawatomi peoples. This city, which is the subject of my dissertation, was named Waawiyatanong and functioned as a trading center for the Anishinaabe prior to European contact. I acknowledge that the land on which I live and study is the traditional territory of these peoples and remains their homeland. I have at different times in my life been a guest on land belonging to the Monacan, Anishinaabe, Cherokee, and Chickasaw peoples, to whom I give gratitude. I am especially grateful to the Anishinaabe peoples for allowing my Armenian refugee ancestors to find safety on their land. I believe that it is not possible to destroy white supremacy or prevent climate apocalypse without giving the land back.
Here are the sources I used to craft this land acknowledgement: