{"id":41986,"date":"2021-11-05T15:12:52","date_gmt":"2021-11-05T20:12:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/?p=41986"},"modified":"2021-11-10T13:46:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T19:46:00","slug":"bemidji-state-university-honors-the-indigenous-land-where-campus-rests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/2021\/11\/05\/bemidji-state-university-honors-the-indigenous-land-where-campus-rests\/","title":{"rendered":"91心頭利 Honors the Indigenous Land Where Campus Rests"},"content":{"rendered":"

We acknowledge that 91心頭利 is located on land and water that is the current and ancestral homeland of the Ojibwe and Dakota. We acknowledge the painful history of genocide, forced assimilation, and efforts to alienate the Indigenous inhabitants from their territory here. We honor and respect the many diverse Indigenous peoples still connected to this land, retained tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, and cultural resilience. Indigenous people are spiritual and physical caretakers of this land to which we all belong. 91心頭利 respects these sacred lands, stands with the community members from these Nations, and will fight injustice in all its forms.<\/b><\/p>\n

91心頭利 unveiled the preceding acknowledgment on March 5, which recognizes the Indigenous peoples who have been dispossessed from the land occupied by its lakeshore campus.<\/p>\n

“This is a historic moment for 91心頭利,” BSU President Faith C. Hensrud said. “We have long understood and respected our location on Ojibwe and Dakota land, and this acknowledgment is one small step we as an institution can take toward fostering a closer relationship with the original stewards of this land.”<\/p>\n

A Brief Land History of the BSU Campus<\/h3>\n

91心頭利 sits on land occupied first by the Dakota and later by the Ojibwe, long before the first white settlers arrived in northern Minnesota. The Treaty of 1855 would create a dozen American Indian reservations and reclassify much of northern Minnesota’s remaining Indigenous land to be shared with white settlers.<\/p>\n

An influx of white settlement soon ensued, and despite the existence of treaty agreements many Ojibwe were denied their right to share and access much of this land. Some Indigenous people continued to live in Bemidji, but many others moved to what is now Cass Lake, Minn.<\/p>\n

In 1863, the Leech Lake Reservation east of Bemidji expanded to accommodate the many Ojibwe people who could not easily consolidate on the reservation. It was expanded again in 1864 to include the town of Bemidji and the land on which the BSU campus now sits.<\/p>\n

In 1867, a new treaty established the White Earth Reservation and reduced the size of the Leech Lake Reservation. Bemidji once again found itself outside the Leech Lake Reservation’s borders and in the hands of the United States government and, later, the White and Street Townsite Company.<\/p>\n

Starting in 1858, Minnesota began establishing state-supported institutions called Normal Schools. As white settlers moved into the north-central region of the state, it was determined that a school should be built to accommodate the population.<\/p>\n

In 1909, a number of northern towns began lobbying to host the school, including Bemidji, Thief River Falls and Cass Lake. On July 15, 1913, Bemidji was selected as the home of Minnesota’s sixth normal school, and a deed for the land on which the school would be built was transferred from White and Street Townsite Company to the city of Bemidji on Sept. 30, 1913.<\/p>\n

With funding from the legislature, construction began in April 1918 to clear the thickly wooded school site a mile north of town on the west shore of Lake Bemidji. The Bemidji Normal School opened June 23, 1919.<\/p>\n

Land Acknowledgment Process<\/h3>\n

Erika Bailey-Johnson, director of Bemidji State’s sustainability office and Niizhoo-gwayakochigewin program, began drafting a land acknowledgment with colleagues across campus in Spring 2019 after attending a conference where one was prominently featured.<\/p>\n

“The land acknowledgment their organization had approved was used before every keynote, breakout session and event for the duration of the conference,” Bailey-Johnson said. “Often the land on which Indigenous nations and communities reside is not the land to which they have ancestral ties, as many have experienced dispossession and displacement through colonization.”<\/p>\n

In Fall 2019, a proposal was brought forward which included an emphasis on an inclusive and campus-wide vetting process. A few months later, in February 2020, Hensrud convened a land acknowledgment working group and the process of creating a formal, widely vetted 91心頭利 land acknowledgment statement, was initiated.<\/p>\n

The workgroup included;<\/p>\n