Today, Marquette joins communities across the nation in recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day — a time to honor the history, cultures and ongoing contributions of Native peoples. This day invites our campus community to reflect on the land on which we learn and work, to deepen our understanding of Indigenous experiences, and to recommit ourselves to the pursuit of belonging.
Marquette’s celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day is rooted in our Catholic, Jesuit mission, one that calls us to walk with and learn from Indigenous communities on campus and throughout Wisconsin. As we honor this day, we express gratitude to the Menominee, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Fox, Mascouten, Sauk, Ojibwe and other nations who have lived on this land for generations.
In 2021, Marquette adopted its land and water acknowledgment to recognize the long history of Native peoples and nations that stewarded the land and water where the university now resides. Both the written and oral versions of the land and water acknowledgment celebrate the unbroken connection Native people and nations still have to this land and waterways, their traditional territories.
Land and Water Acknowledgement
Marquette University acknowledges that our campus and Milwaukee are the homelands and waters of the Menominee, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Fox, Mascouten, Sauk and Ojibwe nations, who have known this land and water as a relative for millennia and who remain our hosts on the land today. We also acknowledge that Milwaukee is located along the southwest shores of Michigami (meaning “big water” in Anishinaabemowin), where the Milwaukee River, Menomonee River and Kinnickinnic River meet. We remember that Milwaukee is covered by the 1833 Treaty of Chicago signed by the United States and Potawatomi and acknowledge it cleaved and dispersed this tribal nation through removal. We also acknowledge the presence of tribal members from Wisconsin sovereign nations in Milwaukee, including the Oneida Nation, Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohicans, Brothertown Nation and Ojibwe Nations – namely, the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Sokaogon Chippewa Community and St. Croix Chippewa Indians. We further understand and honor that the greater Milwaukee area is home to a large, resurging urban Indian community that includes diasporic Indigenous peoples from around North America, as well as from the Global South, the Pacific, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Marquette University further acknowledges and pays respect to the elders and ancestors past, present and emerging whose histories, knowledge and cultural traditions have shaped the land and water of the greater Milwaukee area and can enrich practices around its stewardship. We affirm our commitment to practice ongoing good relations with the land and water and with sovereign Indigenous nations that caretake them. In acknowledging the long-held relationships fostered by these lands and waters, we seek to strengthen and recommit ourselves to ongoing and future kinship responsibilities with each other and the Earth. In the spirit of reconciliation, we can authentically attend to and create the conditions of hospitality for current Indigenous students and community members and all yet to walk with us.
