UMB Writing Center’s Land Acknowledgement
An earlier version of the UMB Writing Center's land acknowledgment was developed in 2019, as part of an event on Indigenous languages and cultures, affiliated with UNESCO's designation of 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages. That version was created in partnership between the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Writing Center, and Mario Harley, Member of the Piscataway Nation Council. It has been removed from the Center’s website in early 2025.
Here is the land acknowledgment of the Southern Management Companies (SMC) Campus Center, part of the downtown campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) (copied from the SMC Campus Center's website). The Writing Center is located in that building:
“The SMC Campus Center at the University of Maryland, Baltimore would like to recognize the Indigenous Peoples who lived on the land where our building stands. Through this effort we aim to promote Indigenous visibility and encourage support of Indigenous communities.”
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The links below are being provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval by UMB of any of the products, services, or opinions of the corporation or organization. UMB bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality, or content of the external site or of subsequent links. Contact the external site for answers to questions regarding its content.
List of local organizations and projects relevant to Indigenous and other groups interconnected with Indigenous rights and advocacy:
- African American Department at the Enoch Pratt Free Library
- Baltimore American Indian Center (BAIC)
- Baltimore Black Arts District
- Baltimore Reservation
- Farm Alliance of Baltimore
- Indigenous Strong
- Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs
- Native American Lifelines
- Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture
- University of Maryland, Baltimore, Office of Community Engagement
Resources to learn more about local Indigenous history and contemporary affairs, including those of Lumbee and Cherokee communities:
- Chen (2020) Baltimore’s Black food sovereignty movement: What you need to know. Baltimore Corps.
- Guide to Indigenous Baltimore
- Guide to Indigenous Maryland
- Guide to Indigenous DC
- Kast & Harvie (2020) A walking tour of Baltimore’s Lumbee community. WYPR: On Point.
- Maryland Manual Online: A Guide to Maryland and its Government
- Minner (2019) The Lumbee: Indigenous people of North Carolina in Baltimore. Bewminate.
- Piscataway Conoy Tribe
- Spiegel (2020) A Native American community in Baltimore reclaims its history. Smithsonian Magazine.
- Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, the American Library Association (RBMS) 2019 Baltimore Conference Land Acknowledgement
- W.K. Kellogg Foundation (2020) Acknowledging the Indigenous lands surrounding Washington D.C. YouTube.
Resources to engage with national Indigenous issues and organizations:
- Belfi (2020) Native solidarity with Black Lives Matter as both communities confront centuries-long state violence. Cultural Survival.
- Center for Native American Youth (2021) What it means to be both Black and Indigenous. Aspen Institute.
- Center for World Indigenous Studies
- Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women
- Cultural Survival
- Decolonial Atlas
- Descendants of Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes Association
- Gearon (2021) Indigenous feminism is our culture: a call to bring back matriarchy in Indigenous communities to rebuild and decolonize the foundation of Native-community life. Stanford Social Innovation Review.
- High Country News
- Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) (2017) Indigenous women and their human rights in the Americas PDF.
- International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs
- Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women USA
- Nagle (host, 2021) This land. Crooked Media [podcast].
- National Indian Child Welfare Center
- National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center
- National Museum of the American Indian
- Native Americans in Philanthropy (2022) Intersectional Indigenous identities: Afro-Indigenous and Black Indigenous Peoples: a starting guide of terminology.
- Native American Rights Fund
- Native Arts and Cultures Foundation
- Native Voice One: Native American Radio Network
- Native Women's Wilderness (n.d) Murdered and missing Indigenous women.
- The Center of Excellence on Racial and Ethnic Minority Young Men Who Have Sex with Men and Other Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations (YMSM + LGBT) (2015) Native American resources.
- University of British Columbia Library (2021) Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Studies (libguide).
- Vinyeta, Powys Whyte, & Lynn (2015) Climate change through an intersectional lens: Gendered vulnerability and resilience in Indigenous communities in the United States. United States Department of Agriculture. (Website includes link for downloadable pdf-file of the article)
- Zinn Education Project (n.d.) Books: Non-fiction: An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.
For guidance on creating a land acknowledgment, view these resources:
- UMBC Office of Equity and Inclusion (2021) Land acknowledgment resources.
- Native Governance Center (n.d.) A guide to Indigenous land acknowledgment.