{"title":"Performance or Progress? The Physical and Rhetorical Removal of Indigenous Peoples in Settler Land Acknowledgments at Land-Grab Universities","authors":"T. Ambo, Theresa Rocha Beardall","doi":"10.3102/00028312221141981","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Land acknowledgments are an evolving practice to recognize local Indigenous Peoples as traditional stewards of their homelands. Using a content and discourse analysis, we conduct the first empirical study of U.S. land acknowledgment statements focusing on the 47 land-grab universities created under the 1862 Morrill Act. We find that LGUs tend to adopt statements in urban areas, where federally recognized tribes are present, and at institutions with over 100 enrolled Native American students. Land acknowledgment statements also commonly name local Indigenous Peoples yet often fail to articulate their responsibilities to them, include superficial gestures, and center multicultural language. We offer “rhetorical removal” to describe the tendency of land-grab universities to deploy language that selectively erases Indigenous Peoples and, thus, argue that statements must directly address settler colonial legacies of violence and redistribute material support for Indigenous students and partnerships with Native nations.","PeriodicalId":48375,"journal":{"name":"American Educational Research Journal","volume":"140 1","pages":"103 - 140"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2022-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"American Educational Research Journal","FirstCategoryId":"95","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312221141981","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Land acknowledgments are an evolving practice to recognize local Indigenous Peoples as traditional stewards of their homelands. Using a content and discourse analysis, we conduct the first empirical study of U.S. land acknowledgment statements focusing on the 47 land-grab universities created under the 1862 Morrill Act. We find that LGUs tend to adopt statements in urban areas, where federally recognized tribes are present, and at institutions with over 100 enrolled Native American students. Land acknowledgment statements also commonly name local Indigenous Peoples yet often fail to articulate their responsibilities to them, include superficial gestures, and center multicultural language. We offer “rhetorical removal” to describe the tendency of land-grab universities to deploy language that selectively erases Indigenous Peoples and, thus, argue that statements must directly address settler colonial legacies of violence and redistribute material support for Indigenous students and partnerships with Native nations.
期刊介绍:
The American Educational Research Journal (AERJ) is the flagship journal of the American Educational Research Association, featuring articles that advance the empirical, theoretical, and methodological understanding of education and learning. It publishes original peer-reviewed analyses that span the field of education research across all subfields and disciplines and all levels of analysis. It also encourages submissions across all levels of education throughout the life span and all forms of learning. AERJ welcomes submissions of the highest quality, reflecting a wide range of perspectives, topics, contexts, and methods, including interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary work.