Full Land Acknowledgment
The National Conference on Ecosystem Restoration planning team would like to welcome you to Albuquerque with an acknowledgement of the history of this land. It is important as those who currently inhabit this land, gain nourishment from this land, recreate on this land, gain our livelihoods from restoring and managing this land, and for you who visit this land, that we are ever mindful of those that came before us and recognize the history of this land.
We would like to recognize and acknowledge that 2024 NCER gathering will be happening on the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of the Pueblo, Diné (Navajo), Apache, and other displaced Indigenous Peoples.
In the heart of the Rio Grande Basin, Albuquerque is uniquely New Mexican, a cultural blend of Indigenous (New Mexico is home of more than 20 federally recognized Tribes and was home to some of the earliest known human civilizations in North America) as well as Spanish, African, and Asian influences.
There are countless but not nameless indigenous peoples who have stewarded these lands for generations and continue to play a vital role in the protection, restoration, and prosperity of the Middle Rio Grande ecosystems.
This Land Acknowledgment is an important step towards social justice and de-colonial practice that promotes indigenous visibility. It is a reminder that this land and the people who have cared for it have a long and complicated history especially when it comes to government agencies, academic institutions, and public lands.
Let this land acknowledgement be an opening for all of us to contemplate ways that we can personally and professionally join in and support decolonial and indigenous movements for sovereignty and self-determination and to each better understand the history of the lands we work on and the relationships that are critical to successful restoration of these lands.
