Chapter Two - Land Acknowledgement

Land Acknowledgement: Much of the research and writing for this project took place from my office at Oklahoma State University, a land-theft institution located on the ancestral territories of the Osage and Kiowa peoples. Much of the surrounding land was also promised to the Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Muscogee Nations after the Indian Removal Act (1830)—treaty agreements denied during and after the land rush of 1889. Today, thirty-nine tribal nations dwell in the state of Oklahoma as a result of settler colonial policies designed to assimilate Native people. And yet, while the histories and legacies of colonial violence are ongoing, Indigenous nations have remained connected to their lands and lifeways here.