Land Acknowledgement

Ekar Farm honors and acknowledges that the land on which we reside is the traditional territory of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Peoples. We recognize the 48 contemporary tribal nations that are historically tied to the lands that make up the state of Colorado. We honor Elders past, present, and future, and those who have stewarded this land throughout generations. We also recognize that government, academic and cultural institutions were founded upon and continue to enact exclusions and erasures of Indigenous Peoples.

May this acknowledgement demonstrate a commitment to working to dismantle ongoing legacies of oppression and inequities and recognize the current and future contributions of Indigenous communities in Denver.

History

We weren’t the first people here. Look at Native-Land.ca and you can see that this was Cheyenne, Arapaho and Ute (Nuu-agha-tuvu-pu) land with more than 120 nations represented in the Denver metro area today. The Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851 and 1861) and Cession 426 promised friendship, but resulted in displacing the people and taking their land. Colorado was the site of the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864, which killed 230 native people – mainly children, women, and the elderly. Denver was one of 9 federal relocation sites used by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the 1950s and 1960s to forcefully acculturate Indigenous communities and terminate the treaty obligations which the federal government held with their nations.

We are conscious of and saddened by the history of oppression that resulted in our being on this land today. We honor all the indigenous people to whom this was sacred land. We strive to support the many beings we encounter here and to bring forward our responsibility to treat all living beings with care and justice.