Land Acknowledgement

At Schoolcraft College, we stand together to honor the past, embrace the present and cultivate a brighter future. We acknowledge that the land in which the College occupies is the ancestral territory of the Potawatomi Tribes, Indian Nations, and all Anishinaabeg – Three Fires Confederacy, including Ojibwe and Odawa peoples. In particular, Schoolcraft College resides on the land that was ceded to the United States government in the Treaty of Detroit of 1807.

Purpose of land acknowledgement statements?

Wayne State University describes a land acknowledgement as a “formal statement that recognizes the unique and enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories.”

In recognizing the land, we pay respect to contemporary Indigenous peoples’ connection to the land and acknowledge the history of colonization and forced removal.

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft and Ingenious Peoples

Schoolcraft College’s namesake, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (1793-1864), has a complex legacy as he played a role in negotiating the Treaty of Washington (1836), which led to the cession of Native American lands to the U.S. government. His actions contributed to the forced relocation of Native American tribes from their ancestral lands.

He served as:

  • A Michigan Territorial Secretary from 1836 to 1841
  • An Indian agent for the U.S. government, interacting with Native American tribes, including the Ojibwe (Chippewa) and Odawa (Ottawa)
  • An ethnologist who studied Native American cultures, languages and traditions in which he produced:
    • Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian tribes of the United States, 6 volumes (1861-57)
    • Algic Researches (1856)

Henry Schoolcraft’s wife was Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (1800-1842), also known as Bamewawagezhikaquay, meaning “Woman of the Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky.” She belonged to the Ojibwe (Chippewa) tribe and was the granddaughter of a prominent Ojibwe leader, Waubojeeg (White Fisher). Jane was an important cultural mediator and influence on Henry’s work, and also wrote her own poetry and stories in Ojibwe and English.