University Origins
The Department of American Culture acknowledges the university’s origins in a land grant from the Anishinaabeg (including Odawa, Ojibwe, and Boodewadomi) and Wyandot, and we further acknowledge that our university stands, like almost all property in the United States, on lands obtained, generally in unconscionable ways, from indigenous peoples. Knowing where we are changes neither the past nor the present. However, through scholarship and pedagogy, we work to create a future in which the past is thoroughly understood, and the present supports human flourishing and justice while enacting an ethic of care and compassion.
