A Land Acknowledgement is a formal statement that recognizes and respects Native peoples as traditional stewards of lands. The statement highlights the enduring relationship between Native peoples and their traditional territories.

This Land Acknowledgement will be unique in that it recognizes two groups of previous inhabitants: the Indigenous and African-American peoples who lived in Temperance Alley and the surrounding area.

There will be some drumming from the African-American community present to open the ceremony. Armand Lione, the director of the DC Native History Project, will give a short presentation about the significance of the land to the Native Anacostan Indians when they lived here.

Regarding the importance of land acknowledgement events, Chelsea Vowel, a Métis woman from the Plains Cree speaking community of Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta, writes:

“If we think of territorial acknowledgments as sites of potential disruption, they can be transformative acts that to some extent undo Indigenous erasure. I believe this is true as long as these acknowledgments discomfit both those speaking and hearing the words. The fact of Indigenous presence should force non-Indigenous peoples to confront their own place on these lands.”

A sign with the written land acknowledgment will be installed in Temperance Alley. The sign will read:

We recognize that this land was once the land of the Anacostan peoples. We acknowledge the Anacostan people, and the people of the greater Piscataway Indian Nation, as the first custodians of this land.

We recognize the residents who lived in Temperance Alley during the 1800s and 1900s. Square 274, as it was referred to in official city documents, had 62 adults and 72 children living in 26 dwellings in 1953. A sociologist in 1953 who spent time here stated that, "there is camaraderie among old tenants." We celebrate that camaraderie, and we hope to sustain it.

As neighbors, we pay our respects to all Indigenous, Black, and other groups of people -- past, present and future -- who have relationships to this place. We honor their connection to this land. This history is not a relic of the past. It is a part of our unfolding relationship to this place. We acknowledge this history with an eye to the generations to follow us.