We acknowledge that this conference is taking place on the traditional territory and homelands of the Indigenous Kumeyaay people. They have walked this land for over thousands of years, Interstate Highway 8 is an old walking trail of the Kumeyaay people, thus named Kumeyaay highway. The Kumeyaay are an indigenous people who live on both sides of the US/Mexico border, in the southwestern California and northwestern Baja California. The Kumeyaay are a federally recognized tribe, as such the federal Government recognizes their reservation as sovereign lands, and their tribal councils as sovereign tribal governments. Today the Kumeyaay people continue to maintain their sovereignty and cultural traditions as vital members of the San Diego community.

While most tribes are acknowledged by the federal government, many are not recognized due to state and federal policies, and the failure to ratify treaties negotiated in the late 1800s and the termination of the status of dozens of tribes in the 1950s and 1960s.

In the year 2016, it was reported that about 2,680 indigenous languages were in danger and on the verge of becoming extinct. Hence, The UN designated 2019 to be the International Year of Indigenous Languages to create awareness about indigenous languages.

The indigenous people of the America’s (North, Central, and South) had no borders until relatively recently in history. Before the borders, there was a lot of movement by tribes, especially tribes that moved seasonally for hunting and crop growing. This means tribes moved across the Canadian and Mexican boarders fluidly.

The indigenous people South of the border are also native to the America’s. They are recognized by the Mexican government as the second largest group of indigenous people, after the Yucatan people. We are all one.

 

A land acknowledgement is a critical step towards working with native communities to secure meaningful partnership and inclusion in the stewardship and protection of their cultural resources and homelands. Please take a moment to honor these ancestral grounds that we are collectively gathered upon and support the resilience and strength that all Indigenous people have shown worldwide.

 

With deep appreciation, our conference organizers thank the Indigenous Sovereign Nations Employee Resource Group at the County of San Diego for help in crafting this land acknowledgment. The County’s Indigenous Sovereign Nations (ISN) - gives visibility, education, and brings awareness and hope, while also creating a safe space for our indigenous brothers and sisters to communicate. This group is not about one person, but about the future generations keeping the roots alive.

 

We encourage you to visit the website: www.native-land.ca for more information and an interactive map.