Land Acknowledgement

With gratitude and humility, CASA Pitzer honors the land on which many of us live and work. We acknowledge that our organization operates on the stolen land of the Tongva and other local tribes, who have always called this land home. 

Let us also acknowledge the California Indigenous communities made up of tribal diversity that originate from here and those from around the country, whose journeys have brought them here by ways of forced displacement or seeking opportunities. 

Further, we respectfully acknowledge the enslaved people, primarily of African descent who provided exploited labor on which this country was 

built, with little to no recognition. Today, we are indebted to their labor and the labor of many black and brown bodies that continue to work in the shadows for our collective benefit; this includes refugee- and immigrant-settlers, many of whom have been coerced to this country by militarism, imperialism, and displacement. These black and brown people may have different and complex relationships to being a settler (which should not be mutually exclusive with their participation in reparation efforts). 

We understand that acknowledgement alone is insufficient to address and begin to repair the historic and ongoing harm caused to Indigenous peoples by colonialism, white supremacy, and centuries of attempted genocide. 

Our Pitzer campus occupies ancestral and unceded territory of the Gabrielino/Gabrieleño peoples (Tongva, Shoshone, Cahuilla, Serrano, Kizh), specifically the village of Torojoatngna (now called Claremont). 

Our CASA community space occupies unceded territory of the Gabrielino/Gabrieleño peoples (Tongva, Shoshone, Serrano, Kizh). 

We believe in and affirm the rights of Indigenous people to inhabit and cultivate their ancestral lands, and to be recognized, respected, and compensated by those of us who live and work here. 

We would like to thank Highline College, Native Land Digital, and YES! Media for their guidance in creating this land acknowledgement. To donate to the Tongva Conservancy, please go to: https://tongva.land/