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Land Acknowledgement

xučyun, Verona Band, Alameda County

For over five hundred years, indigenous communities across the Americas have demonstrated immense resilience and resistance in the face of violent efforts to separate them from their land, culture, and each other. They remain at the forefront of movements to protect the earth and the life it sustains. GrizzlyCorps acknowledges that public recognition and collaboration are necessary steps towards honoring these regions - beginning with careful reflection of the type of service GrizzlyCorps hopes to encapsulate. As we work to bring awareness of and give a platform to other voices, we remember that tribal territories have long fought to have their voices not only heard, but included in the creation of this society. 

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GrizzlyCorps recognizes that the University of California, Berkeley sits on the territory of xučyun, the traditional ancestral homeland of the Chochenyo Speaking Ohlone people, the successors of the sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County. We celebrate the continued vitality of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and members of the flourishing community who persist today. Establishing new traditions with an obligation towards remembrance is critical to sharing these voices, histories, and legacies of all the places in which we serve. GrizzlyCorps moves forward in advocacy for the healing of these lands and waters, while demonstrating our commitment to creating a real relationship with the local Ohlone and Indigenous communities across the state. 

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​The fellows of GrizzlyCorps live and work on the ancestral, contemporary, and unceded territory of Indigenous people across the state, encompassing what is now known as California. For our  current members, these lands include those of the Graton Rancheria, Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk, Mountain Maidu, Patwin, Chumash, Yana, Winnimem Wintu, Paskenta Band of Nomlaki, Tachi Yokuts, Nisenan, Yurok, Popeloutchom (Amah Mutsun), Awaswas, and Pomo peoples. We honor the land and those who have been the original stewards of these regions since time immemorial, and commit to forming deeper partnerships to address past and ongoing land-based injustices through our work.

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We come together to acknowledge what our service means, to be humble and listen to the voices that speak, to hear the Ohlone and countless others on this land who speak. Imbuing this thinking in how we partner with different communities and organizations all over the state is critical in defining respectable allyship. This acknowledgement, brief and in no way complete, aims to celebrate the traditional stewardship practices on these lands from generations past.  Nothing will remedy the historical traumas of these lived experiences, but it is with intent and meaning that we pay homage to a better future.