• Understand ongoing displacement and how that plays into land acknowledgment
• Advocate for, support, and hire Indigenous students, faculty, and staff
• Amplify the voices of our Indigenous students, faculty, staff, and colleagues
• Attend Indigenous educational and cultural opportunities
• Advocate for modifying ESU’s Strategic Plan (Goal for 5) to include Indigenous rights
• Collaborate with Indigenous student groups, organizations, and support services
• Ensure elimination of the use of Native mascots and branding at ESU, as well as educational misrepresentations in art, theater and literature, and develop plans for any visiting schools that still use Native mascots and branding
• Identify and restore repatriations for Indigenous artifacts within ESU’s possession
• Support the Kansas Advisory Council for Indigenous Education state effort for collecting accurate data on the number of Indigenous students within our schools
• Join ESU’s Advancing Indigenous Presence Initiative
• Contribute to the Advancing Indigenous Presence Scholarship Fund

• Learn how to build and maintain meaningful relationships with Native and Indigenous community members in and around Emporia, Kansas
• Provide faculty and staff professional development opportunities to better support Indigenous students and communities
• Prepare future educators in training at ESU with tools and resources to teach accurately and comprehensively about Native peoples and culture; past, present, and future
• Facilitate more accurate recounting of historical information within Kansas
• Collaborate with tribal colleges and universities for event programming
• Explore ways curriculum can prepare Native students to lead in their communities
• Ensure that Native students learn about their cultures and languages while at ESU
• Ensure education on the tribal citizenship process and about tribal government
• Facilitate reduced or free tuition rates for Indigenous students
• Collect accurate data to understand the presence of Indigenous students, faculty, staff, and alum on our campus

Emporia State University acknowledges that our campus resides on the homelands of several tribal nations, including the Kaw, Osage, Wyandotte, Pawnee, and Wichita peoples. We also value the lived experiences of other tribal nations in and near Emporia who continue to endure the effects of removal and forced migration through Kansas. We honor the continued rich culture of Indigenous land stewardship while affirming Indigenous sovereignty. We seek to understand how we can better support our Indigenous students and community members while building mindfulness around the ongoing effects of colonialism on stolen land. This statement serves as an educational opportunity for ESU and as an invitation for community restorative action. If you are interested in supporting Indigenous sovereignty or if you have information about Emporia's ongoing Indigenous history, please contact the ESU Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and consider joining our Advancing Indigenous Presence Initiative.

It is important to the mission of advancing Indigenous presence on our campus and in our community that land acknowledgement information presented is as accurate as possible and that it is used in combination with the actionable items as in those listed above. If you need an abbreviated version to use for ESU purposes, please use the following as a minimum statement:

Emporia State University acknowledges that our campus resides on the homelands of several tribal nations, including the Kaw, Osage, Wyandotte, Pawnee, and Wichita peoples, among others. This statement serves as an educational opportunity for ESU and an invitation for community restorative action. If you are interested in supporting Indigenous sovereignty or if you have information about Emporia's ongoing Indigenous history, please contact the ESU Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

A land acknowledgement statement is a commitment to continued community action for Indigenous sovereignty and serves as an educational tool. It is a disruption to ethnocentrism and meant to be uncomfortable to those who benefit from the systematic removal of Indigenous peoples. The above ESU land acknowledgement is a living document and a work in progress made possible by the ESU Advancing Indigenous Presence Initiative, the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Office of Diversity Student Programs. This acknowledgement is designed to increase opportunities for continued learning about Emporia history, cultivate solidarity from ESU to stand with our Indigenous communities, and to cultivate commitment from ESU for restorative action. If you have feedback to make this statement or its mission more complete, or if you would like to join the ESU Advancing Indigenous Presence Initiative, then please fill out the following form. The AIPI welcomes students, community members, faculty, and staff: https://emporia.link/indigenouspresence

ESU does not have a history of consistently speaking about the people of the land during meetings, presentations, commencements, or events.

• ESU is in direct benefit from colonized land dispossession, the painful history of Indigenous genocide, and forced removal of Indigenous peoples in Kansas.
• ESU is obligated by being in Emporia, Kansas to amplify Indigenous and Native voices and to facilitate the untold stories of the land.
• Indigenous and Native people are still here as our students, staff, faculty, and partners, who continue to thrive as learners, despite ongoing colonialism and oppression.