Land Acknowledgement
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that the physical home of our Spirit Catholic Community is on the ancestral land of the sovereign Dakota Nation; a place of deep beauty and sacred stories, a place of theft, broken treaties, and horrific violence. We honor as truth and acknowledge that this land was, is, and will always be holy ground; sacred to the Dakota people and integral to their identity and spirituality. We honor as truth and acknowledge with sorrow the Papal directives of the Catholic Church that led to the colonial conquest of what is now known as the Americas. We recognize the Church’s complicity in establishing and running U.S. government boarding schools. We also acknowledge collective failures to recognize and heal the ongoing effects of ethnic cleansing that continue to cause intergenerational trauma and injustices. We honor as truth and acknowledge with gratitude the many ways that we continue to benefit from the wisdom and work of the Dakota people and those with whom they shared this land. Led by the wisdom of all Native relatives, we will learn, we will be truth tellers, and we will take actions that lead to justice and healing. This is our beginning.
Following guidance offered by Natives and Native Leaders in the Twin Cities, Spirit Catholic Community embarked on a shared journey with its New Branches faith community partners to learn the history of the land on which we worship and the impact that policies and actions of those who came before us in faith had on the lives of Native people already living on the land now known as Minnesota - the Dakota, Anishinaabe and HoChunk Tribes to whom this land was and is sacred. We have researched, attended programs led by Native leaders, analyzed a variety of resources in order to educate ourselves. Our need for and commitment to further education continues. A small group of Spirit Catholic Community members drafted a proposed acknowledgement and led listening sessions to allow church members who were not a part of the writing process to askquestions and provide feedback. The writing group then recommended to the Spirit Social Justice Committee that the Church Council and/or the Spirit Catholic Community adopt its proposed Land Acknowledgement for Spirit Catholic Community. It was submitted to Spirit’s Church Council leaders in February 2026, and it was discussed and adopted on March 26, 2026. Spirit’s Acknowledgement is a living document that is intended to evolve as we live into our chosen words and our understandings evolve.
The words chosen in the Acknowledgement reflect our desire to honor, respect, and acknowledge the land and the first people of this land, while also educating people who are not Native. The same is true of the Acknowledgement’s length. If any text is to be adapted for a particular use, then the speaker is encouraged to weigh the honor, respect, and intent of each section of the Acknowledgement.
If you are inspired by and plan to use and/or adapt our Acknowledgement, or to develop a land acknowledgement of your own, we strongly urge and encourage you to:
• Begin with a self-assessment and research of the land you occupy, or your organization occupies. The Native Governance Center has wonderful resources available to get you started.
• Be humble and courageous enough to acknowledge what you don’t know, and to take steps to educate yourself.
• Be willing to do the work necessary to learn the complicated and often difficult history of Native Nations, particularly what they encountered when colonizers came to North America.
• Be aware that relationships and actions are needed to accompany, honor, and live the words of a land acknowledgement so that it will move beyond “optical allyship” with all Native people.
In speaking this Land Acknowledgement, you have assumed a responsibility. Welcome to this journey!
What is the Doctrine of Discovery? We offer three answers we found that provide accurate information in an abbreviated format:
A. The “Doctrine of Discovery” is a philosophical and legal framework dating to the fifteenth century that gave Christian governments moral and legal right to invade and seize Indigenous lands and dominate Indigenous Peoples. This pattern of oppression began with Papal Bulls, or decrees, and the patterns continue to dispossess Indigenous Peoples of their lands today by means of numerous historical documents that include Royal Charters and U.S. Supreme Court rulings issued as recently as 2005. Collectively, these and other concepts form a paradigm of domination that legitimates extractive industries that not only displace and destroy Indigenous Peoples and other vulnerable communities, but harm the earth. [Source: The Land is Not Empty by Sarah Augustine (pages 27-29); and The Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery]
B. “The Doctrine of Discovery is a legal and religious concept that has been used for centuries to justify Christian colonial conquest. It advanced the idea that European peoples, culture and religion were superior to all others.” [Source: The Canadian Museum for Human Rights]
C. “The Doctrine of Discovery established a religious, political, and legal justification for colonization and seizure of land not inhabited by Christians. Foundational elements of the Doctrine of Discovery can be found in a series of papal bulls, or decrees, beginning in the 1100s, which included sanctions, enforcements, authorizations, expulsions, admonishments, excommunications, denunciations, and expressions of territorial sovereignty for Christian monarchs supported by the Catholic Church.” [Source: Upstander Project]
What is Manifest Destiny? We again offer three answers we found that provide accurate information in an abbreviated format:
A. “Manifest Destiny ... is, in essence, a belief that the White people who came to the North American continent were superior to the Natives and that they had a God-given mission to conquer the Native tribes and occupy their lands from ‘sea to shining sea.’ ... In other words, it means that since it was the White man’s destiny to rule over the land, whatever they did to further that objective was biblically correct.” [Source: Muwekma Ohlone Tribe (San Francisco Bay Area) Blog]
B. “‘Manifest Destiny’ refers to the belief—held by many during the nineteenth century - that the United States was destined to control the entire territory from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. The concept was used by the U.S. government to justify its policy toward American Indians who, in its view, stood in the way of westward expansion. Heeding the call of Manifest Destiny, waves of immigrants, mostly Americans of European descent, moved from east to west, resulting in the displacement and decimation of native populations across the continent.” [Source: Crow Canyon Archaeological Center]
C. “Manifest Destiny, coined sometime before 1820, is the idea that the United States is destined—by God, its advocates believed—to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent. The philosophy drove 19th-century U.S. territorial expansion and was used to justify the forced removal of Native Americans and other groups from their homes. The rapid expansion of the United States intensified the issue of slavery as new states were added to the Union, leading to the outbreak of the Civil War. [Source:History.com]