Indigenous land acknowledgment signs will no longer be displayed in Matanuska-Susitna School District buildings, and traditional land acknowledgment statements will no longer be permitted at district events under a change crafted by officials this fall after school board members said they believe such statements are divisive.

An administrative email directing school principals to stop using a brief land acknowledgment statement during ceremonies was sent in August, Superintendent Randy Trani said in an interview last month. District facilities crews began removing the signs on a rolling basis Oct. 15, he said.

Trani ordered the sign removal and replacement statement in response to a policy update requested by school board members during a roughly seven-minute discussion at the board’s June 4 regular meeting, he said.

The topic was not on the meeting agenda and no members of the public testified on the issue. It was not subject to a board vote.

Under the update, administrators who wish to acknowledge Alaska Native history at events may instead use a “shared histories and service recognition” statement that honors explorers, settlers, colonists, the Dena’ina and Ahtna peoples, members of the military, first responders, educators and health care workers, district officials said in a statement.

The district’s federal programs office and the Chickaloon and Knik tribal councils developed the previous land acknowledgment statement during the 2019-20 school year. It read: “We wish to acknowledge that this school resides on the ancestral land of the Dena’ina and Ahtna people who have stewarded this area for thousands of years. Our community thrives thanks to their continued sharing of vision, wisdom, values, and leadership,” according to district documents.

A plaque displaying that statement was previously installed in every Mat-Su school building, typically near the entryway, officials said.

Trani ordered the creation of the new statement, which was crafted by district office staff, officials said. The Knik and Chickaloon tribal councils were not consulted about the plaque removals or the updated ceremony statement, officials said. A version of the new shared history statement is not currently planned for display in district buildings, Trani said.

The prohibition on land acknowledgments at Mat-Su schools applies only to official statements by district staff, not students, district spokesperson John Notestine said in a statement.

“Students continue to have the same limited free speech rights they’ve always had,” he said. “If a student chooses to make a land acknowledgment statement as part of their own time during a school event, like a graduation speech, they are permitted to do so.”

The issue of whether land acknowledgments are appropriate in Mat-Su buildings or at school events was first raised to district staff by board member Andrew Shane before the June 4 meeting, Shane said in an interview. Such statements feel like “continuing to try to tear open an old wound,” he said during the board meeting.

“I am a proud Unangax. My father was born and raised on the Pribilof Islands. From the first time I heard a land acknowledgment, I remember thinking to myself, ‘What is the point of this? How does this help anyone? Should non-Alaska Natives feel guilty for being here? Should Alaska Natives feel shame for losing control of the land to the Russians, who later sold it to the U.S.?’” Shane said in a statement last week.

“As a community leader, I want our school district to encourage unity, not division. These types of statements, especially in a K-12 education system — intentional or not — seek to bring guilt to those who were not responsible for past transgressions and a victim mentality to those who were not even born during such time,” he said.

Chickaloon and Knik officials said they disagree. Removing the signs reflects the school board’s broader lack of interest in honoring Alaska Native culture, Knik Tribal Council Executive Director Richard Porter said.

Officials with the Chickaloon Village Traditional Council said land acknowledgments help Alaska Native students maintain important cultural connections.

“Land acknowledgments tell our students that our schools are safe places for them,” Chickaloon Village Traditional Council Executive Officer Lisa Wade told the school board during its Oct. 15 meeting. “They create spaces for people, including our elders and youth, who have at times been invisible.”

Republished with permission from the Mat-Su Sentinel, an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan online news source. Contact Amy Bushatz at abushatz@matsusentinel.com.