Chemistry Learning Center
UW-Madison Department of Chemistry

Land Acknowledgement

Land Acknowledgement

The Chemistry Learning Center, as part of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, occupies ancestral Ho-Chunk land, a place their nation has called Teejop (day-JOPE) since time immemorial. In an 1832 treaty, the Ho-Chunk were forced to cede this territory. Decades of ethnic cleansing followed when both the federal and state government repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, sought to forcibly remove the Ho-Chunk from Wisconsin. Our Center recognizes and honors the Native People’s resilience and tenacity over the last one and a half centuries.

This history of colonization informs our shared future of collaboration and innovation and our work at the Chemistry Learning Center. Today, the staff at the Chemistry Learning Center at UW–Madison respects the inherent sovereignty of the Ho-Chunk Nation, along with the eleven other First Nations of Wisconsin.
[Adapted from “Our Shared Future” plaque]

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First Nations in Wisconsin

First Nations in Wisconsin

The Brothertown Indian Nation (Learn More: PBS Wisconsin: Brothertown Tribal History; video: 26:47) is not recognized as a Wisconsin tribal nation as they originally resided in New York.

The Ways

The Ways: Stories on Culture and Language From Native Communities Around the Center Great Lakes

  • Waadookodaading: Ojibwe Language Immersion School (video: 4:45)
  • Manoomin: Food That Grows on the Water (video: 4:23)
    video screenshot of two men spearfishing on a boat
    Screenshot from Spearfishing: A Living History
  • Warriors Boxing: Fighting for Our People (video: 4:30)
  • Spearfishing: A Living History (video: 4:46)
  • Lade Thunderhawks: Leading the Way (video: 3:20)
  • Clan Mother: Healing the Community (video: 5:07)
  • Hunting Deer: Sharing the Harvest (video: 5:19)
  • Language Apprentice: Bringing Back the Ho-Chunk Language (video: 5:27)
  • Powwow Trail: Keeping the Beat (video: 4:44)
  • Lake Superior Whitefish: Carrying on a Family Tradition (video: 3:49)
  • Prayers in a Song: Learning Language Through Hip-Hop (video: 4:00)
  • Living Language: Menominee Language Revitalization (video: 5:06)

    • Prior UW Chancellor Blank

    Prior UW Chancellor Blank

    “I want to welcome all of the people from the Ho-Chunk Nation and UW who have worked together and who will continue to work together to recognize and honor the 13,000-year history of the Ho-Chunk people on this land, and acknowledge the forcible removal of the Ho-Chunk from this region…a removal that they resisted and from which they returned.

    Our shared future plaque as seen on Bascom Hill
    Photo by Bryce Richter/UW-Madison
    After 171 years, it is time for this campus to be more intentional in telling this story.

    The heritage marker is one small step in that direction, and I want to read you the words that appear on it.

    It is titled “Our Shared Future” and it shows the Great Seal of the Ho-Chunk Nation and the seal of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

    No plaque or monument can ever adequately convey a complicated and difficult history. But they can start a conversation that begins to move us from ignorance to awareness.”
    Chancellor Blank, June 24, 2019, Office of the Chancellor: Our Shared Future

    To read more on the dedication ceremony of for the heritage marker on Bascom Hill on June 18, 2019, visit the UW-Madison News article, “UW–Madison heritage marker honors Ho-Chunk, recognizes land as ancestral home”