In 2016, the ELCA Churchwide Assembly adopted the Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery, acknowledging the church’s complicity in the evils of colonialism and the lasting harm inflicted on Native peoples. On Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2022, the ELCA deepened this commitment by issuing A Declaration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to American Indian and Alaska Native People, confessing its sins against Indigenous peoples and outlining commitments that guide its continued response to that original 2016 action.
As ReconcilingWorks continues its anti-racist work, we honor and acknowledge that our national office is located on the original and ancestral homelands of the Clackamas, Stl’pulmush, Wahpekute, Anishinabewaki, Kalapuya, and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux) peoples. We give thanks for their presence, stewardship, and enduring relationship with this land since time immemorial. We also recognize and honor all Indigenous peoples who have called—and continue to call—these homelands their own.
While our national office resides in a specific place, the people and communities we accompany gather across all parts of Turtle Island. Therefore, it is essential for us to acknowledge the lands on which our ministries take place and the original Indigenous peoples whose creation stories, histories, and lives remain rooted in these places.
Recognizing that all land is Indigenous land, ReconcilingWorks invites you and your faith community to enter into ongoing learning, relationship-building, and deepened hospitality by adopting the practice of land acknowledgments. To learn more about the Indigenous peoples whose land you inhabit, visit https:/Native-Land.ca | Our home on native land.
To read the ELCA’s full declaration to American Indian and Alaska Native people, visit https:/www.elca.org/news-and-events/8120 | ELCA issues declaration to American Indian and Alaska Native people.