WSU Vancouver Native American Programs

WSU Vancouver Land Acknowledgement

Washington State University Vancouver is located on the homelands of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and Peoples of the Lower Columbia Valley. The land that WSU Vancouver resides on continues to be integral to the lives and cultures of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and Peoples of the Lower Columbia Valley, their descendants, and that their history is tied to this land since time immemorial.

WSU Vancouver is dedicated to recognizing the influential tribal histories of Native/Indigenous peoples in the region and the importance of the land on which we stand. We also recognize that each person of the Vancouver community continues to benefit from the occupation and use of these lands and understand that land acknowledgements are the beginning steps of our reciprocal efforts to uplift Indigenous voices, programming and curriculum.

WSU Vancouver acknowledges the responsibility to make visible the university’s relationship and commitment to Native peoples past and present. We acknowledge their presence here and recognize their continuing connection to the land, to the water and to their ancestors. WSU Vancouver expresses its deepest respect for and gratitude towards these original and current caretakers of the region. We pledge that these relationships will consist of mutual trust, respect and reciprocity.

WSU Full Land Acknowledgement

Nez Perce Translated Land Acknowledgement

kíye ʔew’néhpin’iyuʔ kii c’íiqin nimipuutímtki.
We bring forth this statement in the People’s language.

Washington State hitéemenweesnim ʔesukísix
Washington State University acknowledges

núunim niimíipuunm ʔanoqónma kaa waq’íswitin’ wéetes
our People’s ancestors, the living earth,

kaa kuʔstíite kúʔ míne hiwsíix wíwaaqi titóoqanm wéetes
and similarly wherever the Indigenous lands are,

laʔám konmaná hitéwy’ecine máwama q’oʔ waqíima wiyéwc’etpemepkin’ix.
all those who have resided since time immemorial.
~~
hitéemenweesnim páayo ʔaqaʔáncix kaa qeʔciyew’yew’néewitki
The University expresses its deepest respect for and gratitude towards

kíime ʔúuyit qiq’icXnew’éetme
these original caretakers of the land

waqíimapkin’ix kaa kinméempe kíi táaqcapx.
from long ago as well as up to this day.
~~

konwácan kíye ʔesukísix núunim ʔinéek’nikt
For that reason, we acknowledge our responsibility

ke haníit’a kaa ʔewyeʔnéepteʔnix píiwiʔneepte
to establish and maintain relationships

laʔámpipam ʔuyititóoqama kínye wéetes.
among all first peoples of this land.
~~

kuʔstíite núun péekusenuʔ c’aʔá yóx kíime píiwiʔneepte
We will also pledge that these relationships

kinéepi hiwc’éeyuʔ laʔám titáʔc
will be all good in this way

lawwitnáawit, qaʔanáawit, kaa piwapayatanáawitpa kúnk’u.
trustworthy, respectful and in reciprocity always.
~~

DIRECTOR NATIVE AMERICAN PROGRAMS

CO-DIRECTOR VISITING WRITERS SERIES
CO-FICTION EDITOR | Blood Orange Review
LECTURER IN ENGLISH
LUK'UPSÍIMEY 'NORTH STAR' WRITERS COLLECTIVE

JULIAN C. ANKNEY (she/her)

Nimíipuu (Nez Perce) Tribe
Vancouver Undergraduate Building, Room 345
Office of Equity and Diversity
julian.ankney@wsu.edu

Julian C. Ankney is Niimíipuu ‘Nez Perce’ and lives on both the Nez Perce Reservation in Lapwai, Idaho and Portland, Ore. Ankney is a scholar and social justice advocate. Her scholarship includes creating a space for Indigenous language reclamation as resistance and her work has significance for social justice awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, gender equality, decolonization, sovereignty and human rights for Indigenous people. Ankney is the director for Native American Programs, co-director of the Visiting Writers Series and co-fiction editor for Blood Orange Review at WSU Vancouver/Pullman. Ankney teaches Native American and multicultural literature, creative writing fiction/nonfiction/poetry, and has co-taught a language revitalization class that focuses on reclamation, revitalization and the importance of Nez Perce language and culture. Ankney is a voice on “The Old Mole” at Portland’s KBOO radio, and she was featured in Berkeley Hearst Museum’s online exhibit, “Cloth that Stretches: Weaving Community Across Time and Space,” exploring textiles as cultural sites of identity formation and cultural resilience. Her work is published in Talking River, Yellow Medicine Review and EcoArts on the Palouse. Ankney is a member of luk’upsíimey and The North Star Collective, an Indigenous Plateau literary advocacy group.