LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We acknowledge Beyond the Whitewash exhibiting at Living Arts of Tulsa is located on the Mvskoke (Muscogee [Creek]) Nation Reservation, Tsayoha (Yuchi Tribe) lands, Freedmen (Cherokee and Muscogee) allotted land and the ancestral land and stolen territories of the Wah-Zha-Zhe (Osage Nation), Hasinal, Kadohadacho, Hainai, Nadako (Caddo Nation), Ogaxpa (Quapaw Nation), Kitikiti'sh (Wichita and Affiliated Tribes [Wichta, Waco, Keechi, Tawakonu]), Mvskoke (Muscogee [Creek] Nation), and Tsálăgĭ (Cherokee Nation) Native Nations. White settler colonial policy forcibly removed these tribes from their homelands, which led to the loss of an incalculable number of lives and millions and millions of acres of land and resources. We pay tribute to Indigenous activists, writers, and culture bearers who have led efforts to preserve the many diverse systems of traditional tribal knowledge. The rich and varied Indigenous and Freedmen histories and customs deepen our thinking about history, art, geography, civics, engineering, the environment, cooperation, and many other areas.

We acknowledge and honor the legacy of the Greenwood District (aka Black Wall Street) in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as a vibrant and thriving community built by Black pioneers in the early 1900s. We honor the hard work, ingenuity, and resilience of the business owners, residents, and groundbreakers of African diaspora in the Greenwood District (past and present). We remember the victims, survivors, and descendants (and their advocates) of the horrific 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. We acknowledge the impact on African diaspora that the spirit of Greenwood (Black Wall Street) continues to have as an example of possibilities and dreams fulfilled. We recognize the importance of Greenwood as a district, symbol, and essential part of Tulsa. We know that we are on sacred land.

Let us assume the responsibility to educate ourselves on the long and violent legacy of colonization of the United States. Looking beyond the whitewash of our nation's history, we will no longer overlook how this land was occupied, the effects of colonization, and the historical and ongoing injustices impacting Black and Indigenous peoples today.

Welana Fields Quetoh

Phetote Mshairi

Shelby Head