Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that the campus of Lake Forest College sits on the traditional homelands of the Potawatomi (Bodéwadmi/Neshnabek) as well as the traditional place for trade, gathering, and healing for more than a dozen Native nations including the Ojibwe, the Odawa, and the Illinois Confederacy (the Peoria and Kaskaskia Nations). The Potawatomi villages of Mattawa and Aptakeesik were located nearby until the 1830 Indian Removal Act and land cessions forced many Potawatomi people out of the area. Other nations including the Myaamia, Wea, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Thakiwaki, Meskwaki, Kiikaapoi, and Mascouten peoples also call this region home, and one of the largest urban Native communities in the US (or Turtle Island) resides in Chicago. Our institution takes seriously the stewardship of this ecologically and culturally significant land and our role in ongoing and perpetual education as we continue to reckon with this legacy.