At many colleges and universities, you will encounter “land acknowledgement” statements, bemoaning the fact that the school sits on land once owned by a tribe. What’s the point? Should we care about this?

In today’s Martin Center article, Jay Schalin looks at this phenomenon.

First, what is it? Schalin writes:

It is a statement that a particular event or organization is located on land that once belonged to specific indigenous tribes. Land acknowledgments first appeared in Australia in the late 1970s. They were adopted in Canada before coming to the United States. They appear to be spreading rapidly in academia and often appear on departmental websites or the personal sites of individual academics. They are also frequently announced at open public events, speeches, or meetings.

These statements are rather common in universities in the UNC system. For example:

The University of North Carolina Asheville acknowledges, with respect, that the land we are on today is ancestral land of the Anikituwagi, more commonly known as the Cherokee. We recognize the Cherokee as the native people and original stewards of this land.

Why do this? Schalin answers: “For they, too, are intended to chip away at something of great importance: the belief in the legitimacy of the United States as a sovereign nation. They raise the question of who really owns the land and impute some degree of illegitimacy on the current occupants.”

For those “progressives” who want to undermine the country and its traditions, guilt-tripping land acknowledgements help.

Read the whole thing.