(Original story published in High Country News, written by Robert Lee and Tristan Ahtone.)
Cornell University is located on Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ (Cayuga) traditional homelands.
You may have come across this acknowledgement before, but why is it important?
“The Morrill Act worked by turning land expropriated from tribal nations into seed money for higher education. In all, the act redistributed nearly 11 million acres.”
Cornell University benefited greatly from this act, gaining the most from violence- backed cessions and treaties (coerced dispossession) of Indigenous lands. To put numbers to this dispossession:
- Cornell University gained nearly 1 million acres (977,910 acres).
- Cornell University gained nearly $6 million ($5,739,657), “a significantly higher profit than its nearest rivals.” Accounting for inflation, this would be worth well over $150 million USD in 2021.
This was generated by the land “taken from the Ojibwe, Miwok, Yokuts, Dakota and other parties through 63 treaties or seizures.”
Much of the academic infrastructure that has made Cornell University one of the world leaders in education, research, and development was made possible through the dispossession of Indigenous lands, and that must not only be acknowledged, but it must be acted upon.
Examples of current initiatives:
- “The American Indian and Indigenous Studies Department at Michigan State University, for instance, has incorporated language on the Morrill Act’s relationship to expropriation and genocide in its extended land acknowledgment.”
- “South Dakota State University has recently redirected income from its remaining Morrill acres into programming and support for Native students hoping to attend SDSU through the Wokini Initiative. In fiscal year 2019, Morrill lands still held by South Dakota produced nearly $636,000 in revenue. Through the Wokini Initiative, that money now goes to Indigenous students.”
From the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program:
Let us work together to both acknowledge the Indigenous lands that were taken to build the Cornell we know today, and to give back to these communities that for so long have gained nothing but pain from these acts.
The maps published with this article in High Country News show the parcels of land gained by Cornell as well as the benefits reaped from the Morrill Act compared to other land grant universities.