Commitment to Indigenous Communities and Nations in North America

To recognize this connection, Cornell has formally adopted the land acknowledgment statement developed by the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program (AIISP) in consultation with, and approved by, the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ^Ɂ traditional leadership. The university encourages faculty members, staff and students to read the full acknowledgement at the beginning of significant events and gatherings to acknowledge the historical and ongoing ties that the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ^Ɂ have to this particular area.

In addition to our relationship with the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ^Ɂ homeland, as a result of the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862, Cornell was among 52 land-grant universities that were beneficiaries of land scrip from the U.S. federal government. The government awarded land scrip to states relative to a state’s population, and thus New York received the largest amount. We recognize that lands distributed to states to support the founding of universities were previously taken by the federal government from Indigenous Nations by force and fraud that included treaty violations, treaties signed under duress, or direct appropriation without compensation – and that the subsequent sales of these lands seeded endowments, including Cornell’s. Historians, including Prof. Jon Parmenter at Cornell, have explained that, from its very founding, the federal government was engaged in a practice of extinguishing Native title, thereby dispossessing Native people of their lands and natural resources for the benefit of American settler institutions and individuals.

As the largest recipient of proceeds from appropriated Indigenous lands from the 1862 Morrill Act and as the institution that accrued the greatest financial benefit from that land, we acknowledge Cornell’s central place in this history. Indeed, the history of the Morrill Act is more complex than commonly known. As more information continues to emerge, we will continue to honor and present this history as part of our land grant origins. Faculty in AIISP are conducting ongoing research into this important aspect of the university's history.

Cornell has other notable historical connections with North American Indigenous Nations and communities. Among them, in 1920 Cornell’s then-College of Agriculture created the Indian Extension Program. This program specifically focused its outreach programs to address the needs of Indigenous communities, building close relationships between Cornell and the Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih communities thanks in large part to the efforts of Cornell faculty member Dr. Erl Bates. This program brought Cornell extension staff to Indigenous communities across New York state, as well as Indigenous students to Cornell. Indeed, the first college student organization in the United States for Indigenous students, De Yen Twas, was founded at Cornell in 1921. In partnership with Nations, the Indian Extension Program had several successes, including work on crop improvement, pest control efforts like quarantine of the corn-borer and eradication of tuberculosis.

Critical questions remain, however, about whether these efforts were primarily driven by Cornell or created in response to concerns raised by Indigenous communities. Questions also exist about whether university scientists respected and incorporated traditional, Indigenous knowledge in their problem-solving efforts or ignored this knowledge in favor of their own scientific approaches. There are also questions about whether the university could have done more to recruit undergraduates and graduate students at the time. Much has changed in the last 100 years, including a greater appreciation for ways to properly engage with Indigenous communities that demonstrate respect for Indigenous knowledge and cultural traditions. Today, our commitment to culturally appropriate and meaningful relationships with Indigenous communities remains forefront in our efforts to actively partner with communities across New York state and beyond, through the Cooperative Extension network and other academic and engagement programs across the university.

Helping to guide the university in these endeavors is AIISP. The Indian Extension Program waned in the 1960s, following the retirement of Dr. Bates. AIISP was established in 1983 as a new effort to focus on academic, recruitment and retention. With faculty members bridging three of Cornell’s colleges (Agriculture and Life Sciences, Arts and Sciences and Human Ecology), AIISP is committed to fostering the next generation of leading scholars and serves as the campus hub for Indigenous teaching, research and outreach. It is one of the oldest academic Indigenous studies programs in the United States and offers a unique combination of courses. It also provides crucial recruitment and academic support services for Indigenous students and runs an Indigenous-themed residence at Akwe:kon, one of the oldest collegiate residential houses built explicitly to celebrate North American Indigenous culture. In 2021, Cornell opened several dormitories, one of which is named Ganędagǫ: Hall, a name also developed in consultation with AIISP and the traditional leadership of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ^Ɂ.