“MIT acknowledges Indigenous Peoples as the traditional stewards of the land, and the enduring relationship that exists between them and their traditional territories. The land on which we sit is the traditional unceded territory of the Wampanoag Nation. We acknowledge the painful history of genocide and forced occupation of their territory, and we honor and respect the many diverse indigenous people connected from time immemorial to this land on which we now gather.”

This is the unofficial official land acknowledgment statement posted on MIT’s Institute Community & Equity website. MIT’s Indigenous Working Group, led by Chancellor Melissa Nobles, was unable to agree on an official official land acknowledgement statement because it was “premature,” pending further action strengthening MIT’s relationship with indigenous communities. While Chancellor Nobles continues her virtuous efforts on this and many other fronts, colleagues and students were encouraged to “express their own commitments to relationship building” with indigenous peoples.

Challenge accepted.

Human history is one continuous record of bloody conflict between and among peoples and cultures. It is the cauldron from which human intelligence was born, ultimately giving birth to the blessings of modernity. Nary a human alive today does not include conquerors and conquered, displaced and displacers, slaves and slave owners among its ancestors.

Burdening or privileging the living with the sins or demands for justice of the dead divides us, inflames us, empowers demagogues, and immiserates all. Let us instead come together to give thanks for being born into a better world, at a better time, and in a better place than any world, time or place that has ever come before.

Amen.