Land Acknowledgement

This is my Land Acknowledgment for The People of the Standing Stone, The
 Haudenosaunee, Oneida Nation of the Thames of Delaware, Ontario Canada.

The Oneida Nation of the Thames people have been living around the Great Lakes
area since 23, 000 BC, when the Clovis people, their ancestor first appeared.

The Clovis people are from South America and are connected to the Hopi and the Hopi are related to the Haudenosaunee. The Oneida creation story includes this South American ancestor connection. Ancient Haudenosaunee/Clovis Stone tools and pipes have been found in several places around the Great Lakes along with clusters of longhouse settlements. The anthropological/archaeological evidence includes thousands of Paleo-Indian, archaic and woodland era’s being occupied by the Haudenosaunee since Clovis times in the Great Lakes regions. This is a fact! The last baby ice age formed sand plains in Caradoc/Delaware Ontario that made it excellent for hunting/living for the Haudenosaunee. The knolls, ridges, gullies, and rolling hills were excellent for hunting camps and permanent living.

Thousands of Longhouses and “Villages” have been located in around the Oneida Nation of the Thames and around the valley of London Ontario. Due to the last baby ice age’s land formations and easy access to fresh water, the Oneida people have been occupying these lands in Delaware/London Ontario since “Clovis” times, which is before Egypt and Stonehenge.

Also, the Haudenosaunee’s innovative genius on land use of adapting wild plants into agricultural crops that would feed millions of people in the past and today needs to be acknowledged. I ask that we acknowledge that the people from Oneida Nation of the Thames and their ancestors are part of the original occupants of these lands. And to respect, to learn their true history of the land that they have been caretaking. We all need to understand how the land we are standing on today is absolutely the traditional territory of the people of the Oneida Nation of the Thames.

- Yawko Mechelle Wishkut Clark 2022