Land Acknowledgment

The Davis New Mexico Scholarship office sits on unceded Tewa land, and the fact that it is no longer controlled or owned by indigenous people is an ongoing testament to their historical dispossession. Pueblo leaders were given canes of power by King Phillip of Spain in 1620, and again by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863– physical representations of unbroken Pueblo sovereignty. Pueblo land is inseparable from Pueblo language and culture, and acknowledging sovereignty of land means recognizing the attempted deculturalization that accompanies settler colonialism.

This land, New Mexico, is also a land of immigrants. Spanish people and their descendents, who came here four hundred years ago, have their own experience of land ownership and dispossession. In 1848, The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American war and promised Spanish land grant claims would be honored by the United States government– a promise to the hispanos that was broken in the 20th century.

In the over 150 years since, New Mexico has experienced more waves of immigration, people whose lives continue to add to our state’s compelling complexity. We acknowledge the contributions of these people without forgetting that Tewa people have primacy here.

In this spirit, the Davis New Mexico Scholarship pledges to do its work with reconciliation, humility, and justice at the forefront of our mind. We are committed to working with and learning from the young people and future leaders of our state, as well as their elders, the parents and grandparents who have guided their children to where they are today. This scholarship program was co-created, in a large part, by scholars themselves, and we promise to continue to listen to our scholars and ground our program in their needs, experiences, and vision for a better tomorrow.