Grow Pittsburgh recognizes that we occupy and carry out our activities on the unceded, ancestral land of many Indigenous peoples. Of these, the principal historic caretakers of this region are and have always been the Onondagawa, known popularly as the Seneca Nation, who are members of the six-nation Haudenosaunee (hoe-dee-no-SHOW-nee) Confederacy (The Iroquois). The Seneca here in the western Pennsylvania region also share this territory with the Shawnee and the Lenape (also known as Delaware). As recently as the 1960s, the last remaining Seneca reservation in Pennsylvania, The Cornplanter Grant on the Allegheny River in Warren County, and nearly one-third of the Seneca’s tribal lands across our northern border in western New York State were taken by the U.S. government to build the Kinzua Dam northeast of Pittsburgh.
We also acknowledge the extraction of life energy and labor forced upon people of African descent and Indigenous peoples and the autonomy denied to them by doing so. This includes redlining and other forms of institutional racism that have displaced and undervalued Black and Brown residents of Allegheny County and resulted in many of the “vacant” land plots where we now grow food.
Our regenerative and sustainable growing practices (including cover cropping, composting, mulching, soil remediation, and pollinator habitat restoration) are part of our efforts to respect the earth, cultivate healing, and celebrate life through growing and sharing food. As a land-based organization with urban farms in Braddock, North Point Breeze, and Wilkinsburg, as well as community and school gardens throughout the region, it is important for us to acknowledge the communities that have come before us.
We uplift these communities purposefully in our work, but we are not the only ones doing this. We support and invite you to get involved with these good people and their important community work:
- Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers Cooperative of Pittsburgh (BUGS)
- Council of Three Rivers American Indian Center
- Farmer Girl Eb
- Grounded Strategies
- Operation Better Block / Junior Green Corps
- Sankofa Village Community Farm
- Soil Sisters Plant Nursery
We believe it’s important to acknowledge the ways that colonialism and white supremacy have shaped land use, access to resources, and labor and to actively work towards a just, equitable, and inclusive future. How will you join in this work?
If you think there are voices or efforts not represented here, please reach out to us: info@growpittsburgh.org.
We thank the Council of Three Rivers American Indian Center for guiding us in creating this acknowledgment
