We acknowledge with humility that the land where we gather is the traditional territory of the Cheraw, Sugaree, and Catawba nations, who stewarded this land for more than 6,000 years. At that time, Indigenous communities learned to live with the land, cultivating it into an abundant landscape that provided for all their needs.

We appreciate that the same land provides us with a prominent and vital space within Charlotte to live in what it means to be the church in the 21st century. We are grateful that the Catawba, or Ye Iswa, which means People of the River, survived US government policies and the church's complicity that aimed to remove them from the land and deny them fundamental human rights and sovereignty.

Our acknowledgment repudiates the Doctrine of Discovery and reminds us, as an act of Christian faith, to strive for respectful partnership with God's creation, all lands, and all people.

To learn more about the Catawba Nation, visit https://www.catawba.com/about-the-nation.

To learn more about The United Methodist Church's work with Native Peoples and the denomination's efforts to correct its past dereliction, visit https://www.umc.org/en/content/book-of-resolutions-native-people-and-the-united-methodist-church and https://www.umc.org/en/who-we-are/our-people/native-people