Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel is offering an ordinance during Tuesday’s Anchorage Assembly meeting that will require the display of the “land acknowledgement” on the wall of the Assembly Chambers.
Already, the Assembly has an ordinance that requires the oral recitation of a “land acknowledgement” statement that says that the non-Natives who live and work in Alaska are colonizers and that there needs to be decolonization in Alaska, and some equity, too. Now that statement will be posted on the wall, too.
The proposed change to the municipal code can be read here.
In addition, the proposed ordinance would require the American flag and the municipal flag to be posted in the Chambers. It is already done by tradition, but not required by law.
Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel has for years refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of Anchorage Assembly meetings. She is one of the radical members who insisted on the land acknowledgement in 2020, when it started becoming a fixture in the Assembly meetings.
The following is the required acknowledgement that is now recited and would be required to be posted on the wall, presumably in the English language, since the Dena’ina Athabaskan’s had no written language:
“A land acknowledgement is a formal statement recognizing the Indigenous people of a place. It is a public gesture of appreciation for the past and present Indigenous stewardship of the lands that we now occupy. It is an actionable statement that marks our collective movement towards decolonization and equity.
“The Anchorage Assembly would like to acknowledge that we gather today on the traditional lands of the Dena’ina Athabascans. For thousands of years the Dena’ina have been and continue to be the stewards of this land. It is with gratefulness and respect that we recognize the contributions, innovations, and contemporary perspectives of the upper Cook Inlet Dena’ina.”
President Donald Trump has said that no more federal funds may be spent on diversity, equity, and inclusion programming. The land acknowledgement recited by the Assembly is an equity statement, at the very least.
Zaletel, representing midtown Anchorage, is not running for reelection in the April 1 municipal election.
Anchorage Assembly will meet on Tuesday, March 18 in the ground floor auditorium of the Loussac Library on 36th Avenue and Denali Street. The meetings begin at 5:30 pm and this item is later on the agenda, which can be seen here.
What a bunch of money wasting loons! No one ‘owns’ the land, we are just temporary residents on it. Coincidentally, a group of people were settled here when other Americans arrived, but those people who occupied it at that time likely displaced others, perhaps violently, who had resided there before. What about acknowledging the Russians? They occupied it too. Should we honor them and offer reparations?
Who owned the Black Hills? Before Custer, the Lakota Sioux took it from the Cheyenne, who took it from the Arapaho, who took it from the Crow, who took it from the Kiowa, who took it from the Arikara. And that is what we know just for the last 500 years. We are all transients. We are but dust, and to dust we shall all return, somewhere.
A sitting US Senator recently said … “You can only push folks so far.”
That very true statement applies here in Anchorage too!
These crazed lunatics are coming out of the woodwork like cockroaches! All’s I can say is they are showing their true colors! Vote for common sense, morals and values. They are telling you so PAY ATTENTION!!
Real people in Anchorage might vote that way, but counted ballots do not.
I think we need to let this chapter of wokeism play out. The logical conclusion is that these guilt ridden white folks will eventually demand that the ‘native’ Dena’ina Athabaskan post and recite land acknowledgment for the people that came before them.
Those left wing assembly members should be the first to sign over there ( borrowed) land to the natives. FYI Anchorage assembly NO ONE gave me my property, I worked my ass off for it.
It’s election season in Anchorage. No matter what don’t vote for an incumbent. Keep voting for a different candidate until they understand that you aren’t happy with them. Sooner or later they will figure it out.
And yet, these same idiots are for open borders…
ironic isn’t it?