In February 2025, Must Read Alaska published an opinion article I wrote about the Anchorage Assembly’s Land Acknowledgment. This Acknowledgement or what I will refer to as the Proclamation, is read at the start of each Regular Assembly Meeting. When first hearing the Acknowledgement, I thought of it as just another scolding and correcting lecture from the illiberal left.
I am writing part two to underscore what I think is a more serious implication of the Land Acknowledgement. The Acknowledgement deliberately erodes legitimacy of the United States and by promoting it, the Assembly violates their oath of office.
For reference, the Land Acknowledgement, published July 11, 2025 in the Municipal Agenda, is included at the end of this article. The meeting agenda for the Regular Assembly Meeting on Dec 2 still contains the Land Acknowledgement.
The first two and last three sentences of the Proclamation are rather murky concerning who actually has sovereignty over lands within the Municipality of Anchorage (MOA). The Proclamation’s platitudes served up to Alaska Natives ignores resolution of traditional land claims under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). The Proclamation strongly implies that more than ANCSA is needed; that we now must pursue decolonization and equity. To be clear, all lands within the State of Alaska fall under the ultimate sovereignty of the United States of America.
The third sentence is the most troublesome. This sentence reads, “It is an actionable statement that marks our collective movement towards decolonization and equity.” To advocate decolonization is to call for an uprising, a revolution. The problem with today’s edgy advocacy groups, such as the Proclamation writers, is that they think words, such as decolonization and equity, can be redefined to whatever meaning serves their purpose. I am curious about who ends up with all the real property equity after decolonization?
In order to need decolonization, there must be a colonizer. Writers of the Proclamation lack courage to clearly identify the colonizer. The “colonizer” is none other than the United States of America. To decolonize is to remove the “colonizer,” the United States of America, and reassign or restore the land to another sovereign. To whom is sovereignty being transferred? Again, the writers of this Proclamation are silent. Decolonization (removing United States sovereignty), eliminates the Constitution and all its protections, including the Bill of Rights and Separation of Powers.
All Assembly Members and the Mayor are required to take an oath of office upholding the Constitution of the United States of America. By issuing and reading this Proclamation at the beginning of each bi-monthly Assembly Meeting, the Assembly violates their oath of office, because the Proclamation’s decolonization manifesto entails the removal of the U.S. Constitution.
MOA Assembly’s Land Acknowledgement: July 11, 2025
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.
David Arehart is a retired registered civil engineer and lifelong resident of Alaska. His engineering work and projects are scattered across Alaska, from Ketchikan to Utqiagvik to Diomede to Atka.
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1 COMMENT
Land acknowledgements are nothing if not an attempt to elevate native cultures above that of Western and first world nations. Because the left is incapable of understanding that Europeans came to this land, conquered an inferior people and took the land, as humans have done time immemorial, they created this “acknowledgement.”
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By acknowledging previous tenants of the land, they are in fact cutting down the current land owners. When the white man came to this land and conquered the natives, an injustice was done. But, creating a new injustice is actually a worse crime because we should know better. But, what can you expect from a group who is childlike in thought as well as action. To the assembly, two wrongs do make a right.
Land acknowledgements are nothing if not an attempt to elevate native cultures above that of Western and first world nations. Because the left is incapable of understanding that Europeans came to this land, conquered an inferior people and took the land, as humans have done time immemorial, they created this “acknowledgement.”
.
By acknowledging previous tenants of the land, they are in fact cutting down the current land owners. When the white man came to this land and conquered the natives, an injustice was done. But, creating a new injustice is actually a worse crime because we should know better. But, what can you expect from a group who is childlike in thought as well as action. To the assembly, two wrongs do make a right.