Indigenous Land Acknowledgement and Commitments
The Pear Theatre sits at 1110 La Avenida St in current day Mountain View, California.
This land once belonged to tribal nations who negotiated government to government, preserving their sovereign land, rights, and privileges through treaties. When land wasn’t ceded through good faith efforts, it was often stolen from the Indigenous peoples.
This land was stolen from the Muwekma, Ohlone, and Tamyen Tribes now represented by the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area. Because of the gross negligence and indifference from Federal and State governments of the United States, this tribe is still battling to be Federally recognized - a battle that has lasted for over 100 years.
Following The Native Governance Center, The Pear believes that the land that surrounds us is part of who we are; it reflects our histories.
We commit to furthering our knowledge on the subject of the theft of Indigenous land, the systemic betrayal, and the forced removal of Native peoples from their lands.
We commit to learning from Indigenous people and passing that knowledge on to the best of our ability. We will place resources in each of our programs and share a land acknowledgement at each of our performances.
We commit to providing patrons resources through which they can support Indigenous groups.
We commit to supporting Indigenous groups both through financial means and through using our visibility to further the visibility of Indigenous groups.
This is not perfect and it is nowhere near enough. We will continue to iterate manners and ways in which to better support the Indigenous communities of the Bay area. We recognize that land acknowledgement is, itself, only a small gesture. It is only through continued action that we will raise awareness of native sovereignty, equitable rights, and reconciliation.
Knowledge Resources
https://archive.org/stream/annualreportofbu218smit#page/782/mode/2up
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/History/History-idx?id=History.IT1854no281
https://usfs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=fe311f69cb1d43558227d73bc34f3a32
https://openspacetrust.org/event/indigenous-history-in-the-bay-area/
Support Resources
https://rootwisdom.com/support-indigenous-leadership
https://www.givemn.org/organization/Nativegov
https://www.indianhealthcenter.org/
https://bayareaequityatlas.org/about/indigenous-populations-in-the-bay-area