Land Acknowledgement
City Theatre would like to acknowledge that our buildings reside in Dionde:gâ, the Seneca language name for the Pittsburgh region. We work and create art on the unceded, ancestral lands of many Indigenous peoples including the Seneca Nation, members of the Haudenosaunee (hoe-dee-no-SHOW-nee) Confederacy (also referred to by the French as the Iroquois Confederacy). The Confederacy was comprised of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas and formed to unite the five nations and create a peaceful means of decision making. The Seneca’s jurisdiction over the area also saw the region as home to the Lenape (also referred to as the Delaware), the Shawnee, and others. As recently as the 1960s, one-third of the Seneca’s tribal lands were taken by the U.S. government to create the Kinzua Dam northeast of the city.
The region’s history also stretches back further to the prehistoric cultures the Adena people, who were followed by the Hopewell, then the Monongahela and Osage.
We are mindful that our work here is possible because the land and lives of people native to this place were stolen. Generation upon generation (past, present, and future) of indigenous people here and all over the world are respectful stewards of the earth and its resources.
City Theatre also recognizes its participation in and benefit from the systemic exclusion of Black, Latinx, Asian, Middle Eastern and all People of Color. We specifically recognize and acknowledge the treatment of the enslaved Africans and their descendants in the Pittsburgh community. We honor them by committing to creating an anti-racist space for the creation and enjoyment of theater.
Through this acknowledgement, I invite you to join me in paying respect to the elders both past and present.
We encourage you to visit the Council of Three Rivers American Indian Center to learn more and support their work: http://www.cotraic.org/