MU unveils Land and Water Acknowledgment marker

Community shows up for the dedication ceremony last Friday

By Sophia Tiedge sophia.tiedge@marquette.edu

Students, faculty, alumni and Native American veterans gathered outside the Alumni Memorial Union to witness the unveiling of the Land and Water Acknowledgment marker Friday, Feb. 3.

The oral and written version of the Land and Water

Acknowledgment was adopted back in 2021 in partnership between Marquette’s council on Native American affairs and faculty advisors.

The marker is located in the Eckstein Commons in the center of campus. The marker is a group of metal plates wrapped around a birch tree that’s native to Wisconsin. Artist Kristelle M. Ulrich engraved the metal with images of nature and animals important to the tribes of Wisconsin.

“If this is the first experience students have with In- digenous people and their his tory and heritage then that’s what we hope to accomplish,”

Alexander Liberato, a gradu ate of Marquette class of 2021 and former president of the Native American Student Association, said.

Provost Kimo Ah Yun said they talked about a lot of dif ferent options for the marker and collaborated with an artist to create a marker that would signify the vision students had.

“It’s an acknowledgment that Native American people lived here for hundreds of years, so it’s an understanding and a reminder that we’re on lands that have existed, that the indigenous people lived on it and cultivated,” Ah Yun said.

Christine Navia, vice president for inclusive excellence said she hopes the marker will be a source of curiosity for students. Since it’s located right outside the AMU, she said she hopes that students will walk past the marker and want to learn more about its origin and who