Land Acknowledgement for Fair Share Farm
Fair Share Farm occupies the ancestral and traditional lands of the Osage, Kickapoo, and Oglala Lakota Peoples. In particular, the farm resides on land ceded in the 1808 Treaty with the Osage (Cession 69).
We respectfully acknowledge that we are on the traditional, ancestral lands of the Osage Nation. The process of knowing and acknowledging the land we stand on is a way of honoring and expressing gratitude for the ancestral Osage people who were on this land before us.
Even as early as 12,000 BC, this land was used for hunting and camping by early Paleo-Indians. More recently, the Osage and other tribes migrated across the area to inhabit the land that is now known as Missouri. They remained here for 1300 years, until the land cessions in the early 1800s. The landscapes of the region hold this legacy in trails, hunting camps, and sacred burial grounds. We are grateful to the Native elders, both past and present, for their hospitality and willingness to share an ethic for the stewardship of the land.
Between 1808 and 1825, treaties with the United States resulted in the cessation of Osage tribal land across Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The Osage traveled the Trail of Tears and settled in southeast Kansas on the Cherokee Strip. By the time they negotiated the treaty of 1865, to purchase land in Oklahoma, the Osages had reduced in population by 95%. Only 3000 Osage People walked across the Kansas border into their new land. Through an act of Congress in 1870, remaining tribal lands in Kansas were sold, and the Osage relocated to Indian Territory in Oklahoma, site of present-day Osage County.
While there are no documented settlements on the farm or in the immediate area we have for the past 18 years uncovered numerous remnants of stone tools and flints. These artifacts show our farm to be an area Indigenous Peoples regularly hunted and camped. We recognize and honor Indigenous Peoples as traditional stewards of this land. For more information on how you can help respect native cultures in our area, please see KC Indian Center’s website.
Clay County Missouri Slaveholdings
Fair Share farm is situated in Clay County, Missouri. Prior to 1865 Missouri was a slave state, and over 25% of the Clay County population was listed as slaves in the 1860 census. Landowners of our farm are not listed on the US Census Slave Schedule as slave owners, but adjacent landowners are listed as owning slaves.
The wealth of our nation was created on the backs of millions of slaves who were stolen from their homelands and forced to work without choice. This contribution cannot be overstated. We acknowledge the inhuman actions that former residents of our area took to enslave fellow humans.
The Liberty African-American Legacy Memorial is compiling the history of African-Americans in Clay County. We thank them for their efforts to educate all of us, and preserve the life, death and history of African-Americans in our area. You can contribute to their efforts to erect a Legacy Memorial at the New Hope and Fairview Cemeteries at their GoFundMe page. The memorial is to be placed in the segregated “potters field” at the cemetery, to recognize the remains of over 700 African-Americans buried there with no gravestone.
