After years of debate, the Fairbanks City Council has again taken up a proposal to formalize a spoken land-acknowledgment statement at the start of every regular council meeting, advancing an ordinance on Monday. With a new Democrat mayor in place, the measure is almost guaranteed to pass after three failed attempts in the past.
The measure, co-sponsored by Councilmembers Valerie Therrien and Crystal Tidwell along with Mayor Mindy O’Neall, would require the 59-word statement to be read aloud immediately following roll call at each meeting. Therrien has led multiple prior efforts, including an unsuccessful resolution in 2022 and a similar ordinance that failed in May of this year on a 3–4 vote.
The proposed statement reads:
“We respectfully acknowledge the Dena people upon whose traditional lands we reside. We honor the Dena who have been the stewards of Interior lands and waters for centuries, the Elders who lived here before, the Dena people of today, and future generations to come. We also recognize that Alaskan Native people would traditionally gather here and harvest Native foods.”
The language asserts that some people settled Fairbanks before other people and that the Fairbanks region, long known by Athabascan place names such as “Chena,” sits on the traditional lands of the Dena people, also referred to as Lower Tanana Athabascan or Dena’ina, whose presence in the Interior stretches back roughly 3,500 years, based on archaeological evidence.
Several Alaska Native leaders urged adoption during public testimony, including Shirley Lee, deputy director of the Fairbanks Native Association; Steve Ginnis, traditional chief of Gwichyaa Zhee and former FNA executive director; Tanana Chiefs Conference Chairman Brian Ridley; and Denakkanaaga board member Glenn Carlo all spoke in favor, describing the statement as a gesture of recognition, respect, and historical acknowledgment.
Opponents of these required confessions have argued that such statements can be divisive or imply that some residents hold greater inherent claim to the community than others. Those concerns contributed to the May 2025 defeat and to the 2022 resolution’s collapse, though an earlier effort already resulted in a printed acknowledgment now posted near council chambers. The city’s Diversity Council endorsed the latest version in November.
With three sponsors already committed, the ordinance needs one additional vote from the remaining four council members to pass at its upcoming second reading. If approved, Fairbanks would join other liberal Alaska municipalities, including Anchorage, which has had a mandatory land acknowledgment before Assembly meetings since 2020, in adopting regular ceremonial statements asserting that today’s civic proceedings take place on land first inhabited by certain peoples and not other peoples.
The final vote on the ceremonial confession of guilt is expected in the coming weeks.
6 thoughts on “Fairbanks City Council inching toward ‘land acknowledgement’ requirement”
Good grief. I side with the ‘opponents’ and their common sense position. There are many ways to show respect for the original settlers without reciting a long statement at every meeting. Erect a memorial with a plaque that states a respectful acknowledgement/recognition statement. It almost seems like an ongoing repeated apology for events that have occurred time and time again since the origin of mankind. Maybe instead, some forgiveness and moving forward needs to occur, as such continuous apology leaves wounds open so they can’t heal. That isn’t healthy for anyone and if anything, it keeps people wallowing in unproductive, damaging bitterness and victomhood.
The marxism will continue until moral improves.
Does the Council really want to place a cloud on the title of every piece of property in the City of Fairbanks? This seems like the first step. My understanding is that this is happening in British Columbia.
You know. In the five years Anchorage Democrat leaders been doing its Dena’ina land acknowledgement; they should be at an immediate level of understanding and. Speaking Dena’ina language if what they say truly means something to them.
These kind of leaders are no different than anyone buying a Cross and wearing it but they don’t even know God’s Word.
Anyone can buy a Cross necklace just like anyone can repeat a land acknowledgment but know nothing about the people they acknowledge.
They can at least had been personally studying the Athasbacan language.
Somehow I believe that ANSCA resolved the issue.
Quite laudable.
However if The Council is going to ‘acknowledge’ the Dena as stewards of the land they really should follow that 59 word statement with a 60 word praise of the Italians for developing the city.
After all if the Italian gentleman, Felx Pedro hadn’t found gold here in1902 instead of Fairbanks we’d probably be acknowledging Barnett’s long gone Chena trading post.