Tempe creates new land acknowledgment recognizing Indigenous people

The city of Tempe and Vice Mayor Doreen Garlid presented a new land acknowledgment during the city council meeting on Oct. 16. For Garlid, the message hit close to home.

Garlid is Navajo and a relative of Navajo Code talker George Kirk, a soldier pictured in one of the famous photographs from the U.S. Archives. She became emotional as she spoke about presenting the new acknowledgment video at the meeting.

“When I think about our history and the tribal communities here, they are incredibly resilient,” Garlid said at the end of the meeting.

The video acknowledges the land now called Tempe once belonged to the O’odham and Piipaash people who existed in the Valley long before westward expansion in the U.S.

Garlid explained her relatives were put in boarding schools and punished for speakin