Land Acknowledgement Statement

In the past five centuries, the convergence of a rich and complex mix of many factors and elements has resulted in the Frederick County that we know and experience today. The hard work and concentrated efforts of many thousands of individuals over time have given us - present day residents of this community - a livable place that provides our homes, our jobs, and opportunities for health, happiness, and fulfillment. And when we fall short, we strive to make things better. 

As we create and adopt this planning document, the good people of Frederick County acknowledge that the success that we have enjoyed, or may enjoy in future generations, is indebted to others whose fundamental contributions were not given freely.  

Frederick County acknowledges that our community currently occupies the lands of multiple indigenous peoples of the Piscataway who shared the resources and geographical advantages of this place for thousands of years and who did not voluntarily convey or cede this land to its current communities.  

We acknowledge their long-standing kinship with these lands and waters and acknowledge that we are uninvited residents on Indigenous lands. To make this statement more meaningful, we invite you to learn more about the Piscataway Indian Nation and to consider donating to, or making institutional resources available for, tribal peoples. As a community, and perhaps as individuals, we will continue to seek effective ways of improving our relationship with the lands we steward. 

Frederick County acknowledges our immeasurable debt to the enslaved people, primarily of African descent, whose forced and uncompensated labor, and immense and generational suffering, constructed and fueled the infrastructure and economy of a county, and a nation, that refused to recognize their humanity. We also acknowledge that the legacy of this cruel practice continues to create inequities and injustices for families, individuals, and institutions, and that it is incumbent upon our community to find ways in which all residents can fulfill their dreams and aspirations. To make this statement more meaningful, and in some ways reparative, we invite you to learn more about the experiences of enslaved people, the history they built in Frederick County, and the legacy of these events in the 21st Century. 

These acknowledgements, without any determined actions to lift up the affected communities, are just words. So, it is the intent of Frederick County to take positive steps that address fundamental inequalities and injustices in our community and to do so with a richer understanding of how we arrived at this moment.