DOVER Resident Natalie Strickland stepped up to the microphone Wednesday night, saying if the City Council would not read and discuss a statement acknowledging the city stands on unceded land that was once the home of Indigenous tribes, she would.
“The land acknowledgment is not a threat to Dover,” Strickland said before reading the statement in a public hearing. “It recognizes Indigenous people as the traditional stewards of the land and honors the relationship that exists currently. It isn t just about something that happened 400 years ago.”
The City Council postponed discussion of a resolution calling for a statement to be read before all of its meetings that acknowledges how Dover’s settlement displaced Indigenous populations. The recommendation is one of the first from the city s new Racial Equity and Inclusion Committee, and the council s action sent it back to the committee.