Indigenous Land Acknowledgement for KZSC Santa Cruz by KZSC Santa Cruz

Station Manager Maelin Rose opened KZSC's 50th Anniversary Celebration at the Quarry Amphitheater on 28 April 2018 with a reflection upon the enduring strength of the Indigenous people who called this land home and cared for it for more than ten thousand years before the arrival of settlers.

Ohlone people still reside and lead communities around the Monterey Bay--in our listening area--and we wanted to respectfully acknowledge the continual history of their presence on this land and their claims to their traditional territories.

Many of the place names around the Monterey Bay recognize these facts - the region includes the tribes and villages of Aptos [ap-TOSS], Sokel [so-KELL], Cotoni [co-TONY], Sayanta [ZzzzEYE-ANTI], Rumsen [rum-ZIN], Muwekma [moo-WEK-ma], Mutsun [moot-ZIN], Awaswas [ahh-WASS-WASS], Chalon [cha-LONE}, Quiroste [KEER-ost-tay], and the Salinan [sah-LINN-ee-ann] and Esselen [ESS-ahh-linn] Nations.

There were many distinct linguistic and cultural groups on this land, together forming a complex, cooperative civilization for thousands of years before the arrival of settlers disrupted their society and dispossessed them of the land and their sovereignty over it.

Today, this history and the present reality of the Monterey Bay area indigenous peoples are poorly recognized by our local, state, and federal government. And we feel that we must be mindful of how our presence on this land affects the lives of California Natives today. We acknowledge the indigenous people in our alumni and our listening area and the accomplishments and struggles of their ancestors and culture-bearers that continue today. We encourage you to support their work to gain recognition, reconciliation, and reparations.

Let us close with a moment of silence to celebrate and reflect on the resilience of Indigenous people as we share their homelands.