Our Land Acknowledgement

Yoga and Health would like to acknowledge that the land we currently occupy was inhabited and cared for by over six-hundred bands of human beings - the Coahuiltecans - that resided in Texas and northeastern Mexico for millennia before the Spaniards first arrived.

We Acknowledge that our colonial history in Texas was such that the indigenous identity of these people, who live among us today, was stolen and they were forced to take on their slave masters' Spanish names, learn Spanish and forget their language, take on Christianity and leave behind their spiritual belief systems, give up their lands so that when the U.S. took over, they had nothing to trade for federal recognition as U.S. indigenous tribes or nations, and eventually become detribalized individuals mislabeled "Hispanic."

In gratitude, we recognize the Miakan-Garza Band and the Coahuiltecans for sharing the wisdom of their ancestors, the original inhabitants of this land. In order to survive and thrive, we must learn to:

• Put community first.

• Understand the value of relationships.

• Have respect for ancestors and elders.*

• Accept that it is our responsibility to restore balance to Mother Earth.

Along with the Coahuiltecans, we will strive to unite human-kind in seeking ancestral knowledge for the sake of our continued survival.

{For non-native peoples, this may require DNA testing to discover who your ancestors are. Until we can come to terms with our own history, which most likely contains elements of intergenerational trauma, we will be unable to see the suffering that our ancestors carried forward, rather than choosing to heal.*}

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