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3.3 LAND - Chandler Jensen, INFO 353
This week’s materials explore how…
3.3 LAND - Chandler Jensen, INFO 353
This week’s materials explore how land acknowledgments and maps function as distinct yet interconnected forms of land representation within digital spaces.
This raises a central question: How can technology be used to acknowledge and represent land in ways that are respectful of Indigenous peoples, histories, and relationships to place?
To explore this question, I have organized the course materials, illustrated by the branches extending from this central node of the concept map to describe how land can be represented..
In maps..
..through mapping tools that can expose a history "hiding in plain sight," but simultaneously obscure Indigenous systems of land stewardship, shared territories, and relational understandings of place.
Example: Land-grab universities (High County News)
- Land of 52 universities traced 10.7 million acres to nearly 250 tribes, bands, and communities
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Example: Native Land Digital
- Search any place to see its tribes, languages, and treaties
- Shown as polygons which can suggest fixed borders
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Example: Atlas of Indigenous Seattle (Thrush)
- Maps Indigenous place names and sites across Seattle, alongside the Indigenous Mapping Collective, which maps Indigenous territories, claims, and treaties worldwide
Connected to UW Indigenous Walking Tour -
Native makers decide how land is shown, and restoring place names restores who the place belongs to
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Who benefits?
The public, when maps expose who profited.
In place..
.. through Indigenous art and architecture that embed presence within the built environment, turning acknowledgment into something you can physically walk past rather than only hear.
Example: UW Indigenous Walking Tour
- wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ community space for Indigenous relations
- Story Pole carved by Muckleshoot and Lower Elwha Klallam artists
- stəx̌ʷugʷił name restored for the tour
- Raven's Journey represents the path of a student using Indigenous art methods
Connected to Atlas of Indigenous Seattle -
Native makers decide how land is shown, and restoring place names restores who the place belongs to
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Who makes the decision?
Indigenous artists choose their canvas, and the institutions choose the site.
Who benefits?
Indigenous communities, when the space is their own.
In words..
..through acknowledgments that name the peoples whose land we are on.. At their best, they are a “living statement” grounded in relationships with tribes, and at worst, they recognize the land without any commitment to returning it.
Example: The Burke Museum
- Co-created with a Native American Advisory Board
- Requires staff to take turns sharing what the acknowledgement means to them
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Example: The University of Washington
- Names the Suquamish, the Tulalip, and the Muckleshoot, in accordance with federal tribal sovereignty policy
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Who benefits?
The institution, unless words lead to action.
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In data..
..through data centers that depend on land and water, and through AI that depends on Indigenous knowledge used without proper consent.
Example: Te Hiku Media
- Māori broadcaster with it's own data that created a speech recognition system for te reo Māori
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Example: AI Training (Spotted Elk, 2025)
- Models trained on online datasets, which often undercount or misclassify Indigenous people
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Who benefits?
Companies, unless communities get to retain control.