Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at TCC

Land Acknowledgement

We are so fortunate that TCC is located on the ancestral territory of First Nations peoples. The Puyallup tribe, a member of the Coast Salish tribal peoples have called this area home since time immemorial. In 1854, the Medicine Creek Treaty forcibly removed them from their lands and onto the Puyallup reservation.

The state of Washington has the 7th largest Native American population in the U.S. with 29 federally recognized tribes represented, as well as several unrecognized tribes. We recognize that the privilege of our campus being on the land on which we now stand comes at great cost to the Coast Salish peoples.

We gather here knowing that our presence is part of an ongoing invasion and that these lands were and continue to be forcibly and unlawfully taken from their original indigenous inhabitants.

We acknowledge that these injustices are true here and also for indigenous communities around the globe.

Labor Acknowledgement

We gratefully acknowledge the labor upon which our country, state, and institution are built.  ​

We are grateful for the stewardship of our land from the Puyallup Tribe of Indians since time immemorial, from whose bounty we still benefit.  ​

We remember that our country is built on the labor of enslaved people who were kidnapped and brought to the U.S. from the African continent and recognize the continued contribution of their survivors.  ​

We acknowledge those who helped build the region and continue to serve within our labor force in unique ways, including but not limited to: displaced Indigenous communities, voluntary immigrants, incarcerated individuals, trafficked persons, and undocumented people. In Tacoma we must recognize the contributions of the Chinese and Japanese laborers that built the local infrastructure and who were impacted by the Tacoma Method and Executive Order 9066, respectively. We acknowledge that most of the food we eat in this region is provided by the predominantly Latinx and American Indigenous laborers.  ​

We recognize that the labor of students, hourly, contingent, and minoritized employees is crucial to the continued functioning of our campuses. We also want to honor essential workers, many of whom are our students and employees, who are serving our communities at great personal risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. ​

Finally, we recognize that acknowledging these types of labor are just a starting point for change, and that ongoing action is needed to disrupt and counteract systemic patterns that take labor for granted by the groups identified above.