Land Acknowledgement

A commitment to visionary storytelling and shared progress was first imagined on my great-grandmother's desk  in a horse barn on Monacan land in Virginia, flourished on Iipay-Tipay-Diegueño land in California, and is based in Cherokee Nation, the state of Okla humma, which is home to 39 tribes including the Indigenous Osage, Caddo, Kiowa, Comanche and Wichita peoples.

Where Tallgrass Prairies and Ozark Mountains meet in the "Green Country," Sun Literary thrives in Tahlequah (ᏓᎵᏆ), capital of Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, in the state of Oklahoma, which translates as okla, or "people," and humma, translated as "red." This name was suggested by Choctaw Nation Chief Allen Wright in 1866 during treaty negotiations with the U.S. government concerning land use of Indian Territory. Tahlequah was the final destination on the Trail of Tears, when Cherokee Native Americans were forced west between 1830-1850, a military-enforced migration that resulted in the genocide of thousands of Cherokees.

It is of high importance to note and distinguish that Indigenous culture encompasses 574 distinct federally-recognized tribes and even more yet unrecognized tribes and sovereign nations within the United States, as well as vastly distinct Indigenous and Aboriginal cultures, clans, and tribes across the globe. Each with their own unique culture and traditions.

Sun Literary is based in Oklahoma; but like many within our shared humanity,  the directors, collaborators, and reviewers of this agency encompass both distinct identities and multiple inheritances, each with close ties to the land of their own histories. 

All of our ancestors brought us here.

“Walking, I am listening to a deeper way. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.” –Linda Hogan, Chickasaw Nation's Writer in Residence and author of Solar Storms and Dark Sweet

Sun Lit supports returning National Parks to the tribes and recommends The Freedom of Real Apologies and This Land Podcast.