Indigenous Acknowledgment

Colorado Mountain Club was founded in the early 1900s when indigenous peoples had only very recently been forcibly removed from the mountains and wild areas in which we now recreate. We believe it is important to recognize that our buildings and activities are on the traditional territories and ancestral homelands of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Southern Ute, Ute Mountain Ute, and the Ute of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation and many other indigenous nations, and that these peoples’ forced removal has caused devastating, lasting impacts.

This article from Outside Magazine talks about how “land acknowledgements” such as the above can often seem perfunctory: a mere box-checking exercise. Acknowledging the difficult history of the land upon which we recreate is merely the beginning of trying to right wrongs and prevent future discrimination going forward.