Statement: 

As the only Indigenous, two-spirit woman-run organization in Tompkins County, it is necessary for us to protect the spaces which we serve. Over the last year and a half, we have been subjected to acts of ethnocide through lateral and colonial violence from organizations within our local community. These acts were committed through the spreading of harmful rumors, not only impacting our work in the community but also our personal lives and reputations. Colonial violence was perpetuated through the elimination of our access to land, this was specifically harmful to our work in food and seed sovereignty. As Indigenous women, we believe it is necessary to name these organizations to protect our community from future harm and violence. These organizations are as follows: The Learning Farm and Khuba International, The Youth Farm Project, and Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming. We understand the gravity of naming these organizations in our community and over the last year-and-a-half, have pursued private dialogue and mediation with said organizations; these efforts were met with resistance.

The struggle for Indigenous sovereignty has been an ongoing battle for 530 years. The foundation of TCIKH is rooted in healing-informed practices and traditional healing modalities. Our first priority is to ensure the wellbeing of our people. In understanding the trauma that we have as Indigenous people who are displaced from our ancestral territories, we must familiarize ourselves with colonial and lateral violence, and the role they play in ethnocide. 

In lieu of primarily pursuing formal legal proceedings*, we have two simple requests. 

1. A public acknowledgement of the individual and collective role each organization has upheld as perpetrators of systemic violence from the Learning Farm, the Youth Farm Project, and Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming. 

2. Capital, financial, and physical support in our efforts to reclaim Indigenous sovereignty, including ancestral Land Back.

We have chosen to use this unfortunate series of events as an opportunity to invite the greater community to understand the long-term effects of colonialism. We also invite the perpetrators to consider the value of restitution. 

*We are not against pursuing legal recourse. If you have resources that could be of assistance in taking legal action against said parties, please contact info@tcikh.org. 

If you have any further questions, please contact info@tcikh.org.