Native Land Acknowledgement

It is the vision of Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting to foster a community that is well-informed, inclusive, and engaged. Truth and acknowledgment are critical to building mutual respect and connection across all barriers of heritage and difference, thereby strengthening our community and living up to the commitment of our mission.

It is in that spirit that we acknowledge that the Community Broadcast Center rests on the traditional lands of the Seneca Nation, part of the great Iroquois Confederacy. The Seneca had a policy of respectfully coexisting with other tribes that emigrated to this area. The two tribes that lived here under this policy were the Shawnee and the Lenape (called Delawares by the English) who fled massacres by the English and settled in the region now called Pittsburgh and into the Ohio Valley. The Seneca have stewarded this land for generations.

The Treaty of Fort Pitt was negotiated in 1778; it was the first peace treaty among Native Americans: the Lenape (Delaware) tribe, and the newly formed United States Continental Congress, which effectively lasted one year. By 1782, the Lenape had been forced off the land by Pennsylvania militia and British colonists and were welcomed by the Seneca.

We are committed to continuing to learn about the history of our region and sharing that history, not only through our service to the community but also here on this page as a resource for those who may be interested in finding more details about the native heritage of the land on which we are located.

We are eager to learn alongside our fellow Western Pennsylvanians and hope that you will see this as a living resource. If you believe we have erred in our reporting of this history, please let us know at info@pittsburghcommunitybroadcasting.org.

Local Resources/Stories:

Council of Three Rivers American Indian Center, whom we thank for their help in crafting this Land Acknowledgement.

• Who Lived Here First? A Look At Pittsburgh’s Native American History

• How The Ancients Honored The Dead: The McKees Rocks Mound

• A Brief Balance of Power—The 1778 Treaty with the Delaware Nation

• The Delaware Treaty of 1778

• Q&A with Re-enactor Jeremy Turner, Enrolled Shawnee Tribe Member

• Remembering the Removal [Kinzua Dam & Forced Seneca Relocation]

• Living in two worlds: One Indigenous woman’s view of growing up and living in Pittsburgh