From the school’s home web page, it takes three clicks, some scrolling and knowledge of where to look to get to the land acknowledgement. The statement is located at the bottom of a page that describes the school’s mission and values.

 “We acknowledge that the Buckingham Browne & Nichols school is on the ancestral, unceded territory of the Massachusett people,” it reads. “In spite of the theft of their lands and the killings of their ancestors by Western settlers, the Massachusett people, descendants of the Great Sac’hem Chickataubut’s Band of Massachusett at Neponset, have survived and thrived. We invite you to join us in honoring their past, present, and future stewardship.”

 The land acknowledgment was added to the school’s website in December 2020 at the request of former Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Global Education (DEIG) Officer Candie Sanderson, in coordination with the December 2020 issue of “DEIG In!,” DEIG’s newsletter.

 The newsletter provided examples of teachers across all three campuses asking students to “unlearn Thanksgiving.”

 The DEIG Office was reached for an interview but was unable to respond in time because of the Thanksgiving break.

 Selena Daley ’28 said the land acknowledgement doesn’t fully address the history of the native peoples.

 “It doesn’t acknowledge what the native people went through, only that they are okay in the present day.”

 Discussing Native American people and history of the school’s land would make for informative conversations, she said.

 “It’s hard to talk about the native land in this political climate since we are politically neutral, but I do feel as if it’s something that should be brought to attention in the school.”

 The only time Selena has had conversations about Native Americans is during history classes, which have been from a historical perspective, not a modern one, she said.

 “If land acknowledgements are not only phrased in a respectful way but find a way to honor the native people who came before, they are useful.”

 Land acknowledgments serve as a foundation for honoring native people, she said.

 “Properly honoring the native land would include a memorial or even bringing in a person who is a part of the Massachusett tribe to speak at BB&N. From there, the school could inquire about what we could do best to honor the Massachusett people.”

 Finley Long ’26 said his family has Native American heritage.

 “I’ve never heard of BB&N’s land acknowledgment before because we don’t talk about it. It goes under the radar since our history classes don’t discuss the Massachusett people.”

 Finley didn’t know November was Native American Heritage Month.

 “It feels like every month is some sort of heritage month,” he said. “It’s fine the school didn’t address the significance of Native American Heritage Month, but I’m not surprised because the school tends to gloss over a lot of topics. Even Black History Month isn’t a huge deal at BB&N. The school announces it, and there’s not much after that. If the school were to change the way they talk about a specific heritage month, like Native American Heritage Month, they’d have to change it for all the other months to balance it out.”

 Inviting a Native American speaker to an Upper School assembly could have been beneficial, Finley said.

 “We talk about some some Native Americans in our history classes, but meeting a real person from a tribe would be a unique opportunity to learn from them and spread awareness.”