The Democratic National Committee (DNC) opened its summer meeting Monday in Minneapolis, MN, with a land acknowledgement recognizing the Dakota people as “the original stewards of the lands and waters” of the region.
Lindy Sowmick, who delivered the remarks, told attendees:
Good morning. DNC members, friends and relatives, let’s talk about the land for a second. The DNC acknowledges and honors the Dakota Oyate, the Dakota people who are the original stewards of the lands and waters of Minneapolis. The Dakota cared for the lands, lakes, and the wakatonka, the great river, the Mississippi River, for thousands of years before colonization. This land was not claimed or traded. It’s a part of a history of broken treaties and promises, and in many ways, we still live in a system built to suppress Indigenous people’s cultural and spiritual history.
The remarks come as Democrats face growing internal debates over cultural and identity-based messaging. Just days earlier, the left-leaning think tank Third Way circulated a memo urging party leaders to retire terms such as “birthing person,” “justice-involved,” and “LGBTQIA+” in favor of what it called “normal language.” The memo warned that such terminology risks alienating voters and reinforcing perceptions that Democrats are out of touch with the public.
Polling reflects mounting difficulties for the party. A Gallup survey released this month recorded Democratic Party favorability at 34 percent, the lowest level in the poll’s history dating back to 1992. Separate polling by the Associated Press (AP) and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found more than one in three Democrats described their own party as “weak” and “ineffective” in countering former President Donald Trump’s administration.
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