Talk With Jocelyn Benson

Leelanau County occupies the ancestral, traditional and contemporary lands of Anishinaabek people. The Leelanau County Democratic Party recognizes The Anishinaabek of the Three Fires Confederacy, the Odawa (Ottawa), Ojibwe (Chippewa), and Bode’wadmi (Potawatomi); historic Indigenous communities in Michigan; and those who were forcibly removed from their homelands. Leelanau County occupies land ceded in the treaty of 1855. We give thanks to the Anishinaabek as the caretakers of Mother Earth and for their relationship to the land; We further recognize the ongoing relationship of dependence upon, and respect for, all living beings of earth, sky, and water. In offering this land acknowledgement, we affirm Indigenous sovereignty, history, and experiences.