{"id":2608,"date":"2026-06-21T13:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T13:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=2608"},"modified":"2026-06-21T13:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T13:41:09","slug":"obama-presidential-center-follows-widely-mocked-stolen-land-acknowledgment-with-native-american-dance-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=2608","title":{"rendered":"Obama Presidential Center follows widely mocked ‘stolen land’ acknowledgment with Native American dance show"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

After officials kicked off the opening weekend of the Barack Obama Presidential Center with a widely mocked \u201cland acknowledgment\u201d \u2014 a nod to the political far left that believes the United States was built on \u201cstolen land\u201d \u2014 a traditional Native American dance show was featured during Saturday\u2019s scheduled events.<\/p>\n

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The Black Hawk Performance Company is a Native American dance troupe based in the Chicago area, composed of dancers from several Indigenous tribes.<\/p>\n

Saturday marked the third day of the Obama Presidential Center\u2019s grand opening, which featured musical and cultural performances ranging from international superstars like John Legend to local drum lines.<\/p>\n

The lively Native American display, held in John Lewis Plaza on the center\u2019s campus, featured a drum circle, several traditional dances and songs, including one honoring a Native American flag. The performance lasted about an hour and, toward the end, included many of the hundreds of people who watched in the plaza.<\/p>\n

But Thursday night, the opening ceremony for the center began with an awkward admission that the center itself rests on land that rightfully belongs to Native Americans.<\/p>\n

Valerie Jarrett, the former senior advisor to Obama when he was president and the current CEO of the Obama Foundation, kicked things off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d also like to take a moment to recognize the original inhabitants of the land upon which we are gathered today,\u201d she said. \u201cWe honor the Anishinaabe, the Council of Three Fires, the Ojibwe, the Odawa and the Potawatomi nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of Saturday\u2019s performers were from the Ojibwe tribe.<\/p>\n

Land acknowledgments like Jarrett\u2019s are sometimes criticized as woke performative gestures that often ring hollow, as noted by a huge number of X users after Jarrett\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n

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\u201cObama Presidential Center grand opening begins with acknowledging they\u2019re on stolen land. And then they kept the land,\u201d one X commenter said. \u201cPretty sure Indians would remove the apocalyptic looking Soviet bloc style dumpster building from their land first thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservative commentator Glenn Beck unleashed on the hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sheer arrogance of the Obama Foundation using the $850 million Obama Presidential Center to lecture us about standing on \u2018stolen land\u2019 is HILARIOUS,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re basically saying, \u2018Yeah, we acknowledge we stole this land. IT\u2019S SO WRONG. But the gift shop is to your left, and tickets are 30 bucks.\u2019 If they genuinely believe they\u2019re holding stolen property, they should either GIVE IT BACK or shut the hell up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Town hall senior strategist Siraj Hashmi roasted Obama and company with a reference to infamous Chicago rapper Chief Keef.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty disrespectful for the Obama Presidential Center to not acknowledge the current tribe leader of the South Side of Chicago: Chief Keef,\u201d Hashmi quipped.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Further, the center features a placard recognizing that the land actually belongs to \u201cIndigenous peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sign says that the Obama Foundation acknowledges \u201cthe sovereign Indigenous peoples who have, since time immemorial, inhabited and stewarded the lands many of us call home.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also says that \u201cIndigenous peoples\u201d have worked to \u201ccombat and rightfully reverse the forces of settler colonialism\u201d and features a 2009 Obama quote reflecting on broken treaties, lost lands and the treatment of Native Americans.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTreaties were violated. Promises were broken,\u201d Obama said at the time.<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital\u2019s\u00a0Michael Dorgan<\/em>\u00a0contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Black Hawk Performance Company performed traditional dances at the center’s John Lewis Plaza on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media"],"yoast_head":"\nObama Presidential Center follows widely mocked 'stolen land' acknowledgment with Native American dance show - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=2608\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obama Presidential Center follows widely mocked 'stolen land' acknowledgment with Native American dance show - 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