Cornell and the Morrill Act: 120 Years of Land Acquisition – Cornell University and Indigenous Dispossession Project

Published on the Any Person, Many Stories: History of Exclusion and Inclusion at Cornell blog.

by Jacobi Kandel, Maggie Lam, and Zelazzie Zepeda

October 2023

After learning about the dispossession of Native Land during the founding of their institution, students in Professor Kurt Jordan’s AIIS 1100 Indigenous North America class felt it was imperative to discuss the 1862 Morrill Act, which was instrumental in the establishment of public land grant universities. Cornell was one of the largest beneficiaries of this law, whose aim was to help establish public universities by granting states federal land for investment. While the act didn’t specify where this land came from, these were lands seized, expropriated, taken in forced treaties, and dispossessed from Indigenous peoples across the continent.

The release of the 2020 High Country News “Land-Grab Universities” investigation by Robert Lee, et al., revealed Cornell as the number one beneficiary of this act, having received 977,909 acres of land and from there having raised $5,739,657 under Ezra Cornell’s direction, an astounding amount at the time. This digital story, told through interviews with faculty, staff, and students, asks: How has Cornell tackled its complicated history with Indigenous dispossession? Is the Cornell community aware of its “land grab” history? Once you know, what should you do?

See the full video on the Any Person, Many Stories: History of Exclusion and Inclusion at Cornell blog.

Cornell University Land Acknowledgement

Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York State, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ people, past and present, to these lands and waters.

This land acknowledgment has been reviewed and approved by the traditional Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ leadership.

In addition to the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ land acknowledgment but separate from it, the AIISP faculty would like to emphasize: Cornell’s founding was enabled in the course of a national genocide by the sale of almost one million acres of stolen Indian land under the Morrill Act of 1862. To date the university has neither officially acknowledged its complicity in this theft nor has it offered any form of restitution to the hundreds of Native communities impacted.