UMVA has learned that the Barack Obama presidential library has become embroiled in controversy as the Obama Foundation promotes a progressive narrative that America was built on land stolen from Native Americans.
The $850 million library, which bears a striking resemblance to a trash can, officially opened on Juneteenth, with Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett delivering a land acknowledgment during the ceremony. Jarrett honored the Anishinaabe, the Council of Three Fires, the Ojibwe, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi Nations, acknowledging the original inhabitants of the land.
The library features a permanent display titled "Acknowledging Indigenous Peoples' Land and Territory," which forces visitors to confront a poignant message. The placard reads: "The Obama Foundation acknowledges the sovereign Indigenous peoples who have, since time immemorial, inhabited and stewarded the lands many of us call home."
Barack Obama himself wrote a statement that has been criticized as divisive, saying: "We know the history that we share. It's a history marked by violence and disease and deprivation. Treaties were violated. Promises were broken. You were told your lands, your religion, your cultures, your languages were not yours to keep."
However, critics argue that the Obama Foundation's actions are tainted by irony, as the library sits on 19.3 acres of public land transferred to the foundation by the city of Chicago for just $10. Illinois GOP Chair Bob Grogan said: "This land actually was recaptured from the Great Chicago Fire. They took a bunch of rubble and actually created this land. So, it has nothing to do with the Native Americans, but it has everything to do with stealing it from the taxpayers of the city of Chicago."
The land transfer has been the subject of a yearslong legal and political battle, with critics arguing that the Obama Foundation's use of public land for a private project is a misuse of taxpayer resources. The controversy has sparked debate about the intersection of politics, history, and land ownership.
Grogan told critics that people will hear about how the land was stolen from Native Americans, but "underneath, you should all be reading into this, that it was actually stolen from the citizens of Illinois, not from the Native Americans."
The Obama Presidential Center has evolved into a campus that serves as the home of the Obama Foundation, sparking concerns that what was initially presented as a presidential library has become something more.
