The Black Hawk Performance Company is a Native American dance troupe based in the Chicago<\/a> area, composed of dancers from several Indigenous tribes.<\/p>\n Saturday marked the third day of the Obama Presidential Center’s 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’s 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 OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER’S OPENING CEREMONY RIDICULED FOR ‘LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT’ BEFORE STAR-STUDDED SHOW<\/a><\/p>\n The Black Hawk Performance Company, a Native American dance troupe, performs at the Barack Obama Presidential Center June 20, 2026. (Peter D’Abrosca\/Fox News Digital)<\/p>\n But Thursday night, the opening ceremony for the center<\/a> 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 “We\u2019d also like to take a moment to recognize the original inhabitants of the land upon which we are gathered today,” she said. “We honor the Anishinaabe, the Council of Three Fires, the Ojibwe, the Odawa and the Potawatomi nations.”<\/p>\n WATCH: DNC OPENS SUMMER MEETING WITH LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT, CLAIMS THAT US SUPPRESSES INDIGENOUS HISTORY<\/a><\/p>\n The Black Hawk Performance Company, a Native American dance troupe, performs at the Barack Obama Presidential Center on June 20, 2026. (Peter D’Abrosca\/Fox News Digital)<\/p>\n Some of Saturday’s performers were from the Ojibwe tribe.<\/p>\n Land acknowledgments like Jarrett’s are sometimes criticized as woke performative gestures<\/a> that often ring hollow, as noted by a huge number of X users after Jarrett’s speech.<\/p>\n “Obama Presidential Center grand opening begins with acknowledging they\u2019re on stolen land. And then they kept the land,” one X commenter<\/a> said. “Pretty sure Indians would remove the apocalyptic looking Soviet bloc style dumpster building from their land first thing.”<\/p>\n CARVILLE REBUKES DNC OVER WOKE \u2018LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT\u2019 LAMENTING TREATMENT OF NATIVE AMERICANS<\/a><\/p>\n The Black Hawk Performance Company, a Native American dance troupe, performs at the Barack Obama Presidential Center June 20, 2026. (Peter D’Abrosca\/Fox News Digital)<\/p>\n Conservative commentator Glenn Beck unleashed on the hypocrisy.<\/p>\n “The sheer arrogance of the Obama Foundation using the $850 million Obama Presidential Center<\/a> to lecture us about standing on ‘stolen land’ is HILARIOUS,” he said<\/a>. “They’re basically saying, ‘Yeah, we acknowledge we stole this land. IT\u2019S SO WRONG. But the gift shop is to your left, and tickets are 30 bucks.’ If they genuinely believe they’re holding stolen property, they should either GIVE IT BACK or shut the hell up.”<\/p>\n Town hall senior strategist Siraj Hashmi roasted Obama and company with a reference to infamous Chicago rapper Chief Keef.<\/p>\n The Black Hawk Performance Company, a Native American dance troupe, performs at the Barack Obama Presidential Center on June 20, 2026. (Peter D’Abrosca\/Fox News Digital)<\/p>\n “Pretty disrespectful for the Obama Presidential Center to not acknowledge the current tribe leader of the South Side of Chicago: Chief Keef,” Hashmi quipped<\/a>.<\/p>\n Further, the center features a placard<\/a> recognizing that the land actually belongs to “Indigenous peoples.”<\/p>\n The sign says that the Obama Foundation acknowledges “the sovereign Indigenous peoples who have, since time immemorial, inhabited and stewarded the lands many of us call home.”<\/p>\n The Obama Presidential Center with its glass facade and surrounding trees. (Peter D’Abrosca\/Fox News Digital)<\/p>\n It also says that “Indigenous peoples” have worked to “combat and rightfully reverse the forces of settler colonialism” and features a 2009 Obama quote reflecting on broken treaties, lost lands and the treatment of Native Americans.<\/p>\n![\"obama](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/native-american-stolen-land.jpeg\")
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