To uphold our mission of supporting families, schools, and school communities with community-based, outdoors-focused, hands-on learning for children, Urban Adventure Squad/Urban Learning and Teaching Center must acknowledge the violent and painful history of the land where we do our work. The District of Columbia serves not only as the nation’s capital but as our outdoor classroom. This is the ancestral land of the Nacotchtank (Anacostan) tribe, from whom it was forcibly stolen. The Nacotchtank built settlements that flourished along the Anacostia River, the Potomac River, Rock Creek, and the surrounding land, where they hunted, fished, farmed, traveled, and traded. They built families and made homes. 

It is on this stolen land where Urban Adventure Squad explores, learns, and plays. UAS students conduct field studies where the Nacotchtank quarried soapstone and quartzite, we hike and explore where they foraged and hunted, and we picnic and play along the waterways that gave the Nacotchtank life, transportation, and trade. 
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At the Squad, we deeply cherish the opportunity to learn outside, and we recognize the pain and violence inflicted on the native people of this land by European colonists. As an organization that is committed to equitable education, we will not ignore this history. We commit to learning more, asking questions, teaching about what we learn, and encouraging children to ask questions, learn more, and seek change. UAS commits to sharing history honestly and to building communities that value Indigenous history and make space for Indigenous voices.