Thanksgiving is a complicated holiday.
On one hand, it’s a real pause in the year – a moment to catch your breath, see your people, and name what you’re grateful for.
On the other, it sits on top of a history of broken promises, displacement, and violence against Native peoples that still shapes the places we live and work.
Our clients don’t need another glossy “season of gratitude” message. You’re navigating real pressures, making hard decisions, and trying to do right by your teams, your families, and your communities.
So instead of pretending everything is simple, we want to offer a more honest thank‑you and acknowledge the ground we’re standing on together.
Honoring the Original Caretakers of These Places
Treaty Oak takes its name from a real tree in Austin: a centuries‑old live oak that was sacred to Indigenous nations long before the city or our company existed. It’s a reminder that every place we show up has deeper roots than our projects or portfolios.
As we gather this week, we want to explicitly recognize some of the Native nations whose homelands include the places where our team is based. This isn’t a complete list, and many other People have ties to these regions, but it’s a starting point and a way of saying we know we are guests here.
- Austin, Texas
We honor the Coahuiltecan peoples as some of the earliest known inhabitants of Central Texas, as well as the Tonkawa, Comanche, and Lipan Apache, who later lived, traded, and traveled through what is now Austin. - Colorado Springs, Colorado
We acknowledge that Colorado Springs lies within the ancestral homelands of the Ute peoples (including the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation) as well as other nations such as the Jicarilla Apache, Comanche, Pawnee, Kiowa, Arapaho, and Cheyenne, who have longstanding ties to the Pikes Peak region. - Powell, Wyoming
We recognize the Crow (Apsáalooke), Blackfeet, and Shoshone nations, whose homelands included the Powell area and surrounding valleys long before irrigation projects and modern agriculture reshaped the region. - Tuscola, Texas
We acknowledge the Comanche and Tonkawa peoples, among others, who hunted buffalo and moved through the hills, creeks, and prairies around what is now Tuscola and Abilene State Park. - Houston, Texas
We honor the Karankawa along the Gulf Coast and the Atakapa, including the Akokisa band, whose lives were intertwined with the bayous, rivers, and bays of the greater Houston region. We also acknowledge other peoples, like the Caddo, Tawakoni, and Coahuiltecan, who traveled and traded through this area. - Sheridan, Wyoming
We recognize the Apsáalooke (Crow) and Lakota peoples, whose homelands include the Powder River Basin and the lands around present‑day Sheridan, as well as the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Shoshone, Blackfeet, Ute, and others for whom the Bighorn Mountains are a longstanding cultural and ceremonial landscape. - Hampstead, North Carolina
The Hampstead area in present‑day Pender County is part of the Lower Cape Fear region, historically home to the Cape Fear Indians, a Siouan‑speaking people who lived along the riverbanks and coast; we also honor the Waccamaw Siouan and other Native peoples of southeastern North Carolina whose communities remain present in the broader Cape Fear region today.
We share these names not as a box to check, but as a reminder: before offices, pipelines, roads, and balance sheets, these were – and are – Indigenous homelands, cared for through relationships, responsibilities, and knowledge passed down over generations.
If you see something we’ve gotten wrong or a Nation we’ve missed, we welcome improvement. Listening is also part of how we do business.
Gratitude Is a Central Tenet in Our Work
For a firm like Treaty Oak, gratitude can’t just be a feeling we mention in November. It has to show up in how we work with you and how we show up in the communities where we operate.
Here’s what that looks like for us:
- Taking the long view.
We try to make decisions we can explain, face‑to‑face, to the people most affected by them – not just this quarter, but years from now. - Seeing land and community as more than backdrop.
Whether we’re talking about a project, a deal, or a new relationship, we keep asking: who was here first, who is here now, and who carries the impact of what we do? - Choosing substance over optics.
Our clients are sharp. You don’t need slogans; you need alignment between what we say and how we act. That’s the standard we’re holding ourselves to. - Staying open to Indigenous and local leadership.
When Native nations and local communities are leading work around land use, cultural preservation, or community wellbeing, our job is to pay attention, learn, and – when invited – support.
A Simple Invitation to You
Gratitude, in this context, isn’t about glossing over challenges or offering empty words. It’s about recognizing the full scope of history, the ongoing work of care and stewardship by Indigenous peoples, and the responsibilities we all share in the communities we inhabit. It’s about slowing down enough to notice, to reflect, and to take meaningful actions that honor both people and place, even in the midst of our busy professional and personal lives.
Wherever this week finds you (at home, on the road, at work, or somewhere in between), we invite you to engage in one small practice:
It’s a quiet act, but it shifts Thanksgiving from a feel‑good story into a more honest one that makes room for gratitude and responsibility at the same time.
Thank you for the trust you place in us and for the work you’re doing in your own spheres of influence. We don’t take that lightly.
With respect,
Natalie Lynch
on behalf of the Treaty Oak team
Note: This acknowledgment is based on publicly available sources and ongoing scholarship. It’s not exhaustive, and Indigenous histories are complex and overlapping. We share it in a spirit of learning and welcome guidance from Native communities about how to do this better over time.
