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Students who are enrolled members of Wisconsin’s eleven federally-recognized tribes will get free tuition, housing, and other educational needs at the state’s largest university, the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Chuck Quirmbach from station WUWM has more.
University officials say their aim is, starting next fall, to cover the full cost of pursuing an undergraduate degree for Native students who live in Wisconsin and meet tribal enrollment criteria.
Tribal leaders helped develop the program and announced it at a Madison news conference.
Shannon Holsey is president of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians and is chairwoman of the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council.
She noted that the UW campus sits on ancestral land of the Ho-Chunk Nation.
“Embedded in the land that we stand on today lies the legacy of the Ho-Chunk people. Today is historic and cycle-breaking”
Only about 650 of the UW-Madison’s roughly 50,000 students identify to the school as American Indian or Alaska Native.
Ho-Chunk President Jon Greendeer praises the tuition program, but says he has some work to do to get Native students to consider higher education.
“Many of us are in the generation, where if you went to college, you stopped learning about your ways, and you stopped learning your language, and it was frowned upon. Now, it’s very much supported, very much needed.”
Lac Courts Oreilles tribal member Kalista Cadotte is a third-year student at the UW-Madison.
She encourages Native students to apply to the campus.
“And to be able to achieve your goals. It’s not something that comes easy. But it’s definitely doable.”
Campus officials say donors and institutional funds will pay for the program.
A pilot effort will cover in-state tuition and fees for enrolled tribal members pursuing a law or medical degree at UW-Madison.
Courtesy American Prairie
A conservation group says it sent more than 100 bison to tribes in Montana, South Dakota, and Washington.
Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports.
American Prairie sent 107 bison from its herd in eastern Montana to five tribes in November.
Twenty-one were sent to the Blackfeet Nation and Rocky Boy tribe.
The conservation nonprofit distributes bison to tribes every year.
The InterTribal Bison Council says this helps tribes build their herds and diversify genetics.
The bison are tested for brucellosis and other diseases before they are sent to tribes.
American Prairie says the distribution also helps it maintain its own herd, which now stands at about 900.
Restoring bison to the landscape is culturally important for tribes, which relied on the animals for centuries.
Minnesota’s new state flag and seal design features the Dakota language.
Last week, a state commission picked the new seal design, which is a red-eyed loon on a lake surrounded by trees, the North Star, and wild rice.
It features words in Dakota for “land where the waters reflect the sky.”
The Star Tribune reports the current one has long drawn criticism due to depicting colonization, featuring a white settler plowing a field and a Native American on a horse riding into the sunset.
The new design is set to become official in 2024, unless the state legislature vetoes it.
Poster art by Lyn Cowan
The Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council, the University of Manitoba, Disney/Lucasfilm, and Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) announced Monday a partnership to create an Ojibwe version of Star Wars: A New Hope.
The project is part of language revitalization efforts.
Auditions for voice actors are expected to take place in Winnipeg next year.
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