For over 20 years, Aaron Bird Bear has worked to improve the campus climate for Native students and to reshape UW–Madison’s relationship with the Indigenous heritage of its campus — land inhabited for 12,000 years and which the Ho-Chunk people call Teejop — and the tribal nations of Wisconsin. He plans to retire Jan. 1, 2023.
As covered in the Fall 2022 Letters & Science magazine, UW–Madison Department of Anthropology faculty are working with tribes to return the remains of ancestors and sacred objects.
In honor of Native American Heritage Month, UW-Madison’s Director of Tribal Relations, Aaron Bird Bear joins the L&S Elevate podcast with host DeVon Wilson, getting candid about reimagining Native representation at UW. In a compelling conversation about land acknowledgements and advancing the university’s reconciliation with its occupation of Ho-Chunk land, learn how Aaron has been instrumental in centering indigenous people and culture at UW.
About two dozen campus volunteers assisted Bill Quackenbush, tribal historic preservation officer for the Ho-Chunk Nation, in constructing a Ho-Chunk ciiporoke Thursday on the North Lawn of Dejope Residence Hall on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus.
A new oral history project commemorating the 50th anniversary of UW’s American Indian Studies program tells a turbulent story of student activism amid national upheaval. Launched by assistant professor Kasey Keeler, the oral history project is helping to build a more complete record of the program’s earliest days.
Join American Indian Studies on Indigenous Peoples’ Day to celebrate its 50-year anniversary! Learn from key leaders in the program’s history, such as Emerita Faculty Ada Deer, about the creation of the program, the role of student activism, and the significance of the program to diversity and inclusion at the university.
In front of a crowd of about 250 people, Ho-Chunk Nation President Marlon WhiteEagle raised the flag of the Ho-Chunk Nation at Bascom Hall Thursday morning, Sept. 15, ushering in an extended period this fall when the flag will again fly over the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus.
On September 15, UW–Madison will raise the flag of the Ho-Chunk Nation on campus. This fall, UW–Madison will fly the Ho-Chunk Nation flag for more than six weeks, including Indigenous Peoples Day in October and the entirety of National Native American Heritage month in November.
Liberal Studies students attending the College of Menominee Nation (CMN) will continue to have an easy path to transfer to the University of Wisconsin–Madison thanks to a renewed agreement between the two institutions. First implemented in 2007, the contract allows a qualified student to begin as a freshman at CMN and be guaranteed admission as a transfer student at UW–Madison after completing three academic years, or 60 transferable credits.
Read about four Ho-Chunk graduate students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who are working to elevate the voices and experiences of Native American people, and to make academic and cultural spaces more accessible and beneficial to the Ho-Chunk community.