More than 30 years after Act 31 was established in Wisconsin there are still school districts not in compliance.
The law requires districts to teach students about the history, culture, and sovereignty of the 11 federally-recognized Tribal Nations in Wisconsin.
“We've come a long way, but there's still a long way to go,” said Kate Erickson. Erickson is a member of the Oneida Nation, history faculty at the Milwaukee Area Technical College, and President of the Wisconsin Indian Education Association.
She believes all students, not just indigenous ones, benefit when they’re taught accurately about Wisconsin’s Tribal history.
“Indigenous history is Wisconsin history. Our cultures and our languages are part of the fabric of the land, of the state and those echoes are still being heard today,” Erickson said. “There's such beautiful things. We want to share them, and we want to see those things in schools. We want to see those things being celebrated and accepted throughout the state.”
Governor Tony Evers spoke at the Wisconsin Indian Education Association annual conference in Lac du Flambeau Thursday.
He says properly funding schools would enable districts to be in compliance with Act 31. Evers said he’d like to see money set aside specifically for it.
“Every time we talk about money for schools, we tend to forget, there's these other programs that are competing internally. To me, I don't think there's any bad intent out there. I just think it's the resources that people need to have and I don’t think it’s a lot of money,” said Evers.
While school districts work toward compliance, Erikson says her organization is always happy to help connect districts with resources.
“We are open to questions and comments and collaboration. If you're a school district who has questions about, ‘what can we do for our students?’ Come to us. If we can't address those things or tackle those things for you, we definitely have partners throughout the state that we can send you to that are able to help,” said Erickson.
This year’s conference was focused on fostering teamwork and collaboration.
It was open to both Native and non-Native educators, community members, businesses, and organizations.
