Native Outreach Program

Welcome

Boozhoo! Bozho! Pososh! Aho! Shekoli! Koonamansi!

Thank you for taking time to look at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Native Outreach Program! Here, you’ll find many resources for Native students, families, communities, Tribal leaders, faculty, staff, and anyone interested in indigenous culture and education. The Native Outreach Program promotes the comprehensive lifeways, community, and future endeavors of the indigenous people currently living in Wisconsin.

We are committed to:

Our Native Students

We’re here to shape the future leaders of Indian Country through personal, academic, and professional success. Some indigenous students grew up firmly rooted in their culture and traditions, some were completely cut-off and searching to connect with their roots and identity, and others fall somewhere in between. The Native Outreach Program welcomes, encourages, and supports you. 

College represents a time for learning both in and out of the classroom, and we’re here to connect you to Native leaders, elders, culture, ceremonies, events, and resources both on campus and across the state of Wisconsin.

Our Native Families 

"When we send our kids off to college, we want to know they are being taken care of."

 

-Chris Caldwell, President of the College of the Menominee Nation, at the Seventh Generation Leadership Conference in 2022 

At the UW-Platteville and Baraboo Sauk County campuses, we work hard to create a “home away from home” where Native students are supported in every way while they are here pursuing their education. Both campuses are small enough to foster a community where your son or daughter are not just another face in the crowd. They will be known and looked after. 

From the Tribal Task Force to the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA) and the Multicultural Student Center (MSC), we have a network of advocates dedicated to the holistic well-being of your Native student and their success. 

Our Native Communities

We help tribal communities build their current workforce and develop their next generation of leadership. By listening to Tribal Presidents and Executive Councils, we hear their needs and shape our offerings to help Tribal Nations achieve their future objectives. In this small way we can help Tribes continually improve their sovereignty and prosperity. 

Many of the relationships built amongst indigenous students expand across tribes after graduation. As new leaders seek to provide meaningful contributions to their home communities, Native graduates find they have a statewide network of former classmates that aid in intertribal, state, and federal government relations. 

Our Faculty and Staff 

The Native Outreach Program builds collaborative relationships between Tribal Nations and the University, connecting people and strengthening relationships. We advocate and advise programming that educates students, faculty, staff, and community members about indigenous people and lifeways from a non-western perspective. Our program connects faculty and staff to indigenous philosophy, languages, religious practices, culture, tradition, values, art, music, food, and contemporary issues in Indian Country. We aid in research, hosting guest instructors, incorporating indigenous perspectives, and advising services.

Our Campuses 

Universities have always been about bringing diverse people together and unifying them into a collective body. The Native Outreach Program adds to this tradition by involving the original people of this land, with a non-western way of thinking, to “the whole” or Universitas. 

On a more practical level, we increase campus recruiting, retention, diversity, and help foster an experiential climate where all may connect, learn, and grow together. The Native Outreach Program firmly understands and supports campus leadership, the UW-Platteville Strategic Plan, and the Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regent’s Consultation Policy.

Please view our Land Acknowledgement to honor the Sac and Fox, Ho-Chunk, Kickapoo, Dakota, Potawatomi, and Miami Tribes - the original people and caretakers of the land on which our institutions reside.