QUINNEY INSTITUTE BOLSTERED BY BADER GRANT

Mark Freeland, new director of the Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education (EQI), has welcomed a $3 million grant from Bader Philanthropies.

The grant, given through the UWM Foundation, will go toward scholarships and hiring additional Indigenous faculty researchers and instructors. It will also support programming like sponsoring visiting elders, fire circle events, and community and international convocations for Indigenous peoples and allies.

Freeland, an associate professor of anthropology, joined EQI in the summer of 2022. He’s lauded EQI’s commitment to revitalizing regional languages – such as Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Oneida, Menominee and Ho-Chunk – as well as providing culturally significant physical spaces, such as the fire circle located in front of UWM’s Merrill Hall.

“Higher education has not been a welcoming place for Indigenous students. By recognizing Indigenous languages, culture and knowledge as coequal systems of thought, UWM has provided a place for Indigenous peoples to reintegrate their cultural learning into their degree programs,” Freeland says. “EQI helps to support Indigenous students, teachers and administrators to successfully complete their academic programs and prepares them for their chosen fields. In that way, we are able to inform a much larger audience on Indigenous knowledge.”

Mark Freeland

Freeland is Bear Clan and a member of the Bahweting community in Northern Michigan (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe Chippewa). Prior to joining UWM, he was co-coordinator of the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program at South Dakota State University. It provided the academic component for the Wokini Initiative, a program to redistribute land-grant funding to support Indigenous students. His research critically identifies the role of Indigenous worldview as an integral component of cultural and linguistic translations.

The $3 million grant marks a continuation of Bader Philanthropies’ longstanding support of EQI. “The Electa Quinney Institute’s academic program and on-campus activities will transform lives today and for decades to come,” says Daniel J. Bader, president and CEO of Bader Philanthropies. “UWM’s steadfast commitment and leadership in preserving Native languages, cultures and traditions is a significant step forward in helping our community reconcile the shortcomings of the past and creates spaces for healing.”

Bader Philanthropies has given more than $20 million over several decades to support programs, faculty and students at UWM. Among the many beneficiaries are the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare and the Helen Bader Institute for Nonprofit Management.

To help support the Electa Quinney Institute, contact Tom Bjornstad at bjornsta@uwm.edu. – Kari Pink