A group of 10 undergraduate students and five staff and faculty members from Marquette underwent a profound and transformative experience on the three-day “Indigenous Solidarity Immersion Trip,” in April. Sponsored and planned by Marquette’s Center for Peacemaking and co-led by the Marquette Indigeneity Lab, this journey took this group to the Stockbridge-Munsee Nation in northeast Wisconsin. The trip was ably and generously hosted and led by Stockbridge-Munsee elder and Marquette alumna Jo Ann Schedler.
The focus of the trip was to educate students on-site about the history, culture and current projects of the Stockbridge-Munsee Nation. An early highlight was being welcomed to the tribal headquarters and speaking to tribal officials about their operations, sovereignty, government-to-government relations, treaties and more. Another highlight was the Keek-Och (“From the Earth”) Tribal Farm, a nation-owned farm that seeks to advance the Stockbridge-Munsee’s food sovereignty and preserve traditional farming practices and foods.
Participants also took part in a walking tour at Many Trails Park with Misty Cook, an expert in Indigenous medicines, who taught the group about various plant- and tree-based medicines that could be gathered in the park. Other stops included the Arvid Miller Library and Museum, the Mohican Veterans Center, the Eunice Stick Gathering Place, the Health & Wellness Center and the New Elderly Center.
Toward the end of the trip, we visited the Lutheran Indian Mission Boarding School, a sobering and reflective stop as we contemplated the sad legacy of such schools, including the cultural, psychological and physical damage inflicted by Christians upon the local Indigenous peoples.
The journey began to conclude with a lovely afternoon lunch hosted by Jo Ann at her lakeside cabin, where we planted two trees in honor of late President Michael R. Lovell and Fawzia Hanna Batti, the mother of Rana Altenburg, Marquette’s associate vice president for public affairs.
A closing time of sharing and reflection provided space for participants to voice their takeaways and hopes for the future. The general feeling was one of immense gratitude for Jo Ann’s generosity and the nation of Stockbridge-Munsee’s hospitality and warm welcome, their willingness to welcome us to their land and share their traditions, a glimpse of their common life, and their vision for the future.
Though the history of Stockbridge-Munsee is one of frequent displacement and unjust treatment by settlers and governments, they have thrived as a community and have much wisdom and knowledge to offer those of us seeking better ways of relating to others and to the land. This Indigenous Solidarity Immersion Trip was a brief but powerful beginning to that growth and maturity for all who participated.
